Kevin McMonagle, a long time community member of BSM, is a participant of a spiritual autobiography course at BSM, and offered to share some of his testimony with the wider BSM community.
THE LESSONS OF BROAD STREET MINISTRY
Once I was beaten down enough by life and the choices that I had made, I became receptive to the direction that God had wanted me to go in all along. When I look back, in each period of my life there has always been someone to guide me to the understanding and loving embrace of our Lord. These ‘Connectors’ were placed along my path in an attempt to save me from all of the needless pain that I was putting myself through. Then I stopped, long enough for the people at BSM to teach me what was possible when I became ‘Connected’. This song sums up what was waiting for me.
“ Make me a channel of Your Peace”
Where there is hatred let me bring your Love, where there is injury, your pardon, Lord. Where there's doubt, true faith in You: I could not apply any of these principles to another until I first applied them to myself. Love, Forgiveness and Assurance come only when we bare ourselves to God. Withholding nothing, I stood ready for His hand to mold me into the person that I was intended to be. Not Perfection but Progression, growing in Grace is the goal.
Let me seek not so much to be consoled as console, not so much to be understood as to understand. Not so much to be loved as to love with all my soul: When seeing the world through the lens of the Gospel I became available to become an ambassador for Christ. My thoughts, actions and concerns are no longer just about me as I try every day to be an example of the devotion demonstrated in the Book of Acts. On the road to His Light there are many opportunities to show His Love and Patience to His children.
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, only light. And where there's sadness, ever joy: In sharing with others where I came from and the results of extending my hand out to another, I have seen eyes brighten up with great sighs of relief. Truly I have found that the Father has taken care of all of my needs so I may do my part in easing the pain of others.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, in giving to all men that we receive and in dying that we're born to eternal life: I have always had a nagging thought in the back of my mind that my life was not about me. Whenever I start to manipulate circumstances to suit my own wants, I invariably fail. But when I put all of my energy into bringing about the Kingdom on Earth, the next Right action just flows from me. “Of myself I am nothing “.
Conclusion: For a very long time, it was hard for me to say the name of our Lord. It was almost as if saying His name would call His attention to me and I couldn’t stand the thought of Him seeing me as I was. Now when I say Jesus Christ, I smile because I know that the Spirit is standing right beside me, for I have become a ‘ Connector’. Peace!
Kevin McMonagle
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