Share the Love – Story 2: “Our Story Started With an Argument with God”

Submitted by: Charis Rempel

Our story started with an argument with God. I was frustrated with Him for not providing the right man for me, in a timing that worked for me. I met with a mentor of mine and said, “I’m out! God’s going to have to hit me upside the head with a 2×4 when it’s the right one!” Two days later I was able to fly to Dallas for a weekend to visit a friend. On the way home, I was sitting on the plane watching other passengers board, when a group of athletic but scruffy, good-looking men started entering the plane. Now, every girl always hopes that the good looking stranger is going to sit next to her, but when does that ever happen in real life? The guys started taking seats all around my row, and eventually one of them sat down next to me! When you are 24 and single, that’s as good as winning the lottery!

We began talking and I found out he had grown up in a small town like me, played bass guitar in a band, had just been mountain climbing the tallest peak in South America to raise money for Children’s Hospital (for real, you can’t make that stuff up!), and had even done the same obscure job that I had spent my Summers doing in forestry. I couldn’t believe it! Here was a guy who loved music like I did, was passionate about the outdoors like I was, and even understood an important part of my identity in life growing up in a small town. Instead of becoming more and more thrilled however, I found myself getting madder and madder at God. He KNEW the pact I had just made with him a few days earlier, leaving it all in His hands and not compromising on my faith! Was He testing me? Why on earth would He bring this amazing guy, sit him down next to me on a plane in Texas, but not have him share my faith? (We had already covered the topic of occupations in the first hour of the flight, where I had told him that I was a teacher in a Christian Middle School, but he hadn’t asked any other questions about my faith or pursued that line of conversation any further). So there I sat, 20,000 feet in the air, all the closer for Him to hear my internal ranting and raving at the unfairness and cruelty of it all.

An hour later in the flight, we were discussing his band once again, and I asked what type of music they played. He had a recording on him and while he was hunting for it, he casually mentioned that he also played bass for his church worship band. My world stopped. My internal rant stopped. The heavens broke open, and the hallelujah chorus started up. God was not testing me, He was hitting me upside the head with a 2×4, as per my instructions. Turns out it was not a cruel joke, but rather a divine intervention whereupon, 2 small town kids in the big city, were brought together by a miraculous seat assignment, on a trip that wasn’t even supposed to happen.

The rest, as they say, is our history. We started dating immediately and had our fairy tale wedding 7 months later. We were blessed with two kids over the next six years and this year will be our 18th wedding anniversary. Every day we are thankful for our love story and God’s provision of the perfect partner for each of us. That doesn’t mean we never fight, but I always know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, this is God’s man for me, and he is worth fighting for!