Keith M. Robinson - You Found Me: Gods Relentless Pursuit to Find You

P RAISE FOR

Keith Robinson speaks to thousands of students a year with one of the most compelling stories I have ever heard. As a young person he was chasing cool and made lots of poor decisions with drugs, sex and other poor choices. He lost hope and then found it. This story reads like a motion picture with drama, suspense and yet, has an incredibly inspiring ending. I loved the book and even more I am thrilled that Keith is taking his message to this generation.

Jim Burns, Ph.D.

President, HomeWord

Author of Teenology: The Art of Raising Great Teenagers

Keith Robinsons life was the grimiest and sloppiest of any pitiable, muddled mess, and yet the turnaround is a flat-out awesome example of Gods gentle touch and life-changing, cleansing power.... God wants to use Keiths story to open your heart to believe that He can do this same kind of thing again, this time in your life.

Fred Stoeker

Author, Every Young Mans Battle

2014 Keith M. Robinson

Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, www.wordserveliterary.com.

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Baker Books edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-2437-8

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patents and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Other versions used are:

BBEThe Bible in Basic English. Public domain.

HCSBScripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

KJVKing James Version. Authorized King James Version.

NLTScripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Samantha Without you Id still be lost. Without you, none of this would have been possible. Your grace and beauty are unmatched. I hit the lottery when you said, Yes.

Joel and Jude Both of you are a product of a divine conspiracy of love. Your births left me speechless. Your lives make me better. The proudest moments of my life happen every time I see you smile.

At the age of twenty-three, a bone-crushing loneliness stabbed at my heart incessantly, driving me relentlessly toward some mysterious relationship I felt determined to find, a relationship that would somehow calm my aching heart and bring some peace into my life. I was searching so frantically for this connection that by now I had four girlfriends at once, sleeping regularly with three of them and hoping to get the fourth one into bed, too.

You see, Id bought into the ridiculous lie that the quickest way to get to know a girl is to have sex with her, but I was quickly learning the real truth: I was getting lonelier and lonelier. Here I was, adding girlfriend after girlfriend into my life, only to find myself lonelier and even more frenzied to discover the connection my aching heart was so desperate to find.

Nothing was working in my life. I was living two thousand miles from home and little around me was familiar anymore. I had four girlfriends, but not one of them was right. Id been fired from my last job, and was about to be fired from another. I had no real life, no real future and I had no real direction to turn. I was coming apart inside and running scared.

I was about to learn a second real truth: Gods eyes are always on the desperate heart. Hed been waiting for this very moment in my life for the longest time, and He wasnt about to miss it. There was no doubt about it. Hed found me.

It happened in my office at work. Though I knew Id be fired soon, I was still working very hard at my job as a stockbroker. Id been so focused at my desk on that particular day that when I finally looked up, I realized that everyone else in the office had gone home already. I was the last one there. I needed to get out of there, too, but before heading home, I began to straighten up my desk so everything would be ready for a good start the next morning. As I did, I noticed a beautiful California sunset unfolding to the west outside my window. I decided to sit down for a moment to enjoy it, lacing my fingers behind my head and setting my feet on the credenza to soak in the lovely, fading daylight.

I still dont understand how God did it, but He quietly dropped into my office and effortlessly changed the scene unfolding before my eyes. I cant explain it. All I can tell you is that I could no longer see the sunset. Suddenly, all I could see was who I had become over the past few years, especially in regard to the way Id been treating the women in my life. The scene was so ugly, so awful that all I could do was bow my head and pray, Lord, if you are ready to work with me, Im ready to work with you.

It was that simple. When the Lord slipped into my life on that lovely, crisp California evening in May, all at once I realized that my desperate loneliness had been for Him all along.

I loved Him instantly. I was finally at rest.

From that evening on, everything changed in my life. I immediately moved out of state and left those four girlfriends behind. The next serious girlfriend I had would soon become my wife Brenda, and Ive been faithful to her for thirty-two years. The next job I found became my one and only for the next thirty-three years. In short, I learned what it meant to be a man and I quickly became onea very different man.

My salvation experience was spectacular, but not for the fireworks, because there were none. Not for the show, because it wasnt showy in the least.

My salvation was spectacular for its gentleness and for its personal, tender timing. There was such an unsuspecting, unassuming nature to it all, with its scene change and loving stranger slipping into my office to kindly whisper, Ive noticed youve been a bit down on your luck lately. Can I show you something thats been missing for you?

He did, and the rest is history. God can take any life, no matter how fetid the swirling pool of flotsam and debris, and reverse the flow, calm the waters and filter out the refuse and dross. God specializes in cleaning up the messes people make in their lives, like He did in mine. That means any kind of mess.