Hi, my name is John David Mueller. My story is really to let you know where I'm coming from. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me in the least bit (for one reason, my life couldn't be better now) but I think that this story is an awesome testimony of what God can do in one's life and other people can benefit from it.

I've debated with myself on how much I should say about the first of two life-changing moments in my life. I've decided to keep it brief but with enough detail to capture your attention for the rest of my story.

Starting from the beginning. My family (mom, dad, brother and I) was on a walk on the evening of April 12, 1986 when both of my parents were run over by a drunk driver, neither survived. I was 11 years old and my little brother was 8. Needless to say, my life was completely transformed in a heartbeat.

So, where does that leave me now? Someone might say that time heals all wounds and I would have to semi-agree with them there. I don't think about it very often, I can't say that I even think about it every day, but then some days it might be all I would think about. I am 24 years old now and that was over half my life ago. Time heals but a scar was still there.

I would describe it as having a hole inside, inside my soul and that there was no way that I could possibly even dream of filling. I can remember once saying that maybe if I had a beautiful wife and kids that it might make everything all right and I'd forget all about the past and everything would be just fine.

I guess I could say that I was searching for an answer but really did not know what I was looking for. While the wife and kids will be nice someday that would not answer to my problem.

I remember thinking as a child, "Why could God do something like this to me?" and not really knowing the answer. I never gave up believing that there was a God but at times I seriously doubted His motives. I do think that I knew that there had to have been a reason but that I really didn't understand.

Over the years I searched for an answer to the question, "Where were my parents?" On May 16, 1997, I ended up going over to the house of some friends of theirs. We ended up talking for a long time. One subject that we talked about was "knowing whether you knew someone went to heaven." Their comment was that I could know for sure that my parents were in heaven, because you knew how they were Christians by the way they acted, talked, and what they did with their lives.

They made it clear how they believed. I had really never thought about it in that way, but it was true. Some people don't ever talk about their beliefs and don't really outwardly show their faith and if you have really never talked to them about it and they die you really don't know what's in their heart.

Just a cool example of this and how my mother let everyone know how she felt is how she answered the phone. She would answer the phone saying, "Praise the Lord, Judy Mueller speaking!" She was doing what she is supposed to, letting her light shine. The drunks would call from the bars late at night just to listen to her answer the phone. They'd hang up and call back and she would answer it just like she did the first time. I don't mean to brag but that is awesome. That is an example for all of us.

So I was thinking about other people who had passed away and wondering if they had gone to heaven and really basing my conclusions on what my parents did in the community, church, etc. I was thinking of one particular person and I said that they were respected, honest, went to church every week, the list went on and that was why I thought that they ought to go to heaven.

And then my friend showed me this Bible verse in Ephesians 2:8-9 that said, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast."

I read the verse and it hit me like a ten ton safe. Until that point I did not have a clue. I always knew that facts but I really didn't know the most important thing, that "it is through our faith in Jesus Christ leading a sinless life and then dying on the cross for our sins, that allows us to be able to go to heaven and there is no way that we can earn it."

That pretty much says it all. God opening my eyes to that has changed my life completely. And that is the second life-changing moment in my life.

When I was shown that verse I was amazed because I did not know what the Bible had to say and I wanted to know what else it said. These friends had some tapes of sermons and actually about ten of the tapes that they had were given to them by my father over 10 years earlier. And guess what, they then gave them to me.

The first tape I listened to that night answered so many of the questions I had and that I had heard so many people have, talk about, etc.

I guess that I always had thought that you just needed to be a "good" person. But being good is a worldly term or a worldly judgment. It says in James 2:10, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." That right there says that we are ALL bad, we all have disobeyed the law, we have all broken the ten commandments, we have all become guilty of all. So that's where Jesus comes in.

So how does that help me with the past you ask? Well I know that all my mom ever wanted to do was be with God in Heaven. She spent a lot of time writing songs from verses of the Bible. I can remember waking up early in the morning and always hearing her sing.

I have a tape of her singing that she had made and on that tape she told what her goal in life was and it was based on the verse that the particular song was written from and this is that verse in Psalm 27:4, "One thing I have asked from the LORD that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple."

And that is where my mom and dad are now and I can be at complete peace knowing that. How could anyone will on anyone else to have to live here on this earth, when they could be in Heaven. Some people would think of that accident as a tragedy but all my mom got was her wish and I now am happy for that, she deserved it.

In John 16:33 Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." I can remember once looking through some things and seeing my mother's birth date. I calculated her age to be 37. I remember thinking about friends that I have that aren't all that much younger than 37.

In fact it's only 15 years older than I am now. At that time I was feeling pretty sad. I just recently thought of something that fits this really well to this situation. We don't know exactly when Jesus was born, and he died when He was only 30.

I'm not trying to make a comparison of my mother to Jesus but as far as accomplishing God's plan, my mom did get to do what she needed to do on this earth. You don't have to live to 75 to make an impact on other's lives. My parents will have a vast impact on the rest of my life for sure and definitely everyone who reads this story.

So where does that leave me? Well back to the question "Why could God do this to me?" Well God doesn't kill people, sin kills people like that drunk driver who ran into my mom and dad. God does intervene sometimes but we cannot understand like God understands so we won't know the answers till we see him face to face. But one thing that I know for sure is that my parents aren't suffering on this earth anymore and I now know that what happened to them happened for a reason and that good things can come out of things that we on earth would consider to be bad.

All my parents got was a promotion, they're better off. It was tough for us here on earth but now with what has happened to me in the last five months I have a much better understanding and complete peace about the whole situation. I have this story and most people only get to see the part that they consider to be sad but if you really sit back and look at it, knowing what you know now from reading this I think that you can see the good in it all.

So from then on I have had a completely different outlook on life. I am trying to learn more and more from the wonderful resource God gave us in the Bible. Life just looks completely different when you try to look at it through Jesus' eyes.

So I went into the phase of trying to find out exactly where God wants me and what He wanted me to do. Someone might ask you when you were in high school, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" well my answer was, "I want to be an Electrical Engineer, and make lot's of money." Well I became faced with the question, "What does God want me to do?"

That is a really tough question. We want to know the answer right away but God doesn't always work like that. So as far as my lifelong goal, well I'm still searching. There are a couple of verses that come to my mind in my situation and working toward what God would have one do. Proverbs 16:3 says, "Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be established."

In May of 1999, I graduated from Kansas State with my Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Last summer I was given the opportunity to work with a ministry called Doulos Ministries, Inc. (at http://www.douloscorp.com/main.html( working along side of a man named Richard Beach. When I went into the summer I pretty much thought that I knew a lot about walking with the Lord and had a good handle on what I believed.

After spending the summer with Rich I really learned tons and really was transformed from an unteachable proud young man into at least someone who knew that they didn't know a lot (I still struggle with pride through). All of it was just through his humility and love toward me.

After graduating, I returned to Doulos and now am working and being trained through a program working and living with troubled teens while being mentored and given a strong Biblical foundation. I am learning a lot about myself and how desperate I really am without Christ. This will be a wonderful learning experience even though it is very hard at times.

I hope that whoever reads my story will get something out of this. I'd love to talk to anyone who wants to talk about their life experiences, Jesus, the Bible, anything. So if you have a question or comment just send me an e-mail at johnm@douloscorp.com or you can try out my new response form at http://www.geocities.com/johndavidmueller/reply.htm.

Something else that I'd like you to read:
"Jesus lived and lives!"
(http://www.ourcross.org/reference/faith/jesus/jesus_really_lived.htm)

and "Who is Jesus, is Jesus Christ a Liar, a Lunatic or really Lord and God as He Himself claimed?"
(http://www.greatcom.org/resources/whoisjesusorig/ )

God bless you!

John David Mueller
johnm@douloscorp.com



"His Eye Is On The Sparrow And I Know He Cares For Me!"