Real Life Stories

of people finding meaning in life

Raise the Sails Stories

BETTI’S STORY

by Jim Mange

“God doesn’t play coy with me.” Those are the words of Betti Griffen, describing her extraordinary encounters with God. “When God wants me to know something, He hits me over the head with it.”

But Betti didn’t get to know God until fairly late in life, after having shut Him out as a child. Her early life was full of loss, and one comment by an uncle went over particularly poorly. Now, however, she can see how God never gave up on her, and how He used her circumstances to finally bring her into His fold.

Betti’s father died when she was an infant, and her mother died when she was 10. It was that death that most dramatically altered the rest of her life. Betti’s mother and step-father were going out one night, and Betti didn’t want her mom to leave.

“I was mad at my mother, so I didn’t kiss her goodnight” Betti said.

Later that evening Betti’s mom was fatally injured in a car accident. When her uncle delivered the news, thinking it would comfort Betti, her uncle said, “Your mother died because God wanted her with Him in heaven.” That made Betti furious.

“So I slammed the door on God,” she said.

After that, her brother stayed with their stepfather and Betti was sent to Hawaii to live with the aunt she was named after.

Never raised in a Christian home, Betti fell into the New Age belief that just about any way of thinking was acceptable, although she didn’t have very charitable thoughts about Christians. That’s why her journey into faith didn’t start by wanting to learn about God. It was a response to the alcoholism that had long plagued her family. Over 20 years ago Betti joined AlAnon to help her deal with family issues, and  she started living with the thought of a “Higher Power” having an influence in her life. However, Jesus was still far off.

Years later, she was dealing with anger over her husband’s behavior related to alcoholism, she had an incredible exchange with the Lord. She doesn’t know why it was there, but there was a picture of Jesus in her home that very clearly spoke to her.

“I was sitting there so angry,” Betti recalls, “when Jesus said, ‘Hey! This is when you love your husband. You don’t get it. I died for you, so you can forgive and love.’ So I prayed, ‘Dear Lord help me learn to love my husband in the face of alcoholism.’ That’s when I learned unconditional love.”

But it took another few years for Betti to start taking the final steps toward accepting Jesus. One day in 2012, two years after her husband’s death, she “totally fell apart,” and even ended up in the emergency room. She was diagnosed with depression and complicated grief. It was the ensuing recovery process that eventually led her to Christ.

“I did grief recovery like a full-time job,” Betti said.

What she really wanted was comfort, and she didn’t think she could find it in the Buddhist community she was currently involved with. That’s how she ended up giving GriefShare a try at First Prez.

“I walk through the main doors, and as I walk through I say, ‘God, I want to know You better,’” she recalls. She also remembers saying, “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be here because I’m a Buddhist,” to Mimi Fulcher (former pastor’s wife). Mimi’s response was just the first of many that struck just the right tone. “Oh, Betti, everyone is welcome here!”

Betti says through her days in GriefShare no one preached at her or spouted Scripture, something that would have surely driven her away; they just loved her. That’s what kept her coming back, and eventually led her to the Alpha Course, in her quest to know God better. Alpha is where she had her lightbulb moment, when she realized for the first time that Jesus is God in living, human form.

“I don’t see negatives very often,” Betti said, and that’s why she sees all the heartache in her life shaping a positive result. “If my mother hadn’t died, I would never have come to Hawaii (which she says is a very special place) ... if I hadn’t had a breakdown, I would never have ended up at GriefShare.” And if it weren’t for her experience in GriefShare who knows how many more years it would have taken her to accept Jesus’ love.

Betti was baptized on June 16, 2013, and later on was approached about becoming a deacon.

“At first I thought it was crazy,” Betti said, “but when I heard what a deacon’s job is––to have the ears, eyes and heart of the congregation––I said, ‘Well, I can do that!’”

The next year Betti had a dream that she said “convicted” her to join the prayer team. In the dream she was sitting on a wood bench with other people when a big blue sphere appeared overhead. She started walking toward it, then crashed to the floor weeping. “But it was glorious,” Betti said. When she got up, she returned to her seat and put her hand on the person next to her and asked if they had seen the sphere too. They told her they hadn’t seen anything, but that her touch was making them feel better. That experience was repeated with others there as well.

Prayer has a special place in Betti’s life. “It’s a place where God is so palpably present,” she said. “When I’m one-on-one with someone for prayer, it’s just the three of us there.”

God isn’t reserved with Betti, and there is nothing coy about her response to His call. From her willingness to dive in as a deacon to her conviction as a prayer warrior, Betti is a brilliant reminder that the best faith is a faith in action.