Dr. McLeod's Real Passion

My Passion

Ever since I can remember, I have always known chiropractic!  I grew up under chiropractic care and it has been a part of me from day one.

I truely love this profession and look forward to helping each and every person that comes into my office every day. 

I have a strong comittment for this great profession, however, it is not the only thing that I am passionate about. 

Aside from my children, there is another thing that I am 100% sold out for!  Read on:


My story

I grew up in a typical family.  There were seven of us, two parents, two  brothers, two sisters and myself.  As kids we went to public school, lived in a typical neighborhood, had our ups and our downs just like everyone else.  We went to church every Sunday morning and even some Wednesday evenings.  I didn't necessarily enjoy going to church though, however it was what we were "supposed" to do.  In fact, I remember thinking that the best church services were the shortest church services.  I knew about God and Jesus.  In fact, I considered myself a Christian.   I earned badges of honor by memorizing bible verses, sang bible songs every week, even prayed the same prayer every single night.  I was safe... I was going to Heaven... or was I? 

The Truth

It has been said that going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than going into the garage makes you a mechanic. The time I spent in church didn't have relevance in my life.

When the time came for me to leave home and go off to college, church was a low priority. You see church to me was something I thought I knew enough about. I didn't need to learn any more about God... I knew it all.  So, when I moved away to school, I didn't make finding a church home a high priority.  So I waited. 

While in school, I was taught that it was more important for me to put faith in a non-living, impersonal "Universal Intelligence" rather than in a living, caring, loving God.  In fact, I started believing that all I needed to do (to get into Heaven) was to be a good person.  I also started to believe that there was no such place as Hell and no such thing as Satan.  Once again, I felt that I knew it all, and I didnt need God.

Years passed and life was hard. I graduated with a degree in Chiropractic. I got married and had children. I was busy building a practice and a family.

Life was hectic and difficult.  Once again, I didn't have time for church. Besides, I was "educated" and knew the ways of the world.  There were too many aspects about God that didn't make sense, so instead of trying to understand them, I just discounted them.  However, the bad news was that no matter how hard I worked, and how much I achieved, life seemed to have a hole in it.  

Things that I acquired lost their luster, and the good times I had, lost their excitement. 

Bills piled up, friends moved on, and my family grew hungry (physically and spiritually).  There's an old saying, "when your lying flat on your back, theres no where else to look... except up!"  Well thats just what I did.  When I hit rock bottom, I didnt know what else to do... so I thought I would pick up an old habit... I prayed.  Even though I grew up in church, I didn't know if I even knew how to pray... so I thought I would just wing it.  It went something like this:

"God, I dont know how this works.  I don't even know how you can hear my prayer.  All I know is that I've tried to be in control of my life and my world, but I can't do this on my own.  I need help.  So, instead of trying to figure out the answers to all of life's unknown questions,  I'm just going to trust in you, have faith that you'll hear me, and we'll go from there."

 

 

Here's the good news... It worked! How?  I don't know, but God answered my prayer and my life started to turn around. For the first time in my life, I knew what it was like to not just know of God but to actually know God. I started going back to church. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I made friends there. Friends who shared with me and helped me learn about what the Bible says concerning life. They showed me, in the Bible, what God says about eternal life in heaven. You see, from my upbringing I knew I was a sinner but I thought that I was never as bad as some other people were. So, being good (I thought) would be my ticket into heaven.  In other words, I felt I needed to DO things while I was alive to get into heaven when I died. Like:

 

  • attend church regularly
  • give money to church
  • be nice
  • obey the law
  • help people
  • etc.
     


However, while all these things are good, the Bible showed me that heaven is a place of perfection, and unfortunatly no matter how good I tried to be, I could never be perfect enough to get in.

In other words, I can not DO enough in my life to earn my way into heaven.

There is hope though.  You see I cannot Do enough to get into Heaven but God has already DONE everything for me! He paid the price for admission on my behalf.  Eternal life with God is a gift to be received and not something to be worked on or earned.

It made so much sense. God wouldn't call it a gift if I had to earn it. Like any gift, it is free to the receiver... but it costs the giver. What was the cost God paid?  The cost was great.  In fact, it was a sacrifice.

It cost God the life of His Son Jesus, the only perfect person in the world.  He allowed the perfection of his Son Jesus to be given to us.

 

 

 

Like all gifts, you get to make a choice to accept the gift or reject the gift. I realized for the first time that I never really had accepted the gift. I knew about the gift but I had never received it. I knew about Christ, but I didn't know Christ personally. The truth is, until you receive it, you never really know the beauty of the gift. How about you? Have you received and accepted God's gift?

 

God's Promise
Eternal life is a gift you cannot earn.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23 NIV


Receive Him


Simply knowing about the gift of Jesus isn't enough. Knowing about Jesus doesn't make you a Christian... receive Him.  Accept the gift.


"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" John 1:12 NIV

You can accept this spiritual gift by simply asking God. It's called prayer and it could be as simple as the following sample;

God, I know I am a sinner and I ask your forgiveness. I ask for the gift of eternal life through your Son Jesus who died for my sins and rose from the grave so that I might have eternal life with you. Help me to live my life for you from now on. Thank you God. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If this prayer sincerely reflects your heart then God says that you are his child. John 1:12 Congratulations!

Once I received the gift and accepted God's love and grace, my life began to change.  Not that I no longer had any difficulties or hard times.  On the contrary.  However, I have always been able to count on God to be there for me, to love me, and to help me through the difficult times.  Give Him a chance.  He'll do the same for you!