Below is part of a conversation with David Beeton, a 65-year-old man who serves as a Congregational Care & Prayer Director at The Experience Community Church in Cannon County, Tennessee.
David’s story is one of redemption, endurance, and grace.
As a young man, after years of sin and wandering, he prayed a simple, desperate prayer: “Lord, if You still want me, would You single me out?”
God did — in the most unmistakable ways. And that prayer marked the beginning of a transformed life.
But David’s journey didn’t stop there. He also opens his heart about caring for his late wife as she battled multiple sclerosis for 21 years — a journey marked by suffering, loss, and God’s sustaining grace.
If you prefer listening, you can listen to/watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.
I was raised in a Christian home. And when I was eight years old, which would have been 1968, we went to a Billy Graham movie and they gave an altar call at the end of that movie and I was moved and I remember saying to my dad – my dad just had his head bowed – I said, don’t you think we should go up there?
And he was already a Christian and he didn’t reply, he just remained silent. So I got up on my own and went down there. And that was my first encounter and profession for the Lord. I was moved and I’ll never forget it. I went through the little follow-up course that Billy Graham had to offer at that time. I still have the materials that Billy Graham sent out to me — the Gospel of John and the course that I completed.
What has your journey looked like since then?
Well, you know, as a young man, I had a lot of insecurities and in school, I was bullied. And when I got older, I fell away from the Lord. And for a period of about three and a half years, probably around the age of 17, I began to drink and to smoke pot and I was a surfer at the time and lived that lifestyle. I got into the martial arts and got a black belt and just really lived in sin.
And during that time, I got into a lot of fights and stuff. I counted maybe 10 times that I actually got into a fight, mainly in my senior year. But my mom and dad were praying for me and it began to have its effect on my life and I began to want to get right with the Lord.
But I had gone into sin to the point where I wasn’t sure if God wanted me anymore. I know that’s not biblical, but that’s what I was thinking. So I prayed a prayer. I asked the Lord, ‘If you really want me back, would you single me out?’ And I’m not recommending that prayer to anybody, but that’s what I prayed. And then the Lord took me up on it. And God is so good, He’s a merciful shepherd.
The Bible says that even when we were sinners, Christ died for us – He proved His love for us. Even when we were sinners, Christ died for us. So, I always like to tell people that you never have to doubt God’s love because He proved His love for you when Jesus died on the cross. (Romans 5:8).
Then on June 21st, 1980, I was at an all-day rock and roll concert and it was a very rough concert and you can imagine an all-day thing. And I had a vision towards the end of that day. And I saw myself standing in hell. And when I did, it scared me. And I was very moved by it and I immediately wanted to get out of there. I ruined my friends’ whole night talking about it on the way home. I was just very moved by it. It made a big impression on me.
I think it was a direct answer to my parents praying. And so that was the first thing that happened. There were three, what I consider, dramatic things that happened where the Lord answered my prayer to single me out.
So shortly after that, I was in my car sitting at a stoplight. And I lived in Virginia Beach at the time and a girl was walking down the sidewalk where I was in the line waiting to go through a red light. And she went slightly past my car then she stopped abruptly and turned around and came directly over to my car and asked me for a ride.
And of course, you know, in my mind I wasn’t thinking godly thoughts, but I was very happy about that and I was going to give her a ride. And that girl got into my car and she said to me that God had spoken to her going down the sidewalk to get into my car and to tell me about Jesus.
That girl let me have it, as the saying goes. And she just told me all about Jesus and how much He loved me. And I had just seen this vision at this concert before that. And it really moved me. I never saw her again. I dropped her off and never saw that girl again. But I was so moved by what she said, by the whole experience.
And then shortly after that – this all happened within a short amount of time – I was in college at the time and I was studying for finals. It was hot outside, even though it was late. The library was going to close. They had muggings on campus. And so they were closing the library. I had to leave. And most everybody had already gone.
And there was a car between my car and the library. And so I had to go past that car to get to my car. And in that car, there were six guys in there. And this was late at night. What are six guys doing in a car late at night?
I immediately thought the worst – muggings on campus. And I thought this could be it. And so I started planning what I would do. And then when I was trying to get to my car, they called me over there and the adrenaline was just going strong.
And I went over there and the guy said, ‘We just want to tell you about Jesus.’ And I was so taken back by that. I was ready to give it to them, you know? And I had plans. I had planned the whole thing out.
And it totally floored me. It’s totally what I wasn’t expecting. And they just told me, they said, ‘The Lord said that there was one more person we needed to talk to and then here you came.’ And they gave me all these tracts and stuff. After that, I just was again, deeply moved. I went back to my apartment. I sat on the bed. I read everything they gave me.
I began praying more. I was so into the partying lifestyle that there were parties that I wanted to go to that were on the calendar. And I know that doesn’t sound very spiritual, but that’s where I was at. And so I figured, well, the only way I’m going to do this is set a date. So I set a date on my calendar that I would recommit my life to the Lord.
And then that date came along and it happened that I was surfing with a friend that day. And I excused myself. I said, ‘I’m going to paddle out.’ So I paddled out and I just recommitted my life to the Lord. And I came back in, and this was one of my party friends, and we had been talking up to that point. He recommitted his life to the Lord on the beach.
And then I dumped out all the pot that I had. I quit drinking. I got self-control to where I didn’t get in fights anymore. I broke up with a girlfriend I was dating at the time. I had a big transformation, but at the same time I still had a lot of guilt, even though I had asked the Lord to forgive me.
And I was at the dorm, at the college, and some of my friends knew that I was struggling. So they said, ‘Can we pray for you?’ And so all my friends gathered around me — and this was a new set of friends, by the way, all my old friends, they gave me six months, they didn’t think I would make it, they thought I’d gone nuts.
But these new friends gathered around me and prayed for me. And I had such a sense of peace that came on me. It was just an overwhelming peace. And I just felt so satisfied, so full of God’s peace. It was a very awesome experience that I can’t describe. And you know, the Lord did all that. That’s just the way He chose to do it.
So after that, I thought, well, now all the girls who wouldn’t have anything to do with me because of the way I was, now I can date them.
And I felt like the Lord spoke to me and He said, ‘Don’t date anyone until I tell you.’ And so I went for two years without dating. And my friends really thought I had gone over the edge. And I think even my parents might’ve been a little bit concerned, but I really wanted the Lord. I wanted to obey the Lord. And so for two years I didn’t date anyone.
And during that time, the Lord gave me new friends — because I didn’t leave my old friends, they left me — and we used to either go to church together or we’d play basketball together or we go street witnessing. So for two years, that’s pretty much what we did.
And then I met my wife. The first time I noticed her, we were soul winning. And I noticed that she was out to do that. And I was impressed because a lot of the younger girls would not do that.
And anyway, we had our first date, July 4th, 1982. And then six weeks later I asked her to marry me. And she had met every single one of my prayers. For example, I prayed that she’d be from the mountains of Virginia. And I don’t know why I prayed that, but my mom was from the mountains of Virginia and I love my mom. And she ended up being from there.
And so we were married and we had a wonderful marriage and we had four children and then life was going great. Then she got pregnant with our fifth child, Rebekah. And during that time, my wife had numbness and tingling and symptoms that we got checked out. And after Rebekah was born, they found out that my wife had multiple sclerosis.
And so she was diagnosed in 1996 with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. And so that brought a whole range of trials into our life that were very difficult. And then just to give you the bird’s eye view, in 2004, which was eight years later, they changed her diagnosis to secondary progressive MS, which is slow downward. And so she had MS a total of 21 years.
One of the darkest days of my life was the day that my wife lost her voice. We had an excellent marriage, we loved being together, talking with each other. I mean, it was just one of the huge benefits of a godly marriage is that interaction that you have.
And when she lost her voice, it was really hard for me. And I tell the young men now, I say, ‘Never take your wife for granted. Don’t even make her voice for granted.’ Because there was a day I lost that blessing.
And so there was there was a lot of depression that we went through. Even though we knew the Lord and we’re doing our best to rely on the Lord, there was despair in there at times.
I believe that God heals the sick, still do, and love to pray for the sick to this day and have seen God many times heal sick people and believe that He can do that still. But I used to pray for my wife over and over again and she finally asked me one time, she said, ‘Are you gonna you going to do that again?’
Because I prayed for her hundreds and hundreds of times. Not necessarily anointing her with oil, but I just didn’t want to give up as long as she was alive, you know?
And so it was a real struggle for me and for our family. There was a lot of agony, helplessness, feelings of helplessness, and then there was a lot of weariness that set in.
One of the things I remember saying to Rebekah was, ‘It feels like we’ve been in the dungeon, but it seemed like this dungeon has a trap door’ because it just kept getting worse, you know?
Through all of that though, I have to say how awesome God was, how the Lord ministered to us and carried us along. And really, the Lord had to just carry me. Jesus is such a faithful shepherd. He carried me. And when I didn’t have a good day, He forgave me and helped me and restored me.
You know, I think of the Apostle Paul. He said that my goal is to know Jesus, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. And that’s really been my prayer all along.
When I recommitted my life to the Lord, my desire was to know Him. And it may not make sense, but if God used those experiences for me to know more about Him, then it was worth it all.
So I know there’s a long way to go still because God is vast beyond degree. The most educated and the most the holiest man or woman on the planet is just getting started. But one of things is I had a new perspective on life. Life just looks different than it used to.
You know, a lot of the old hymns that are sung, they talk a lot about heaven. But one of the things it’s done is it’s given me a new perspective on death — that this world is not our home and this life is not permanent.
And so our relationship with Christ is paramount. I mean, setting our affections on Him, getting to know Him — there’s nothing greater that we can do.
So if I had something I could say to younger viewers, perhaps, is set your heart and your affections on Him. Make that the aim of your life, your goal, and you won’t be sorry.
When you get to be this age, you start thinking about death more. It’s not because you’re morbid or because you have a death wish or anything like that. But I mean, you know, it’s coming.
And so one of things I’ve shared with some of my older friends is that I feel like that we need to have a new perspective on death because for the Christian, I mean, we enter from this one breath, our last breath in this life, and our next in His presence, which is glorious.
And then in this world, why is it that we’re left here? I think that you and your broadcast and me in my little corner and your listeners in whatever situation they may be in, God wants to use them and has a mission for them to accomplish. And it’s very clear, the scriptures are very clear what that is: the highest thing that any of us can do with our lives is to spend time in His presence.
And I think of Mary and Martha. Martha was so busy running around trying to do good things. Nothing wrong with that. We want to serve. We want to serve our fellow Christians and we want to serve in other ways in our communities. But the highest thing we need to do above everything is to is to be in His presence and to worship Him.
And then out from that comes the mandate that the Lord has given each of us:a to make disciples of all the nations and to preach the gospel to every creature. That’s really what God has called us to do.
But if I could just speak to your listeners — whatever sufferings maybe your listeners have had in their own lives — those sufferings aren’t for nothing. Those are the very things God has given you as a gift that you can turn around and then share how God delivered you or how God helped you through and then you can then turn around and comfort others with the comfort that He’s given to you.
And I like to tell people, you know, one of the chief aims of our lives is to glorify God. And your story can glorify God in ways that mine cannot. And so I like to think of it like snowflakes. Every snowflake is different. It looks a little different.
And so the more often you can tell your story, the better, because nobody has your exact story. And it glorifies God when you tell it.
Listen to or watch the full conversation on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.
Thank you for being here,
Katharine
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