My Name is Andy Maurer and was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I am 20 years old and am going to school for exercise and wellness to get my degree for personal training and from there seeing which doors God will open up for how he wants to use me in that field. I started break dancing about 2 ½ years ago and my friend Josh helped me develop the breaker name “Mr. Freeze,” mainly because of a signature move I do, called the planche.
My life growing up was for the most part pretty “normal” and easy going. I grew up in a Christian family with dedicated parents to helping me to understand and experience the love of God through the way they raised me and cared for me. The seeds that my parents planted were watered and God made them grow into a relationship with him when I was around 5 years old. I have 3 older brothers and no sisters which also carried along with it some crazy times at home with a house full of boys. I believe one of the most relieving things you can say to someone when they talk to you about problems is, “I understand…” I struggled in my life growing up with a condition called Hyperhydrosis. Basically my hands would sweat all the time and to the point where I was socially deprived from relationships and couldn’t even do my homework without getting my papers wet. This was something that was really hard for me because I always wanted people to be able to say to me, “I understand.” But nobody I knew could. It was those times in my life I had to rely on God for my identity and trust Him that he had a purpose and a plan for allowing Hyperhydrosis to be a part of my life. Thankfully God was able to keep me pure with relationships with girls for the younger part of my life because of the condition. The Lord opened up a door for me to have a surgery when I was about 17 where they could stop the sweating on my hand. I had it done and by God’s goodness it stopped.
Later down on in the road of my life I went to bible school in Germany at a school called Bodenseehof for 6 months. I then traveled for a month through Italy, Sweden, France, Switzerland, London, and Scotland. After my traveling I attended another bible school in England that was 2 months long. I was able to come home for Christmas during my time in Europe and was amazed to hear people’s responses when they found out that it was at bible school that I experienced my biggest doubts in my faith. There was a span of about 2 months during last year where I couldn’t feel God, see God, or hear God. I became angry and rebellious towards His love for me and because I felt He didn’t care about me I was going to stop caring about Him. During this time for the first time in my Christian life I began to despise God and if somebody would have asked me, “are you a Christian” I would have said, “don’t worry about it God means nothing to me.” It was in my darkest times that Gods goodness and grace shined through the brightest. (example: Christ on the cross) As I was reading one night in psalm 51 about God washing us from our sin I decided I would believe it no matter how I felt. It was then that God was trying to plainly tell me, “if you faith is based on what you see, hear of feel it will be shaken. He reminded me that He is who He says He is and I am to Him what He says I am no matter how I feel. I am still learning to this day of how to read through God’s word and believe it is truth and in believing see how God works in my life.
I have been through much of my life seeking pleasures and passions of this world and some of the biggest things that have changed my life are seeing how precious Jesus Christ is. He is, “my everything!” I know and am still trying to learn and believe that nothing on this world compares to knowing Christ. I love psalm 63:3 when it says “your love is better than life therefore my lips will praise you.” Nothing we can find here on earth can compare to God’s love and we need to be living our lives in a testimony of that love to others. I also experienced the meaning of “needing God” because you only want God as much as you need him. It is about need for a “person,” not a “thing.” I want my life to be centered on and around the person of Christ. It is all about Christ!
I share my weaknesses in this testimony to show that I am weak and in need of Jesus Christ who became everything for me which I could not be for Him. Christ doesn’t want perfect people He desires a heart that is completely His and a heart that is daily in need of his grace and transforming Holy Spirit. I hope my testimony was somewhat an encouragement to those who are run down to the end in life and don’t know where to turn. Remember to always seek Christ because: “though my heart and my flesh may fail the Lord is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26
-Andy Maurer
