Behold, I'm making all things new...
How it all started...
Hi, I'm Timothy. This is the story of how God has blessed my life and is using me to accomplish His purposes.
First off, I never would have thought that I would even type such a phrase and post it on the internet. The very fact that I'm writing these words you're reading is a testament to God's transformative power.
I can't say it was ever a dream of mine to begin a woodworking company, although from a young age I always had a curiosity and desire for creating things. My father cursed my beautiful creations as booby traps meant to destroy the tires on his vehicles, but little did he know that they were the precursor to something grand! When my wife and I bought our house in 2013 is when I first started buying my own woodworking tools. There was no shortage of projects to be done and with every new project came the justification of needing a new tool. With each project I undertook, my skills grew and my tastes developed. I started to crave the look of real hardwoods as opposed to some stained softwood. I started venturing away from the big box stores and buying rough sawn lumber. I was hooked. The process of taking an ugly, rough piece of wood and planing and sanding it into something beautiful felt like alchemy. I enjoy it still! Life continued on this way until 2020, when my life took a dramatic turn.
Up until 2020, my life had been on cruise control. Everything was quite normal and ordinary. There was no indication that I was about to hit a brick wall and go through the lowest depths I had ever experienced. My wife moved out and filed for divorce in the late Fall of 2020. I took our daughter away for the day while she moved out what she wanted. At first it was incredible having the house to myself for a change, but those first nights when I didn't get to tuck my daughter in and tell her I love her were the most difficult. It was a cold, dark, and lonely time. If you have ever gone through a divorce, my heart goes out to you my brothers and sisters.
A week after my wife had moved out, I decided the first steps forward would be to build a kitchen table to replace the one that was no longer there. Returning home to find a TV tray where your kitchen table once was is always a sobering experience! I went to my parents' farm to get some oak that I had air drying in the barn. When I pulled in, there were all kinds of big ash logs by the edge of the driveway. My father didn't know what to do with them; the ash tree had to be taken down due to emerald ash borer. It had never dawned on me until that moment, but I realized we could cut those logs up and make our own lumber. I contacted a sawyer and soon after I had my first experience with sawmilling. If buying rough sawn lumber is a gateway drug to sawmilling, then I was definitely on the road to being a full-blown addict!
2021 was a year of being brought low; as low as I think I could go. I spent some time in late 2020 proving God was not real using a test I had devised; If God was real he would surely strike me down. I was sick of it. I prayed, and nobody answered. I checked all the boxes of what a "good" man should do, and nothing became of it. I realized that God was simply an extension of our consciousness that provided an answer for why good things and bad things happened. I grew up on a farm, and can swear with remarkable proficiency and ingenuity. I would spend hours goading God into wiping me from the face of the Earth. I taunted Him, I cursed Him, and I hated Him. God fortunately didn't prove His existence by killing me in that moment, but He did in a way only a loving God could.
When you're brought low to a place where any worldview you had gets shattered, it is a remarkably wonderful place to build things right. I decided I would investigate God in a sincere manner. I had always gone to church and checked the boxes of (what I thought) were being a good person, but I couldn't say there was a relationship with God in my life. It was a cold and dark start to 2021. I was alone with nobody and nothing. Friends and family I once had vanished overnight. I was sending hundreds of dollars to a lawyer every time he wrote an email. A great place to start from scratch! I began reading and investigating. Is there reasonable scientific evidence to believe in the existence of God? Short answer; yes. You don't have to take my word for it though. Do your own research. If you're curious, I can recommend some good books! If you can accept that there is God, and that the creation of our universe was a miracle of something from nothing, then the next question becomes, who is He? Who is this God that created this place and why? Math and science have only uncovered the language that God spoke when creating this universe. It can tell us a little about the nature of God, but it doesn't help us have a relationship with our Creator. The relationship I was unknowingly desiring was only to be fulfilled through God's son, Jesus.
My life continued crawling along. Days began to get easier, but it always felt like there was a paper thin veneer keeping my emotions from overwhelming me at any point during the day. I started going back to church and would work through the pain I had as best as I could. After completing my kitchen table in early 2021, I started working on dust collection and an outfeed/assembly table for my small garage shop. My next big project was to get a loft bed made for my daughter. These projects gave me a focus and purpose and probably kept me from going down a dark path when I had nothing. In late Fall of 2021, the divorce was finalized and the weight of that being lifted from my life gave me a little bit of hope. It was bittersweet. Few people ever decide to marry with the intention of divorcing later. I was officially a middle-aged, divorced man. Not exactly a label I envisioned I would ever have.
Early in 2022 I had an experience that I still struggle telling about without getting choked up. I was sitting on my couch reading when I felt the presence of Jesus in my living room. I promise you I'm (most likely) not a crazy person. Whenever I heard about people "meeting" Jesus I dismissed it as a delusion. In that moment however, I couldn't even lift my eyes to look up. I hung my head low and uttered "You're here, aren't you?". My plan was to come to Jesus when I was ready and when I had my life cleaned up. It was like He entered through the front door prematurely and before I had a chance to prepare my house. I felt the most intense feelings of shame, guilt, and conviction, but also the most intense love and acceptance. I wanted nothing more than to have a house put in order and invite Him in when I was ready. He just entered. Although I was ashamed that my life was not in perfect order, it was like He was whispering that there was no shame and judgment. He was not shocked by what He saw, and it did not turn Him away. I pulled myself from the couch and got into the shower. I sobbed and sobbed. In that moment, I made a promise that if He showed me His will that I would try my best to follow. I made it clear that I would probably fail; but I promised that I would try my best to follow Him. I continue to struggle to this day following His will and commandments, but I continue to try.
God was not finished. There was an additional thread to this story that was also happening during all of this. In the late Fall of 2021, a few weeks before I was divorced, my best friend at the school where I work died of cancer. He left behind a wife and a baby boy who was born shortly after his passing. My friend DJ was a good man and a prime example of Christ's love working through a person. DJ's passing at the time only seemed to add to the evidence that God was either blind, deaf, or evil. Why would God take a loving husband and father out of this world and leave his wife a widow and his son fatherless? DJ's wife, Jomarie, had been a longtime friend from many years prior. We had fallen out of touch after we both got married, but we found ourselves in similar but unwanted circumstances together now. We slowly began to text each other. It was nice to have someone ask how your day was and to have someone who understood the pain of losing a spouse. We grew closer as friends for a few years until God placed an idea in my heart that I swore would never happen. I proposed to Jomarie in November of 2023. We married the following year in June of 2024 and two broken families became one.
If you've read this far, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have one more favor to ask of you, one thing I hope that you might consider. Does the Bible reveal God's plan for our lives and give us the best explanation for sin and suffering in this world? I believe so; yes. There are certainly questions and discussions to be had, and I pray that you seek out the answers to any questions you might have. If there are questions that are keeping you from pursuing a relationship with God, ask the questions or seek out the answers. I never would have wished that I would be been broken down as low as I was. I never would have wished that my daughter would suffer in the ways I saw her suffer by having her family torn apart. My wife never would have wished to watch her first husband suffer, deteriorate, and die while trying to care for him up until his last breath. Any answer or explanation I could give you for suffering in this world would never satisfy you. Nothing said would make things make perfect sense. What I can offer you is what God has already given to us. His son, Jesus. If you follow the evidence and breadcrumbs, and you can open your eyes to the possibility that Jesus is who He said He is, then you'll begin to understand that the suffering that afflicted everyone connected to this testimony, has a purpose. I am so thankful that I suffered. Jomarie is so thankful that she suffered. If we allow suffering to point our eyes to God, we can see that even though it hurts and sometimes doesn't make sense, God has written Himself into the midst of our humanity and offered us the solution. Seek out Jesus. If for no other reason than to disprove what He said or did. If for no other reason than you want to give Him a piece of your mind and tell Him where he can shove this world, seek out Jesus. If you're suffering, hurting, lost, or angry at what has happened to you or a loved one, seek out Jesus. Let Him give you beauty from ashes. At the end of this life, He will wipe every tear from our eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. He is making everything new, and if you're still reading, I pray He reveals Himself in your life and give you new life as well.
I offer this testimony to you because without it, I don't believe this woodworking business would have ever seen the light of day. I had a good (enough) life. I didn't need to throw money into a black hole of debt chasing after something that gave me hope and purpose during a dark time in my life. If there was no need to rebuild or replace furniture, I wouldn't have pursued pushing my woodworking beyond a hobby and into a business. I hope that the story of how Lund Woodworks came about points you towards God. I could not in good conscience have kept that testimony private. I believe that the events that happened during that time helped give birth to this woodworking business.
God bless. I hope we can do business in the future!