In the midst of feeling anxiety and stress, Liz Toohill responded to a call to get baptized in October at Green Bay Community Church. She believes God was asking her to fully surrender to Him and now feels an unexplainable sense of peace.

by Mike Vandermause on July 02, 2018

Liz Toohill wasn’t planning to get baptized on Oct. 8 at Community Church, but during the 10 a.m. service she couldn’t help but respond.

“I had always pushed baptism off,” Liz said. “I never thought I needed to get baptized. But when (Pastor) Troy was speaking I had an overwhelming feeling. I thought he was talking directly to me. He said if you are anxious about anything, God can take that away. After being baptized, I know Troy is right.”

On that very morning Liz had been struggling with a decision she made to move from Madison to Green Bay to take a nursing job that paid significantly less money. She also was still bound to an apartment lease in Madison.

“I was overwhelmed with money issues,” Liz said. But when she was reminded in the service that morning that God can take away any anxiety, she came to one conclusion: “I’m ready now. In the past I did not want to surrender fully to God.”

Liz grew up in the Green Bay area, the product of De Pere High School, St. Norbert College and Bellin College. During a two-year stretch after graduation Liz worked at St. Vincent and Aurora Hospital, then became a travel nurse and lived in Arizona, Texas and Connecticut before landing in Madison. The pay was lucrative but the job wasn’t as fulfilling as Liz had hoped. She felt the tug to return to her roots in Green Bay.

“I kind of feel me coming home physically to Green Bay was a metaphor for coming home and living for what God wants for me,” Liz said. "That is ultimately why I got baptized. It was the perfect time to get baptized.”

Liz grew up attending Community Church with her family. She said her faith became cemented at around age 16 when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. One day the doctor announced that her mom’s golf-ball sized tumor was gone.

“It was one of those moments where I was like, ‘How do you explain that?’” Liz said. “It didn’t make sense to me. God has to be real. He’s listening. He’s providing for us.”

Liz remembers her dad playing a pivotal role in shaping her faith during her mom’s battle with cancer. “He said, ‘We need to start praying for mom,’’ Liz recalled. "That was kind of the moment where God became real.”

Still, her faith journey wasn’t easy. Liz wasn’t surrounded by a lot of Christian friends and she said she didn’t have a good sense of the Bible. “I saw God as a genie, where if I wanted something or if I was sad or lonely I would go to him but didn’t know what 'go to him' meant,” Liz said. “I had never really experienced his presence. That’s the way I approached God into my early 20s.”

In 2015 when Liz moved away from Green Bay to start her travel nurse career, she also ended a relationship she describes as unhealthy and not honoring to God. "I prayed the scariest prayer and that was for his will,” Liz said.

Although the traveling was at times lonely, Liz said it also gave her time to cultivate her relationship with God.

“I started opening up my fears to God, laying it at the cross and going, ‘I don’t know what to do with this,’” Liz said. “People told me they saw such a transformation when I started consciously trying to follow God — not sort of following and saying I love him, but living unapologetically for him and wanting to do his work and not wanting to do my own thing."

Liz said she views her relationship with God like a marriage, with accountability and commitment.

“That’s where I see myself transformed," she said. "It’s no longer 'I can be a Christian when I want to be a Christian and at other times behave how I want to.’”

Liz said she realizes how easily the world can bring you down. "When I lived the way I wanted to live, I didn’t realize how little sins lead to other sins,” she said. “It can entangle you."

One example Liz cited is the world’s view of unmarried couples living together. “It’s so accepted by the world right now,” she said. “But I don’t want to be of the world. I’ve seen where that leads and it’s not fruitful. It doesn’t fulfill me. …Going through my own sexual sin helped me have empathy for others. In that moment I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t think I had a choice. It’s not life giving. …It’s my story and I’m proud that I did make decisions to turn away from that and start new.

"God has given me the boldness and the confidence to go forward in what I know to be true. Whatever way I can share the truth, great.”

Since getting baptized, Liz has experienced God’s power in her life in a variety of ways. A strained relationship with her brother has been restored. Her financial burdens were lifted when a Madison friend offered to rent Liz’s  apartment and buy some of her furniture.

Liz also said she is less judgmental and selfish. She also prefers to take life one day at a time rather than stress over what the future might bring.

"Some days He’s the only thing that can sustain me,” she said. "I know now, after being baptized, that was a symbolic surrender.

"I knew in my heart that day it wasn’t for people to see. It was for me and God. It felt natural. It was time. As I was walking up, I was shaking. I felt like God was saying ‘Come home. You’re about to move home, come home to me.' Afterward I’ve heard people say you feel different when you are baptized, and they are absolutely right. Because it’s your decision — nobody is making you do it — it’s rewarding."

A year ago Liz couldn’t have imagined herself living back in Green Bay and getting baptized. But she’s not only near family now, but also exactly where she believes God wants her to be.

“There really is peace and just calm when you surrender fully,” she said.