Dr. Eric Betz was born and raised in Battle Creek, MI. After being profoundly helped by a chiropractor Dr. Betz felt the call to become a chiropractor himself. Dr. Betz is a graduate of the National College of Chiropractic in Lombard, IL, where he met his wife and native of Maine, Dr. Jill Betz. The Betz’s moved to Maine and opened a practice in the mid-coast. With a passion for integrative and functional medicine, and the healing impacts this can have on the human body, Dr. Eric Betz has built a practice in Rockport ME, that attracts patients from all over the midcoast area and beyond.
Over the years, Dr. Betz has logged hundreds of hours of postgraduate education specializing in functional medicine, low level cold laser, kinesiotape, nutrition, and auto and work injuries. In addition to his continuing education, Dr. Betz has over 16 years of clinical experience caring for patients with a wide variety of health concerns.
Dr. Betz is a member and volunteer at his local church. He enjoys being outside, and spending time with his wife, Jill, and their three children, Erin, Selah, and Bryce.
My Spiritual Journey
Like anyone, my life has been filled with joy and sadness, winning and losing, gain and loss – all a part of life’s journey. It would be easy to highlight the triumphs and successes in my life and skip over the other but it is the other that has molded me into the person I am today.
My spiritual life began when a friend invited me to his church for a Sunday morning message. It was a big church with seating for at least 400 people. There was a band and two big screens projecting the words to the music and the pastor’s sermon. The pastor walked around a lot on the stage reading from his Bible. This was all very new and uncomfortable for me. See, my family only went to one church service a year – the candlelight service on Christmas Eve (and that’s only if the service was at a convenient time).
I don’t remember much about the service other than they talked and sang about Jesus. I do remember that many of the people became very emotional during the service. My friend Scott, the one who invited me to this church, inquired about my response to it all and I remember replying that it is all quite pointless since they have proven the Bible is irrelevant by modern science. He asked if I would like to speak with a friend of his who could shed some light on the debate between science and the Bible but I wasn’t interested. There was a long period of time before my spiritual journey would pick up steam.
I met my wife Jill at chiropractic school in Chicago. We were friends for awhile until one day we both seemed to look at each other a little differently. We began dating and soon we became serious. We had only been dating for about 8 months before it came time to graduate and move on into practice. I decided to move to Maine where Jill was born and raised and where she wanted to return to. I opened a practice in Camden, Maine and soon after proposed to Jill. She accepted and within a few months we were married. Life was, by most standards, pretty good!
Both Jill and I felt drawn, in this time in our lives, to seek out more about God. We joined a local church that had friendly people and a wonderful choir. Soon we were involved with different committees and events at the church. We both felt like we were learning a little more about God, but something was missing at the church.
Jill began looking in the yellow pages and after visiting one other church we ended up at our home church, West Rockport Baptist Church. The services were completely different and I realized what it was that was missing – they spoke about God and read from the Bible.
As I began to hear about and learn about God and the Bible the old thoughts about science disproving the Bible began to creep back into my thinking. I discussed these thoughts with my father. My father had had a complete life change a few years prior and was faithfully attending a church in Michigan. He encouraged me to watch a video series by an Australian named Ken Ham on the Bible and modern science. After watching the video series I was convinced that it was extremely likely that the Bible was, in fact, true.
This concerned me greatly. I knew that I had blatantly disregarded God’s commandments my whole life, and was sure to be judged by Him guilty. There is not a much more unsettling thought than to know that the God of the universe is personally displeased with how you have conducted your life. Because He is a holy and just God, my actions required a consequence.
I remember one night I shared my feeling of overwhelming guilt before God with Jill and she shared with me the good news that she had just recently learned and accepted in her own life. She shared that I and the whole world had fallen short of God’s standards and the consequence to our disobedience is eternal separation from Him. But God sent his Son Jesus Christ to earth to die on a cross and pay the penalty for our disobedience – he received the punishment we should receive. And because Jesus was raised from the dead, he purchased a place in Heaven for us.
This was so difficult to accept, that God actually loved me enough to send His Son to die for me. In my depressed state I attempted to change the subject but she stopped me with tearful words, “Eric, I fear for what will happen to you if you were to die tonight without God’s forgiveness. Please don’t wait, put your faith in Jesus to save you and accept God’s forgiveness.”
I closed myself into my bedroom that night and got on my knees and poured out my heart to God. I asked him to forgive me of my sins and asked him to save me.
My life since that night has been totally changed. God’s forgiveness makes all the difference in the world. The feelings of peace that surround me are indescribable. I actually have joy in my life now. I had successes in my life before giving my life to Jesus Christ but now I have contentment that is unrelated to my circumstances in life.
I don’t know how I could have made it through the toughest trial in my life without my Savior Jesus. In March of 2008 my wife and I lost an infant son. Without God’s presence and His word as a steadfast encouragement in this time I don’t know how I could have begun to cope. God blessed us so profoundly in this time of loss that it would require another few pages to chronicle all that He did.
My spiritual journey is highlighted in the knowledge that if I were to die today, I know for certain that I will spend eternity in Heaven with Him.