THE AWAKENING

“I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” (Jesus, John 10:10b NAS)

A love for science, or at least a love to experiment, came early.  My family can attest to the strange and often smelly concoctions that I brewed up in the basement of my childhood home or out back in the shed.  I almost burned our house down one day when I “proved” that a dust cloud of flour is explosive – I wouldn’t recommend you try this experiment unless you don’t mind singed eye brows.  And of course I had a chemistry set.  Back when I was a child they made real chemistry sets with real chemicals like sulfur and hydrochloric acid.  I hated following the directions, running “canned experiments”, it was more fun to just see what would happen if… and it still is!

We went to church as a family every Sunday.  Some of my earliest memories are of being dressed up by my mother in uncomfortable clothes that included a stiff collar complete with bow tie.  Why don’t little children have to wear starched shirts and bow ties anymore?  Actually church itself wasn’t that bad, because boring sermons were balanced by chicken barbeques, family camp out in the country, Christmas carols, and candle light services.

Then everything changed.  I had an awakening.  A guest speaker came to our church one Sunday night, and as he spoke it was as if the curtains were pulled back and a whole new dazzling world of light and color was revealed to me.  I realized with crystal clarity that God was real.  I realized that there was a heaven and a hell (and I was going either up to one or down to the other).  I realized that sin was a problem – my own sin in particular – and I needed to do something about it.  I needed to make a decision, and I needed to make it quick.  I was too shocked and scared to do anything that night, but the following week I went to a youth meeting down town with a group from our church.  There again I felt the tugging at my heart, an invitation to enter this whole new realm and to know God personally.  Again I realized that life was so much more than what we see and experience in this world.  There is hope for life beyond the grave, and more than hope, a certainty that we will live forever.  How could all this be possible?  But it wasn’t a time for analysis, it was a time for decision, so I said “yes”.  Best decision I ever made (except maybe marrying my wife Barb).  Joy flooded in, and a peace came into my life that I simply cannot describe.  I didn’t adopt a religion.  I didn’t stumble on a philosophy that suited me.  I met the living God, and He awakened me to life.