Each year, on December 28, I pause to reflect on my story.
Life moves past us at such a brisk pace that it's easy to forget what life was like 44 years ago; what life could have been like, had God not intervened that night in 1968. It was the last Saturday night of the year; I had a plan for my evening, and it certainly did not include an up close conversation with God. But, He had a different plan...and, as it turns out, it changed my life forever.
But the path to that evening in 1968 started many years before...when my Grandmother, who lived with us at the time, would gather me up and carry me off to Church and Sunday School--I still have my first Bible, the one mom gave me to take to church with Grandma. I didn't know, until I was a young adult, that my grandmother faithfully prayed for me each day--that "BJ would experience the power of Christ in his life and embrace Jesus as his Lord and Savior." She eventually moved back to her roots in Fort Scott Kansas. But I continued to get myself to church until about the 8th grade.
I don't recall why I decided to "drop out" but I'm sure it just didn't feel very "cool" to attend church and sunday shcool any longer--and since I went by myself, it was my decision to make. Fast forward to the fall of my Jr. year in High School. One evening I landed at a "Campus Life" meeting at the home of a classmate (Jim Rehnberg)...it was the kickoff for the school year and as advertised, it was a "Burger Bash"--all you could eat--and a huge crowd of students. But I got more that evening than a big meal. The Campus Life leader, Mark Zier, gave a short talk at the end and he asked the crowd..."If you died tonight, do you know where you're going?" I didn't; it bothered me, then I moved on.
On the evening of December 28, 1968 I was set to attend an "Afterxms" party with some buddies (Jerry McClain was driving). Our "wires got crossed" (coincidence?) and they never showed up; stuck, I recalled something was happening at the Rec-center with Campus Life that night--they called it a "Campus Life Rally." There was a girl I had some interest in (Colleen Rehnberg) and I knew she would probably be there (I was right); I managed to catch Mark (Zier) before he'd left his house. He was delighted when I called, and he swung by and picked me up. An evening of activities, music and then a guy, Roger Cross, got up and challenged me again about my life and death. This time I was ready and wanted to get this question resolved; Mark talked with me and then invited me to pray a short, simple prayer, and the rest...is history.
Three weeks later I went to the Ventura "Rally" because Mark asked me to share about my recent conversion experience with that half of the county we lived in. Mark mentioned a girl he thought I'd really like, a cute sophomore at Buena HS named Laura--he wanted to introduce us; he was right. In that span of three weeks I'd had two introductions that literally changed the direction and the outcome of my life: I'd trusted Christ and met my future wife--we married 3 years, 48 weeks and 6 days later.
My home was a rather complicated place. Lot's of love and pain. I was carrying some emotional baggage by that time and was making some bad choices. Christ changed all that in an instant. The baggage was there--if fact it didn't get fully "unpacked" for years. But His presence in my life set me in a "best direction" that just never wavered. Laura's family became a surrogate family for me as our relationship grew; they, especially her dad (my dad died suddenly in 1970), filled a great need in my life.
In the 80's there was a popular song written by Bill Gaither that really captured my story, I get choked up every time I sing it; the chorus declares..."Something beautiful, something good; all my confusion He understood, all I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but He made something, beautiful, out of my life."
December, 28, 1968. What a difference a day makes.
