Attending church wasn’t exactly my favorite thing but it seemed like the thing to do. Then, in June they decided to have an outdoor service in the woods. Pastor Dan’s pastor preached but I can’t recall much of what he said except for that; “without God, you. are not complete. Without God, you have an empty place that you will try to fill with something else and that never works.” That part made a lot of sense.
After he got through preaching, they asked if anyone needed that void filled. In book of Romans, it says: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Well, I knew I had sinned plenty, so it was easy to see what he was talking about.
I cannot say I understood everything said, but it made sense when he explained that if we wanted to be “whole,” we needed God and the way to come to him was through Jesus Christ. I stood up and they prayed for me. I didn’t feel anything. No lights came on and no bells went off. I just came into agreement that I was going to walk with God.
A couple of weeks later, Preacher Dan asked me what I thought of the decision I had made that day at church out in the woods. I had no knowledgeable reply, so he did his best to explain it. I remember him asking something like: “If a log fell on you tomorrow, would you go to heaven?” I thought about that one for a minute before responding with a resounding: “Mmmm…I don’t know about that.” You see, I still wasn’t perfect by a long shot. I tried to explain all that to him without going into a lot of detail.
He went on to explain; “You belong to God. You were adopted by Him through the sacrifice that Jesus made for you. You are saved by grace, not by doing good stuff. You cannot be ‘good enough’ on your own. It is a gift you do not deserve, but God has given it to you.” That all sounded too good to be true, but he appeared to be certain that was the way it works, and it did kind of clear some things up. I did not have to work my way to God. He called me, I answered, and now I belong to him. That was good; I could continue with that foundation.
However, as you have no doubt noticed, most positive things in life are not automatic or easy. Somehow, over the years, I had developed something of an irresistible fondness of a certain, cool, golden nectar that was peddled in the bar side of Headquarters Bar and Cafe. It was common that I would stop by the Headquarters Bar and Café to have dinner after work. Of course, the pool hall was in the bar. That was kind of a complication.
As far as diversion, there was absolutely nothing to do in Pierce, Idaho during the 1970’s. There were only two or three boring channels on television which all went off air about 8:00 p.m. leaving you to stare at a snowy screen. Inevitably, after dinner, a friend would invite you to play a game of pool. It seemed like the natural thing to do. Then, someone would buy you a glass of “golden nectar.” It would be an insult to turn it down, so you drank it. Before you knew it, they were closing the establishment at 1:00 a.m. You needed to be at work at 6:00 a.m. so that wasn’t good.
After one such occasion, I was welding something at the contractor’s shop. I happened to look down to see a couple of preacher-type shoes standing right beside me. I cautiously lifted the welding hood only to find the preacher in those shoes. I did the polite thing and momentarily stopped what I was working on to shoot the breeze. Somewhere along the conversation, Dan made the comment: “Hey, I noticed your pick-up on main street really early this morning.” One thing I was never good at was making stuff up, so it just kind of came out: “Yeah, and if you had looked inside, you would have found me and my dog. I fell off the wagon and that is where we spent the night.”
He didn’t say much for a minute before sharing: “Yeah, I had the same problem. You just need to keep working on it.” He didn’t chastise me, read me some rules, or run me out of the church. However, he did let me know that for obvious reasons, I needed to be working on that aspect of life. So, I did. Like I say, nothing is automatic. Somethings take a lot of effort and some time. Sometimes, progress demands radical decision and action. But it is always good to know you have someone on your side.
