I cannot tell you the exact day it happened because I did not write it down anywhere.

I do remember the approximate time though, only because I had to be at work to clock in at 4PM so it probably occurred about an hour before. But the moment itself...I will never forget; mainly because it was very anti-climatic. It was the day I sat up in the front of my foreman’s pickup truck on 35th Ave and Van Bueren in Phoenix, AZ and prayed as I ‘gave my life to the Lord’. I can assure you that I really had no idea what I was in store for or what I had just signed on for, but I can remember being a bit hopeful that God heard my prayer.

We were in the parking lot of a diner, a Denny’s perhaps? Oh...and it happened 44 years ago about this time of the year. I had recently turned 20 and like so many other 20-year-old’s, I was floundering, trying to find my place in this world. I had decided to take a year off after completing my first year of college at Arizona St and was working a union job in a factory out there. That was an education in itself. But the previous six months had found me settled in to a pretty dismal routine, working 4-12PM six days a week with Tuesday’s off. Not much space in there to ‘have a life’, let alone ‘find myself’.

I had become a regular partaker of cannabis (smoking weed/pot) after I got off work. Then I would fade off in front of a TV set before waking up late in the morning the following day. I did little else before I started the process all over again a few hours later...getting ready to work and ride my motorcycle to work again.

Can I just tell you what an empty soul I was? I still had a loving and supportive family back east, I had good friends, and I had been raised in a good home. Why I even went to church weekly. But I was still...an empty soul. Some of those small ‘links’ in my story are fuzzy when I think back to what led up to the conversations I began to have with one of my foremans at work, but Glen had taken an interest in me when I started telling him about my grand vision to make use of an upcoming supposed layoff or strike, that never happened.

I was going to load up my motorcycle and head up the California coast before making my way over to the Rocky Mountains where I envisioned sitting in the snow-capped peaks to see if I could figure life out. I had mentioned in passing to him that I might take some philosophy books and maybe a Bible to read along the way. And I remember the smile that lit up on Glen when he heard me mention adding a Bible to the mix of books. I will never forget the one piece of advice he gave me regarding reading the ‘Good Book’. He just flat out told me...the book is spiritual, written by the Holy Spirit and I would not be able to understand it on my own so it would be to my advantage to pray...before opening it up and asking the Holy Spirit to ‘reveal’ it to me. The hook had been ‘set’.

Over the next month, there were many short discussions there at work on breaks. I had questions and he had answers as they all came from...the Bible. I was intrigued and captivated with how so much resonated within me when the discussion and search for truth and meaning seemed to revolved around knowing Jesus. Funny thing is...I grew up ‘believing’ in a Jesus...but the idea of actually ‘knowing Him’ and having an actual relationship with Him...was foreign to me. So to be told that He (Jesus) wanted to direct my steps and lead me out of the darkness was captivating. And I figured...if I can’t trust this Jesus with my life, who else could I trust?

So after weeks of talking and reading and pondering...I reached out to Glen for one more coffee visit. We met before work that day and I told him I truly wanted to ‘give my life’ to the Lord and be ‘born again’. While there was so much I did not know and understand at that time, one thing I did know: my heart was hungry and my heart was sincere. So we met out in his truck and I prayed a very short prayer asking Jesus to come in and basically...’take over’.

There were no tears, no goose-bumps, no nothing. Just a simple “Amen” and ‘we shall see what happens next’ approach as I thanked Glen and then got on my bike to head over to the plant where we worked.

I do recall walking up to clock-in and having these unexpected thoughts of ‘ridicule’, questioning what I had just done. And the constant flow of doubts and questioning why I had just done what I had done in that truck persisted. Why, within hours, I was highly skeptical and feeling rather sheepish...even coming to the quick conclusion that Glen had just found a vulnerable young lad who was ripe for the picking to join some ‘cult’. And when he rode up on his bike there in the plant a few hours later to ask me how I was doing, I told him, suggesting to him that I obviously had made a mistake.

He chuckled. And that made no sense to me; so I asked him what he thought was so funny.

I remember his eyes filling up with tears as he relayed to me that when anyone turns their life over and begins to follow Jesus, that the ‘devil will show up and do all he can to interfere and redirect our steps back in the other direction.’

I was incredulous. The ‘devil’?? Of all things...now I KNEW I had stepped off into some ‘deep stuff’ that was sounding even more cultish. What do you mean the ‘devil’? There really is such an entity? Glen just smiled and told me he was praying for me and then rode off on his bike to continue his rounds. I remember the rest of that shift being miserable as my mind waged some type of ‘war’ within. What on earth was happening within me? So much doubt and conflict was washing over and through me...yet...how could I deny what I felt leading up to all this?

Midnight rolled around and I clocked out and made the chilly ride home on my bike from work. And as I always did when pulling up to the duplex I lived in with a good buddy of mine, I pulled out a rolled ‘joint’ as I was walking in the front door and started to light it up when something stopped me in my steps. That scene remains so vivid and forever etched in my memory. I paused halfway in the door and found myself asking: “I wonder if I should smoke this now that I have given my life to the Lord?”

And what a strange question that was to ask of myself. I had never questioned or thought twice about smoking weed as if it was a ‘bad’ thing to do. Why even to this day, I could point to no scripture in the Bible that would state: “Thou shall not smoke weed”. Which leads me to remind us all...that abiding in Jesus is not about digging into the Bible to find a bunch of ‘rules’ to follow or ‘sins’ to avoid’. Abiding in Jesus is becoming aware of His presence, learning to know His voice...and then following Him, the One who is...the Good Shepherd. (John 10:27; Ps. 23:1-3). And about nine hours earlier, I had prayed a simple prayer asking Him in...to My heart...to lead and guide me.

So when the question arose...”should I smoke this now?”, I had a decision to make. I was in effect, ‘acknowledging the Lord in all my ways’...and when we do, He promises to direct our steps. (Prov. 3:6). Luke 1:79 is a beautiful promise of what Jesus came to do...would you read it with me and take it in...slowly? He came...”to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Would you care to guess what the first thought that came to my mind when I asked...”should I smoke this now?” It was quick and to the point: “Well God made it, did He not?” Yep...God did make all the plants so I lit it up and closed to door behind me as I plopped down on the sofa taking another ‘hit’ after I turned the TV on.

I will spare you all the details of what transpired over the next several hours, but that night, my ‘eyes were opened’ to the reality of a ‘spiritual world’ existing as it became more than ‘real’ to me. Let me assure you, I had smoked enough ‘pot’ to know this was not some ‘wild trip off some bad weed’. I found my soul involved with a spiritual war unlike anything I had ever experienced before...or afterwards. To this day, that night remains the most horrifying night of my life.

When I awoke the next morning, curled up in a fetal position clutching my bible as the first rays of dawn filtered through my bedroom window, I was immediately aware of having ‘survived’ that terror. The first thing to hit the floor was my knees and God now had my undivided attention. He had made it clearly known that I was living in a spiritual world, I had a spiritual enemy and that I would do good to pay close attention to His leading and wisely follow Him. I was in no way interested in learning that lesson again. I was done with smoking pot.

I was not even “24 hours old” in my new walk of faith and God had already gotten my attention the most dramatic fashion. In the words of the late Karen Carpenter...I had ‘only just begun...’.

Join me tomorrow? :- )