I came to faith in Christ when I was 16 years old. 1986 was an interesting year for me. I got a car. I got a job. I was enjoying the freedoms that came with a driver’s license. I was spending a lot of time with my friends. On the weekends, I would drive to my dad’s place where he ran a campground. One Saturday morning I woke up in his camper to find that my dad had been arrested. This turned my world upside down. This was my dad and he was the man I looked up to and received affirmation from. How could this be? As I would later learn, my dad was not at all what I had pictured him to be during my childhood. He would go on to commit other crimes and is now serving a 20 years prison sentence.
I was going into my junior year of High School that year greatly unsure of who I was and wondering what this life was really about. As I look back I can see the hand of God in every situation that year. God began surrounding me with friends and influencers who were believers. Like my best friend at the time, Kenny Perkins who had always been inviting me to church. He had also put Kevin McCoy in my life as a kid who just needed a ride to school, but he was a Christian he prayed for me. And then there was my English teacher, Mr. Anderson who would just simply ask if we had attended church on Sunday. Partly because I was curious and partly because I wanted to find something or someone to make me not feel lonely anymore, I went to church with my grandmother. Wow! Right away, the Gospel began to pierce my lonely heart. Each week I would here the preacher call people to salvation and I would grip the pew in front of me wondering what was happening to me. Over the next several months the same thing would happen and I would reject. I had no idea that when I went to church the first time looking for answers to my loneliness that the Answer, Jesus, was calling me out.
On January 17, 1987 I was sitting in my bedroom. It was a Saturday night. I knew what was coming the next day. God was really dealing with me. The preacher was going to ask the same question. I wanted to make the decision to follow Christ, but I was scared. My mom told me that she was not going to be able to be there for some reason that I don’t remember. I knew that I was headed to church on my own. It was the moment of truth. I could back out. I could stay home or I could go. I went. And he said it. The preacher said that Jesus said, “If you confess me before men I will confess you before My Father in Heaven, but if you deny me before men I will deny you before My Father in Heaven.” There it is. He said it. I knew he was going to say it. Now it was my turn again. It only took one step. I honestly don’t remember much of the rest. I believe I was saved in that moment, that first step, on Sunday January 18, 1987. That’s all it took, a moment, a step. I don’t even remember what the sermon was about that day. I am so grateful that God can change you in a moment.
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