I haven’t always been who I am now. That seems a bit trivial, as no one ever is, but by this I mean that I am a completely different creature. Let me tell you about it.
I was not, generally speaking (and those who knew me then will think I should have left out this qualifier), a well-tempered child. I was always on the lookout to get the best I could for myself and stick anybody who stuck me. I knew what I wanted to do in everything; namely to impress as many people as possible. Then, when I was about eight years old, I did something different.
I had been in church from the time I could be carried, and had missed church services only for fire, famine, or sickness that kept me from moving. My parents were Christians, and I learned about God from early on. I knew for a few years that I wasn’t living as I should, and it bothered me. I knew what I had to do to be saved. One morning in church, I decided it was time. During the sermon, I quietly zoned out of the preaching, and prayed to God. I asked Him, as I had been taught, to forgive me for my bad life, and to come and live with me. That same morning, I shared the decision with the church and with my family. I was baptized the following week.
You’d think I’d learn, even at that age. Well, as boys do, I sort of drifted away. I went for several years putting God in His corner of my life and generally going back to my old ways. Still tempermental, still after my own ends. I was bothered by this for, I guess, about six years. Finally, I got the idea that I needed to make things right.
While I’d thought about it for years, I finally was decisive enough to do it at a church camp. After a moving sermon, I went off alone and prayed. This time I was older, and in complete control of my thoughts. I talked with God and told Him that I knew there was a lot about me that needed to change. I asked Him to take me back, after years of straying from a committment that was initially made by one too young to understand it. And, thank God, He did.
Since then, there has been a drastic change in me. A lot of it may be written off by some people who saw it as simply growing up, but I was closer to it than anyone, and I can pinpoint the moment it happened. Now I live for God. I do fail still. I’m not perfect by any means (again, those who know me can bear witness). But I am a new creature, alive both now and forever in Christ.
