I was a scared, scarred, fatherless kid in North Denver wondering how in the world I ever got stuck in a family full of bodybuilders and street fighters.
As a nervous, quiet, bookish boy, I did not fit into my wild family.
Terrified by the relentless loudness and intensity of my always-ready-to-fight family, I used to hide underneath the kitchen sink with nothing but my little red King James Version Bible and a flashlight. Although I knew the answers to all my troubles were in that book, I couldn’t get past the Shakespearean language to the actual meaning of the words.
So I stayed confused.
My Baptist grandparents always took me to church, where I tried to understand how to be saved. But phrases like “confess all your sins” and “ask Jesus into your heart” confused me. I thought if I forgot to confess one sin I’d go to Hell. I thought if Jesus came into my heart and then I got a heart transplant I would lose my salvation.
The Dawning of Hope
On Sunday, June 23, 1974—50 years ago today as I write this—I asked my grandpa to walk the aisle with me so I could publicly declare my intention to get water-baptized. I figured that I had asked Jesus into my heart a thousand times, so one of them had to take.
As I walked the aisle with my grandpa, I could feel the sanctuary full of Baptist eyes on me. Pastor Claud Pettit waited at the front of the stage as the organ music played. When we reached the front, he asked me why I had come forward. I told him I wanted to get baptized.
He then said these life-altering words: “Before you get baptized, you must be a Christian. That means you believe Jesus died in your place for your sins on the cross and that he rose from the dead three days later. That means that you have trusted in Jesus to save you from your sin. Have you done that?”
In a millisecond it all clicked. That was the clearest presentation of the Gospel I had ever heard. Quickly, in the depths of my soul I uttered the words, “I trust in you, Jesus, to save me from my sins” and then answered “YES” to Pastor Pettit’s question.
He had no idea he had just led me to the Lord.
As he announced to the church my intention to get water-baptized, everyone clapped. But it was as though I could hear the angels of Heaven applauding, celebrating my conversion.
In that moment, the fear and trepidation that had defined my eight circles around the sun disappeared.
