Anniversary

All of us have dates that we remember vividly. Sometimes they are good memories i.e. your anniversary, birth of your children. Other memories aren't so good but they are still vivid i.e. 9/11, a death of a close friend or relative. Each memory though has one thing in common; we remember exactly where we were, exactly what we were doing, who we may have been with, etc etc.

I like you have my dates that I will never forget, but there is one date in particular that sticks out above all others. I will never forget this date or the significance of it. What I'm about to say, I have not shared outside of close friends and family. Maybe I was wrong in doing that, I don't know, but some things have happened over the past 24 hours that compelled me to do this.

October 8, 2001. Franklin Roosevelt said in his most famous of speeches; "December 7, 1941 a day that will live in infamy." Well, October 8, 2001 will live with me for the rest of my life. There I was, all of 18 years old, a freshman at Bowling Green State University. There I was at MacDonald Hall, room 301, lying in the top bunk, weeping uncontrollably. How had things gotten this bad? How had I let myself slip so far? I didn't come from a bad family, I didn't walk around with extra baggage. In fact, I came from a very good Christian home, where I was taught morals, and right from wrong. So how did it get to this? How did I get from being a carefree 18 year old, to a weeping mass on the top bunk of my dorm room? I couldn't be this bad could I? I know that the drinking I had been doing getting to be a bit much, but I'm 18 and at college, that's what I'm supposed to do right? I knew I should have been going to class, but I'm 18, and my parents are 200 miles away. Nobody was going to make me do anything I didn't want to do. As I lay there I remember closing my eyes and pleading with God. "Please God, I need you so bad right now, I need you more than ever, I can't do this anymore." "I can't live this life, and fight my battles without you, please Lord save me from this". My heart was screaming out to God, screaming for salvation, screaming for hope, and that's when it happened. That is when I realized without a shadow of a doubt that God was right there with me, that He was not going to leave me or foresake me. Right then and there I realized that no matter what, God, who I had been running away from for so long and toning out for so long was right there with me. You ask "what was this great epiphany you had"? As I lay there, through all the tears, fears, and sickness, I felt it. I felt a warm hand upon my face. A warm hand of a loving father telling me "it's going to be okay son." "Calm down, I'm right here, I'm going to get you through this." In that very moment, the tears stopped flowing from fear. They were replaced with tears of pure joy. Knowing that God the Father had reassured me, me a sinner, a completely unworthy son who had rejected the words of his heavenly father. Me. He saved me. Shortly there after I fell to sleep. I don't know how long I had been asleep for, but at some point I woke up for only a moment. In that moment I saw my roomate, and from out of nowhere I said "Everything is going to be okay." That was it, nothing else and I fell back to sleep. The next day, I saw a couple of friends from the hall. They both made comments on my appearance, telling me that something was different, there was a glow to my face that they had never seen before on me. It wasn't my glow people, it was God's.

I won't lie, now and tell you that everything was roses after that. I unfortunately fell back into some old habits, but when I did there was now a strong conviction in me. I struggled for the next few years, slipping and getting back up. I will never though forget that moment, that day God solidified himself in me, and pulled me out of the depths of complete misery and break down. I am saved by God's grace. I am saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus, by the blood that was shed for our sins on Calvary.

We each have our own story of Salvation, we each know our own struggles, and we each have our own dates that we remember. If you don't have a story of Salvation, please I beg of you, do it before it's too late. None of us knows how long we have on Earth, and to leave this world without knowing Christ is to enter into death. The Lord is waiting for you, it takes only a moment to pray and ask for forgiveness, but it will give you an eternity.

Dustin