The Journey Part 3

It was the summer of 1973. The U.S. was looking for a way to save face and get out of Viet Nam. I was a B-52 mechanic in the U.S. Air Force. I was stationed in Guam. We were working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week launching and recovering up to 30 aircraft per day. Each one was loaded with up to 66 five hundred pound bombs. We were carpet bombing Viet Nam and Cambodia providing cover for our troops as they were loading up to leave the country. Then it dawned on me. Those bombs were killing people, and in many cases innocent civilians, some of who were children.

It was the first time I understood that "collateral damage" was a term used as a euphemism that included not only property, but people as well. This thought played on my mind each day as I reported for duty and left me restless each night as I tried to sleep.

One evening, after completing my duty shift, I returned to the barracks to find one of my fellow airmen passed out drunk sleeping on my bunk. I literally lost it. I flew into a blind rage and I grabbed the guy by the neck and started choking him. I was later told that it took 5 guys to pry me loose. I didn't remember much, other than I was angrier than I had ever been.

I stripped the bed of the sheets and headed to laundry supply to get some clean bedding. I returned, hastily made my bed and lay down on my back with my hands behind my head staring at the bottom of the bunk above me. One of the other fellows in our cubicle of bunks whom I had never even shared a greeting said to me, "The answers to the questions you have are found in the Bible." That's all he said. I never saw him again. I later learned that he was transferred to another base the next day.

As I lay there stewing in my frustration, the words played in my head like a tape recording over and over. All at once I remembered that I was given a Bible by the Gideon's when I was inducted into the armed services. I had carried it dutifully with me to basic training, technical training, my first home base assignment and then on to my tour of duty to Guam. I had never read the Bible, and it wasn't much more than a good luck charm to me. I proceeded to open my locker and dump all of the contents on my bed. There at the bottom of the duffel bag was the little green Gideon's New Testament.

I started to read at the beginning and sensed that the words were written specifically for me. I was introduced to the person and work of Jesus and his followers. I read the entire New Testament in two days. At the back of the Bible was a "decision" page. It had a simple prayer to recite and a space to sign my name and provide the date. On November 11, 1973 I surrendered my life to Jesus as my Savior and Lord.

There are a lot of details that add color commentary to this part of the journey, but the most important part has been recorded. I was now a new creature, a believer and follower of Jesus.

That night I set my radio alarm clock for 6AM. At precisely 6AM the radio turned on and I was awakened to Johnny Nash singing, "I can see clearly now the rain is gone. All of the dark feelings have disappeared. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It's gonna be a bright, bright sun shiny day." My heart leapt inside of me, as I was instantly convinced that those words were absolutely true. To this day every time I hear that song I remember that I have given my life to Jesus and his promises are true and sure. Imagine that, God would use a secular singer, song-writer to confirm his work in me. I l ike to jokingly say that Rod Stewart and Johnny Nash were instrumental in leading me to Jesus.

I was transferred back to the States four days later. That's where I'll pick up the story.

Good Friday Observance

Last night we had our Good Friday service. I love Good Friday. Although it is somewhat somber and even morose, it reminds me of the price Jesus paid to reconcile us to God.

Our choir and drama people put on a good reenactment. They had a narrator who recited the passages of Scripture that corresponded to the drama that was unfolding on stage. The choir would then kick in with an appropriate song to hammer home the significance of the event. It flowed very well.

As I sat in the darkness watching the presentation, my mind went to my days before I came to know Christ as my Savior. I really didn't know the extent of my sinful ways and how God was offended by my behavior, attitudes and lifestyle. I thought I was doing the best I could to live a decent life. I felt a sense of uneasiness in my life, but I just doubled my efforts to try to be good. Satisfaction failed me.

When I came face to face with the Gospel story, it explained it all to me. The uneasiness that I felt was my alienation from God. I could never be good enough to satisfy God. That's why Jesus paid the price. He took the beating I deserved. He shed the blood I should have shed. Because he was without sin, God was satisfied. Because God was satisfied He extended His grace to all who would receive it. I relived my experience of God's grace last night. My heart was broken that Jesus had to pay the price, but my spirit rejoiced in salvation so richly offered.

I want to extend my thanks to our worship, music and arts director, the drama coordinator, the members of the choir, the soloists, narrator, and all of the wonderful cast who made this another incredibly memorable Good Friday.

Living Up to God's Expectations

“He was not at all like the psychologist’s picture of the integrated, balanced, adjusted, happily married, employed, popular citizen. You can’t really be very well adjusted to your world if it says you ‘have a devil’ and ends by nailing you up naked to a stake of wood.” (C.S. Lewis quoted by Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never I Knew, Harper Collins, 1995)

“but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isa 53:5 (NIV)

You would think that everyone would have loved him. He healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, and fed the hungry. He even raised the dead! He should have been heralded as the Messiah, crowned as the King of Kings, and hailed as a prophet. Actually he was . . . for a while. Then they turned on him. In one fell swoop they traded him for the release of a common criminal. Even his closest followers abandoned him.

What happened? Jesus simply refused to live up to false expectations. He had only the will of the Father in mind and wouldn’t trade obedience to God for the kingdoms of the world. After he was forsaken, the perfect picture of humanity was reduced to a bloody mass of pulp at the hands of his accusers. People will turn on you when you don’t live up to their expectations.

But it was in that messy beating and death that he accomplished the perfect will of God. “He who had no sin, was made sin for us, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God.” In rejecting the accolades of the world for the approval of the Father he lived up to greater expectations than anyone would have thought. By not living up to our expectations he met the expectations of God. Now those who love him have the greatest reason of all. Our sins have been forgiven. Who would have expected that?