Fifty-Seven Years Ago

I did not have enough fingers and toes to do the figuring so I broke out a long yellow pencil and a piece of paper used on one side.   Fifty-seven years was the end result of the calculating.  It was fifty seven years ago that I knelt in the Alamo Church parsonage and said "Yes" to Jesus.  Now I had said "Yes" to Jesus many times before that night, but this one stuck.  This time when I gave my life to Jesus, I did not try to take it back like some shopper who took the wrong size out of the store. This time I did not turn back, but began a journey which is still ongoing today.   

When I left the house a tad before seven o'clock on a trip to see my Dad who lives across the state, I had not even thought about stopping by the Alamo Church, but when I passed through the town on the way home in the late afternoon, I saw the preacher's truck in the driveway and pulled in behind it.  He was an old friend I have known for most most of my ministry and when I asked if I could come in for a walk through of boyhood memories, he pulled the door open wide.  

And, so I found myself standing in the spot where I gave my life to Jesus and where I heard what I did not want to hear, a call to preach.  It was such a blessing to step full circle back into the memory of that evening.   Not everyone who preaches is blessed with such a clear sense of calling from a particular place.  I count such remembrance as a true blessing of grace.  It is a memory which has kept me grounded when distractions were blowing hard against my life.  It has always been a visible reminder of an invisble work of grace which turned my life and set my feet on the road toward Home.