| They were high school sweethearts. Married at a | | | | indescribable aches of starvation from a lack of |
| young age, they blindly stepped from their parents' | | | | affection from the spouse he wanted to forgive. |
| front porch onto the road of life. Sure, they had their | | | | About two years later they were divorced. |
| ups and downs. Who doesn't? But, after nearly ten | | | | Years have now passed by and I hear he's had a |
| years together, and four children later, something | | | | few tragic incidents occur, and an automobile |
| began to change. The marriage began to fall apart. | | | | accident that was nearly fatal. But, he's back in |
| He couldn't believe it! The last five years of their lives | | | | church now. He realized that all along he was asking |
| together seemed to be picturesque. They had | | | | the wrong person the wrong question. You see, |
| converted to the apostolic faith from a traditional | | | | years earlier, he watched a Baptist evangelist named |
| southwest Louisianan religion. They were at the | | | | David Ring. Rev. Ring had turned his heart around |
| church every time the doors were open. | | | | through his personal testimony, planting the seed that |
| I remember their eldest son. He couldn't have been | | | | eventually led to his conversion to Pentecost. He |
| more than six years old at the time. The next door | | | | remembered those words Rev. Ring had said, "Don't |
| neighbors had two teenage girls sunbathing in their | | | | ask 'why' ask 'what'. What is it Lord that you want |
| back yard. The little boy, in his zeal for the Lord, | | | | me to learn from this situation? What is it that you |
| raised his little toy rifle toward the girls and said, "Y'all | | | | want me to become?" A funny thing isn't it? No |
| better get in the house, put some clothes on and go | | | | matter how far you fall down the side of that |
| to church!" | | | | mountaintop, or how long you spend at the bottom, |
| Since they began living for the Lord, they were | | | | you'll never forget the view you saw from up there! |
| blessed with a better paying job than ever before, | | | | If you see him today, you can see all the scars and |
| purchased a new home, new vehicles: all a far cry | | | | marks of the tragedies he's borne. You can look into |
| from what they had as newlyweds. He became a | | | | the face of a 35-year-old man and see miles of rough |
| locally-licensed minister of the U.P.C.I., fulfilling a lifelong | | | | terrain traveled. He jokingly once told someone, "Boy, |
| dream of his. Since he was a small boy, he had | | | | you don't need a map to see where you shouldn't go. |
| always wanted to become a minister. So, when | | | | Just look at the highway marked upon my face!" If |
| everything seemed to be going so well, how could | | | | you'd ask him if he could go back in time, would he |
| things take such a turn for the worst? | | | | do things differently? If he knew everything that |
| He'd discovered his wife had been unfaithful for over | | | | was going to happen, and all he'd have to endure to |
| a year. He began to question God, "Why is this | | | | end up where he is today, would he do it all over |
| happening to me? Why are you letting this happen? | | | | again? Looking into the eyes of my four children I'd |
| Where are you, God?" (Have you ever been there | | | | have to say, "Yes! Yes I would!" Through grace it's |
| before?) It ate at his soul like a festering, cancerous | | | | called starting over. I can't change the past or take |
| tumor. The more he prayed and the harder he tried, | | | | back the years, but I can make a decision to keep |
| the worse things seemed to get. Slowly he sank into | | | | moving forward. If my children and I are ever going |
| the pit of despair, wallowing in the mire of what was | | | | to make it through this world to meet the Lord on |
| now his life. Rather than tucking his head and pressing | | | | that distant shore, I must lead the way. I have |
| forward, he slowly began to take half-steps | | | | experienced things in this life that I wouldn't have |
| backward. One day he peered into the mirror and | | | | otherwise. I now have empathy with someone rather |
| found himself to be unrecognizable. "Who is this man | | | | than a simple sympathy for them. We had an old |
| I see before me? What have I become?" But, his | | | | saying we'd cry out in the Marine Corps, "Lead, |
| anger and bitterness toward the Lord were too | | | | follow, or get out of the way! Semper Fi, (1) Hoorah!" |
| great. He drank alcohol in large quantities to try to | | | | 1. Semper Fi is the short form for the Latin phrase |
| numb the pain he felt. Not only did he feel that God | | | | Semper Fidelis; simply meaning "Always Faithful." It is |
| had allowed this to happen to him and that He had | | | | the proud motto of the United States Marine Corps. |
| abandoned him, but he was also feeling the | | | | |