H O W CHR IST IAN ITY WORKS
Hans J. Stierle
Today I’m a happy man
^ I ■*oday I am perhaps one of the happiest men any one of you has ever seen. And because I want to share this happiness I am writing this account. It is not one o f those “ happy moments” anyone might have because he may have won a brand new Cadillac for giv ing some very smart answers on a T V quiz show or because he re ceived from his boss a pay raise or his sweetheart gave him a wonder fu l necktie for his birthday. It took me almost 52 years to know what I know now. I don’t agree with this saying any more that the first 50 years are the hard est because if they are hard it is our own fault. I also disagree with W ilhelm Busch, the German poet, when he said in one o f his poems (or was it a song?), “ In fu en zig Jahren ist alles verb ei.” F ifty years didn’t bring an ending but rather a beginning of contentment and happiness. I know now what makes me happy and I have many friends in all walks o f life who feel the same w ay as I do and who are as happy as I am today and who will be as happy as they are now , al ways and forever. I have not become a fanatic in some kind of belief or some kind of religion but I have come to Christ, our Saviour. And I came almost by a miracle. A fter 52 years I had lost everything I had at one time: m y w ife, m y sons, m y daughter, m y automobile, m y garage, m y home, m y garden, m y orange and peach trees, m y grapevines, m y dog, m y relatives, m y friends, m y home furnishings, m y bank ac counts, m y credit, m y insurance policies. I lost everything I worked so hard for all m y life, cared so much for all m y life, worried so much about all m y life. I even lost m y health. During all m y life— even through
all this trouble— I believed in God. But I also must say that although I believed in God and although I prayed to H im a thousand times and more, help did not seem to come and many times I had m y doubts. And worst o f all I tried often to read the Bible and almost always I was not able to under stand what it said although I tried to understand. I could almost in no case conceive the idea of the many wondrous changes which, ac cording to the Bible, took place in many men after Christ spoke to them. But now these things are no mystery to me. I had been blind but now I can see as I never could before. You m ay be wondering what h a p p e n e d to bring about this change. As you may realize I had been a very lonesome man after losing everything. I worked hard every day, but after the day was done I was alone. I had no one to talk to, no one to go to. I lived in a town completely new to me with no friends, relatives or acquaint ances. So every evening I walked II blocks to town, bought a news paper, walked back, read it and then I went to bed. A fter six months o f this lonely life I decided one Sunday evening to go to town, have a glass of beer at a bar and watch television. On m y w ay to this bar I passed a church and heard people singing inside. I stopped and lis tened. Singing had always attract- A b o u t t h e A u t h o r Hans J. Stierle was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1904. H e came to the U.S. in 1929. He went back to Germany in 1938 and remained there during the war, re turning to the U.S. in 1946. Comments Stierle on his conversion and baptism in early January of this year: “ The stream of blessings coming to me is increasing daily at such a rate it is near to impossible for me to keep track of them.”
ed me. As I listened I walked up the steps turning over in m y mind whether I should go into this church and have m y glass qf beer after. The door was open and I saw two or three men sitting in the back row. W h ile I was still wondering if I should go on in, one of the men turned his head and smiled at me. I guess the smile helped because I walked in and joined in the sing ing. A fter the service was over the minister spoke to me. He asked me if I enjoyed the service. “ Yes sir, thank you ,” I said. He asked me if I was married. “ Yes sir, I am mar ried and I have three children,” I said. “ W ell, come again, sir, and bring your fam ily along,” he said. That was the moment when God must have entered into our short conversation. I said to the minister, “ W ell, sir, I cannot bring them because I have been separated from m y fam ily since more than a year now .” He said he was sorry. I turned around and walked out o f the door w ith tears streaming down m y face. It was dark. I walked home the 11 blocks I had come on ly one hour before and I cried so that I thought m y heart would break. I went to bed. The church I had visited was the Fremont Avenue Brethren Church of South Pasadena, Calif. The follow ing Tuesday Bill Smith of Washington D.C. began a two-week evangelistic service at the church. I attended every evening and on one occasion the sermon and the songs we sang touched m y heart. W hen the i n v i t a t i o n to accept Christ was given I went forward and confessed m y sins and I felt for the first time that I was right with God. It was this personal ex perience with Jesus Christ that completely changed m y life and brought such deep-inside happiness.
For each rea l-life, unpublished account o f H ow Christian ity W orks, The K ing’s Business w ill pay $10 upon publication. Entries should be under 1,000 words in length and addressed to: H ow Christianity W orks, The K ing’s Business, 55 8 So. H ope S t.,4Los Angeles 17, Calif. 14 THE KING'S BUSINESS
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