Journey to the Cross
knew he would be boring and strict and that I would be stuck with him that long hot summer. What I didn’t know was that God was going to use that man to give me two wonderful gifts, gifts that we all need, whether we know it or not. That summer turned out to be the most significant, life-altering, and eternally important of my life. I was being raised in an imperfect Christian home, and I car- ried with me a God-awareness from day one. My family attended church whenever the doors were opened and had family worship every morning. I knew every biblical story and could quote many key passages from memory, including the entire Christmas story as told in Luke 2. But the one thing I lacked was the knowledge of my own sin. I was the quintessential Christian-culture kid who was not a Christian. My problem was that I had no knowledge of the difference, and because I didn’t, I had no sense of personal spiritual need. But at camp that would change dramatically and forever. My old bald counselor decided that before our bedtime devo- tions each week he would teach his fidgety pack of nine-year-olds the first several chapters of Romans. So, I got Romans 1–5 over and over again that summer. God knew what I needed and put me right where I would get it. One particular night the words of Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” cut like a knife into my heart. But I fought the convic- tion that gripped me and tried my best to hide the emotion that accompanied it. I climbed into my third-tier bunk, but couldn’t sleep, so I began to do what no nine-year-old boy ever wants to do in bed
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