Interactions with God #3

In the fall of 1982 I was a student at West Virginia University.  I was not a Christian.  I was not attending any church, and I was pretty much living like most college students of that day.  I was dating a girl named Jennifer, and had been for pretty much a year at that point.  I was usually a “C” student but due to a difficult Accounting class, I was not doing well the fall semester in my sophomore year.  I was failing that class. Money was tight and the relationship with Jennifer was a bit rocky as well. 

Life was not cooperating with my hopes and dreams… no, not at all. 

I lived in an off-campus apartment, and had to ride the automated tram system called the PRT to get from my home to the main campus.  On one particular day in late November of 1982, I left my apartment and started the 2 mile walk to the PRT station. Halfway down the hill my apartment was on, I got a strong impression that I left the stove on. I turned around and went back only to find it was in fact off. As I reached for the door to leave, again, I got the feeling that I was delayed for a reason...

I got to the station and got on the PRT, as I did every school day to go to class.  There was a certain point in the track for the automated car that took a turn over a rather high place.  I had speculated many times that if the car broke from the track during that turn, the result would mean serious injury or death to the occupants of the car. 

On this day, I was sitting in the front of the car looking directly into that oncoming turn.  I picked this seat when I came into the car at my boarding station.  There was a seat directly opposite from me as the seats faced inward.  There were four seats on each side of the car and four poles in the middle, for people to stand while riding.  There were two automated doors on each side right in the middle of the car where the poles were. 

I was not really aware of who else had entered the car as I was rather lost in my own thoughts.  It wasn’t until I approached the turn that things changed.  I was thinking of the upcoming turn, like I had quite a few times before.  I imagined the railing breaking and the car running off the track and off the trellis.  In my daydream, the glass of the front window broke and I was thrown forward with my neck landing directly on the broken class, slicing my head off. 

Yea, morbid, I know.  I was tired of life already, barely 20 years old and I wanted off the ride.  Even worse, at the very moment I was envisioning my demise, I noticed my reflection in the glass… I was smiling. 

Considering that I had not seen myself smile in a while, and yet noticing it while thinking of my gruesome destruction, well, it was disturbing.  I came out of my twisted daydream, just in perfect time to hear a man behind me say.  “And God will give you power to live your life”. 

Ok, so a Jesus Freak had entered the car at the station where I also entered.  I didn’t hear a word that he said up till then either.  Well, why would I, he wasn’t talking to me.  He was talking to a rather pretty girl who was sitting next to me on my left. 

She was not looking at the speaker either.  She was looking at me with a look like “Dear God, please make this freak go away!”  I looked across from me and the guy sitting there was pretty much doing what I was doing (maybe minus the death images) a minute ago, staring out the window.  Next to him, across from the pretty girl, another guy was sitting and ducking his head down in hopes to not be brought into the “religious” conversation of the Jesus Freak.  Me, I looked up at the man curious as to the timing of what he said. 

You see, I was feeling extremely powerless, that and hopeless.  Someone, anyone, offering a solution, of strength… power was very appealing.  But this guy didn’t just talk strength.  No, he showed it too. 

You see, right there in that car, he was being ostracized.  Clearly, no one in that car wanted to hear him or see him at all.  He was a weirdo, odd ball, a Jesus Freak.  The girl he was talking to was looking at me, so he was talking to the back of her head...and not stopping.  What’s more, when I looked at him, he now had an audience. 

For just a moment, he looked at me and smiled.  What he did next changed my life, for if he shifted his talking from the girl to me, I would have turned away.  Why?  because, I had no strength, no power.  I was terrified of what others thought. 

However, the man turned back and continued to talk to the back of the girl’s head!  I was floored.  Here was a guy who talked of strength, and showed it!  I did what any respectable sinner would do... I followed him.  Too scared to talk at the moment, especially in front of anyone, I followed him as soon as the car stopped. 

I followed him for about 50 ft. before I just could not stand it anymore.  I overcame my fear and grabbed the guys elbow and said. “Umm, what you said, um back in the car, Um who are you… um what are you…”  He smiled big and wide and simply said, “walk with me”. So I did. 

He explained to me that his name was Stephen, and he was also a student at the school, but he was a Christian.  He was part of an organization called The Way International.  He told me the basics about forgiveness of sin through Jesus, but also that God wanted more with us.  That he wanted relationship and offered his Holy Spirit to help us walk through life.  That was the power. 

How could I pass it up?  I stood there on the sidewalk in front of hundreds of students, peers, walking by.  I could feel something bigger there, something more and felt cared about in a way I never had before.  I accepted Jesus there in tears in the middle of downtown Morgantown in front of many college kids.  I didn’t care what they thought!

Now, Stephen really was a Christian, and I really became one too, but The Way International, unfortunately, was an errant organization.  However, what I got from the man was all I needed.  I found that Jesus was real and so was this promised salvation.  I could feel it, I just knew it.  There was no doubt. 

Though Jennifer did not agree…  I went immediately to her apartment as it was just around the corner.  I told her with great joy what I had just done.  She swore at me and stormed out of the room. 

That was the start of my walk with God.

I did get involved with The Way for a short time.  I went to some fellowship meetings, and met with Stephen a few times at his home.  At one of those meetings, Stephen told me about the Gift of the Spirit called Speaking in Tongues. It was told to me that it was a gift where The Holy Spirit of God would pray in a language that you do not know, praying for whatever He wanted to pray for. It was in a sense, a perfect prayer.

In that meeting, Stephen just said that we would pray that I could receive the Gift of Tongues. We prayed and I felt or saw nothing. Stephen then just simply said, "you have the gift" now just do it. Yet, I had no clue and said "How?" He said "Just start it with a vowel." So I did. I just spoke "eeeeeeeeh". Within a moment, all of a sudden my mouth started talking. It sounded like gibberish, yet flowed like a language. I was baffled. Yet, after that I could do that whenever I wanted. I have questioned it many times, but always come back to the fact that there is no way I could make up a language and do this thing without the power of God.

I have been Praying in Tongues since that day, on a regular basis.

Now, The Way didn’t believe the bible was accurate, so being a new Christian with old sinful habits, I realized I could pick and choose what I wanted to believe from the bible.  Getting drunk or stoned was just a moral thing for the time of Jesus, not a problem now…  Sure they didn’t like fornication back then, it’s OK now.  On and on, I could just make excuses for any sinful action I chose.  That went on for two years. 

That is when God REALLY started to interact with me.  He started it by wrecking my world…