The Threshold

Volume One, Chapter 17, Born Again, 1989 (part one)

 Sunday, August 20, 1989, dawned like any other day. But it grew into the fullest life-transforming unsurpassed date in my thirty-six-year history. I’ll clarify that. On August 20, 1989, the most remarkable disorientation and foundational supernatural experience unfolded. That morning was like no other, and there will never be another. I say that with all of the critical alarming certainty a breath of life can take in and let out. Like a rocket on a launching pad, all of God’s design for my life’s preparation was in place. There was approximately a twenty-minute countdown from first opening my eyes to my first clear thought…..

 My mind was so out of the ordinary, growing in confusion and unable to be grounded in any sense. I could not understand how I got to that point. I really thought I was losing it. Again I remembered the few Sundays attempting to go to church before that morning. I saw the pattern of unsettledness between my sin and the Bible’s words. In Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” I was in the middle; I knew a little and didn’t want to be a fool. The periodic annoyance appeared again in my thoughts, with more authority. That rubbing feeling within was the emergence of truth. The words of Jesus, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” stood in believability, and my sin was the only obstacle holding me back from following Him….

 Just before sunset, I paced more slowly and bent my head and shoulders down, leaning over like a question mark. In a state of self- examination, my eyes shifted to the ground and to the sides. I questioned my life’s drive with past motives and my current lack of control. In deep thought, I tried hard to answer the question, “What next?” The next few minutes were the most wonderful, mind-boggling, clear-minded minutes in my life

I slowed to a standstill next to the fireplace and looked up into the warm turquoise-orange dimming sky. I was standing with a blank stare, asking myself out loud what was what. The Bible, the church, the tears—what was beyond all that, what was next?

  It was all happening in just seconds. It was at that moment that the remedy came. God gave me the believable answer. It wasn’t in words—there was no voice— but it was big and brand-new in my mind. Clarity arrived. To be continued.