Today, March 17th,  I have reached the biblical allotment of seventy years of life. ( Psa 90:10 ). Today I celebrate not 70 years of life, but rather 50 years of God’s amazing, generous, and incredible mercy to me. Fifty years ago I was a drug-besotted hippie wandering the streets of Georgetown, Washington DC, looking for the next immoral behavior I could indulge in. My life was coming apart, yet instead of listening to those Christians whom God sent my way and who told me of the love of Jesus Christ, I cursed them, made fun of them, and told them to get lost. Yes, I thought I was smarter than them. I wanted nothing to do with their Jesus, their Bible, or their religion. 

By the end of my 22nd year, I had overdosed twice and was having bad LSD flashbacks that I couldn’t control. My body had contracted multiple STD’s and I was a walking zombie. I had to drink a pile of alcohol just to get to sleep and I had suicidal impulses that scared me because the dark after-death nothing of my atheism scared me. I wanted to live, but I didn’t want to live the way I was living and in the hell I had created for myself. The false promises of the Sexual Revolution and “finding God through LSD” had led me into a dead end with no way I could see out. The devil was having a field day with me, and was no doubt looking towards the moment I would either jump from a building or blow my brains out and he could claim me. 

Yet God, in His great love and mercy for sinners, did not give up on trying to bring me back to Himself and to the promises of my baptism In December of my 22nd year I stumbled into a Bible Study. I had been invited by a friend, and for some unknown reason, I went. It was there that I had a radical and life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ and was released from my self-made prison of sin and degradation.

Three weeks after that initial encounter, I realized that I was a different person. Life looked different. I possessed a peace that I didn’t understand, but appreciated. My mind was clearing up. I couldn’t get enough of those Bible studies that I had before so made fun of.  

Luk 7:36  And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. 37 And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38 And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. 40 And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. 41 There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? 43 Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Jesus reminded him that they who have been forgiven much, love much. That has been the driving force of my life. After having tasted deeply of the putrid swill that this sad world offers, and realizing that I had been poisoned by it, to have been forgiven, cleansed, healed, and set free could only have created one response in me – I have pursued the Lord as hard and faithfully as possible for the rest of my life. Sometimes this made me an annoying zealot, especially in the first few years of my conversion, for I wanted everyone to know Jesus. But I meant well, even if I didn’t exactly evangelize in the most tactful or thoughtful ways. 

So today, give thanks to God for His mercy, not only to me, but in your life as well. We all fall short – yet He loves each and every one of us!

Glory to God for all things!