I grew up in the sixties, and like many other teenagers of my day, I was captured by the hippie culture of drugs, rock and roll, and immorality. I began experimenting with alcohol and drugs in my early teens, getting high regularly on pot, LSD, and other hallucinogenic drugs. By the age of nineteen, many would have labeled me as a full-fledged Hippie Freak. The sixties were a very turbulent time for America. The Viet Nam war was at its height, and the civil rights, and anti-war movements, along with the sexual revolution and the feminist movement were the major subjects of the evening news. Shortly after graduating from high school, I received my notice from the U.S. Government to report for my physical examination for the military draft. It was 1970, and most young men who were drafted were being sent to Viet Nam. My position in the draft lottery made it extremely certain that Viet Nam was in my near future. On the night before I was to take my physical for the draft, I was with a close friend at his girlfriend’s apartment, and we stumbled into one of those philosophical discussions about the purpose of life and why war exists and why can’t people just get along. In the midst of our discussion about the pointlessness of the war, I made the casual but sincere statement that, that if dying in a war would truly change the world, I would be willing to give up my life. It was a random statement offered to no one in particular with no expectation of anything coming of it. Then something incredible happened. For out of nowhere, I suddenly felt the presence of God come over me. Not being raised in the church, I had no grid for this experience except that somehow I knew it was Jesus, and I understood Him to be saying to me, “If you will give your life, I will take it.”
At that moment, I felt as if someone had taken a bucket of soapy water and a scrub brush and had stuck it down my throat and cleaned me from the inside out. I felt immersed in light, love, and peace.
This encounter lasted about five to ten minutes, though it seemed as if time had stood still. As this presence subsided, I knew the answer to the troubles of our times was in knowing God. I wasn’t looking for Jesus, but He found me and revealed Himself to me. Sometime later, I read where Jesus said in Matthew 16:25–26, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” That summed up what happened to me. I considered myself to be more of an ‘anti-establishment’ non-conformist, and an individualist, than a leader, but I soon found myself in the limelight in different settings. I never felt I had anything to say but now I was being invited to share my perspectives on the Kingdom of God, (admittedly, I didn’t know much). I decided to attend college, and I graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Theology Degree. Early on I had resigned myself to the will of God, and told the Lord if He wanted me in Viet Nam I was willing to go. A short time later, the draft law expired, the draft was suspended, and I was never called to go. I have spent my life since that epic night, learning what it means to give up my life. I have led churches, programs, teams, and staff, becoming an author in the process. Two things I have learned are that, one), learning to be a leader is a process based on character development, self-sacrifice, hard work, and commitment to people, and two), God often chooses what appears to be the weakest and least qualified, to mold into the best and most insightful leaders. Along the way, I have learned to hear His voice for my own encouragement, and for the leadership and encouragement of others.