A Hard Lesson

Tragedy opens
the eyes of a rebellious young man to his responsibilities.

By Mark Worthington

God used a demolished wreck of a car and the death of a friend to get my attention. It wasn’t that I didn’t know about Him prior to that time. I just wasn’t living right.

Going to church was part of my life from my infancy, and I loved it. I was not a bad little fellow, but I had the desire to do what I wasn’t supposed to do. For example, one day when my mother was cooking, she showed me the red-hot electric burner and told me never to touch it. When she left the kitchen, I looked hard at the burner, then pulled up a chair and pushed my hand down on top of the burner. You can imagine the rest of the story.

During one Sunday morning service when I was five years old, I remember clearly that God talked to me in a very personal way. I understood that I needed Jesus in my heart. I went to the altar and prayed, asking Jesus to forgive me. I felt a change in my heart, and my mother could see the difference in my behavior.

The most important things in my life were God, my home, and church. But when I was a teenager, problems came. Some people who claimed to be Christians caused me to begin questioning what was right. For a few years my family separated, and we moved away from the people I had always known. The absolutes in my life began to fall apart.

As a junior in high school, I got wrapped up in school activities and my job. More and more often I failed to read my Bible and pray. The love for God diminished in my heart, and the desire for popularity, activities, and friends at school increased. Although I determined to hold a high moral standard, my attitude changed. I was happy at school and work, but as soon as I walked into our home or church, I became uncommunicative, stubborn, and disagreeable. At school and work everyone thought I was a Christian, but God knew my heart and He got my attention.

Among my school friends was a girl that I spent a lot of time with. On several occasions she asked about my beliefs and Christianity. My answers were always very general, and I never told her about salvation. One morning this girl was driving about seventy miles an hour in a car, when she hit the gravel on the right side of the road and reacted by turning her front wheels left. When the tires gained traction, they jerked the car across the center line directly into an oncoming semi truck traveling about the same speed. She was killed instantly with no time to repent.

As I sat in that funeral service, all I could think about were the times she’d asked me about God and the opportunities I’d let pass. Although I was not saved, I knew I was accountable. I believed she was lost because of me, and I was miserable.

Not long after that I was sitting in the back pew of our church, intending to leave right after the last prayer. I was through the entry hall and at the door before many people had left their seats. As I touched the door handle, God spoke in a voice that seemed loud and clear to me. He said, “Mark, if you go out that door, it will be the last opportunity you will have to get saved.”

I didn’t know what that meant for sure, but it scared me, so I went downstairs to the back door. When I got there, God spoke to me again with the same words. What mercy! Literally shaking, I went back to the auditorium and knelt in prayer. After some serious praying, all Heaven broke through. I was free again. When I stood up it looked like the auditorium had been repainted. And there was proof that something real had happened to me. It didn’t take long to see that my stubbornness was gone and that I couldn’t stand the rock music which had previously bound me.

God has been with me since that day, but I have never forgotten the girl that I failed to tell about salvation. I never want to let such an opportunity slip by me again.

Mark Worthington is the pastor of the Apostolic Faith Church in St. Louis, Missouri.