It was a picturesque, fall day in Central Pennsylvania, but it meant little to me. The year was 1984, and I was attempting to make some sense of what was shaping up to be the darkest days of my life. Recently divorced, my career as a minister in shambles, I was disoriented, driving in a daze, all my dreams laying as in ashes at my feet.
Distracted by an article on the seat to my right, I reached over to grab it, pulled the steering wheel to the right, and smashed into a parked car. When I told that to the officer, he smiled, but for me, it was no laughing matter. I had totaled the clean little Datsun van I had just purchased, and that to replace a car I had demolished a few months before when I ran a red light. It was that kind of year!
It wasn’t too long after this I received a phone call from a bill collector, threatening all kinds of mayhem on two credit cards I was unable to “pay in full” as the bank was demanding. “Mr.,” I told him, “I don’t own anything, I don’t have anything, I’m not worth anything. You go right ahead and sue, and I’ll discharge it through bankruptcy.”
Twelve years and, frankly, a lifetime later, I was reviewing my life story with an Attorney preparing my last will and testament. I left her dumbfounded. By then, I was beginning to recover from what had been the darkest period of my life. Driving coast-to-coast as a long-haul trucker, I was living on my off-days in a 40-ft. Hunter Legend sailboat berthed in Poulsbo, Washington. I was debt-free, with no installment loans, no credit cards, and virtually no monthly bills; the truck covered my living expenses. I didn’t own a car; the truck was my transportation. “Mr. Scott, what happened?” she asked. “How did you do it?” And I had to confess, I didn’t have a clue. It wasn’t that I made a great deal of money; it’s that I was debt-free! If you don’t have to spend it, you save it; and that’s what I did.
And I’m still unable to chart my recovery. But I serve a God of second chances, a God who can take a failure and turn him around. But the one thing that changed the course of my life, and the point of this conversation, is that I never renounced my faith, and I never gave up. I worked hard, maintained a responsible lifestyle, and gave God a chance to put my life back together.
I have told my story elsewhere, for the turning point in my life happened in the cab of my truck, halfway across the state of Texas. I was reflecting on the chaotic condition of my life when I shouted a desperate prayer: “GOD, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?” And suddenly a quiet voice, an inaudible thought, passed through my mind that had all the earmarks of divine direction. “ALL I WANT FROM YOU IS THE GIFT OF A HOLY LIFE!”
I took God at His word and launched a rebuilding process that has brought me to where I am today. If you were to see me now, with my marriage restored and plans to make the next ten years the best years of my life, you wouldn’t believe how far I have come. And I owe it all to a gracious, understanding, and compassionate God Who gave this failure a new start in life. It worked for me, and it will work for you, too. Give God a chance!
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