July 2, 2000 -- a day I will never forget. That summer Sunday morning ended my searching, my struggling, my running. And I found a joy that never seemed reachable before.

For several weeks I had listened to my brothers-in-law (two of my wife's brothers) talk about what Jesus Christ had done in, to and for their lives. "Hmmm, Jesus", I thought. Well, I remembered Him from a Bible camp I had once attended as a child, and from occasional Sunday school classes I had been to with my Grandma. "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so". I still knew the words to that old childhood tune.

And that's pretty much how I viewed it. Church, God, Jesus -- something kids got involved in, but quickly outgrew it. Something for women and grandmas. After all, I knew no man, especially not my Dad, who attended church. To me, it wasn't something I was down on, just something I ignored, writing it off as an unimportant memory in my fast-paced world.

But when Kevin and then Dan were saved, I began to notice some very obvious and significant changes in their lives. No more depression, no more struggling with inner turmoil. To me, it was like watching an animal once caught in a trap be suddenly set free. That was what struck me the most -- the freedome of it all.

And so I decided that I would go to church with them that Sunday. At the end of the service, I went forward and committed all that I am and all that I have to Christ Jesus. I knew immediately that I had made the best choice I would ever make for my life and the life of my family. I felt so clean. No other word describes it.

I once thought that Christianity was for women and children, but I was quickly shown otherwise. I've had to face some of my most difficult challenges since becoming a Christian. I have faced things which have required that I call upon every ounce of strenth I have as a man in order to overcome. And in that strenth, find the courage to admit my weaknesses and my total dependency on my Lord and Saviour.

It reqires more strength to be a Christian than it does to just run from it. Anyone can do that. It takes everything you've got to die daily to Him and to stay in the race of your life. Well, the Lord never promised that I would have it easy, He only promised that I would never have to face things alone. And that's the beauty of it. He is now with me every minute of every day. My closest companion and my greatest love. And my only desire has become to be in the direct center of His will, to die out to myself and be actually ready at any time to literally die if that should be needed to magnify the Lord. He gave His all for me, he requires nothing less from me.

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