Category: Pastor’s Corner

(continued from February issue)

I attended State Street Baptist Church and was involved in the youth group, as a leader. But I still would make regular trips to Bangor to spend time with my other friends and we would continue to hit the bars. I didn’t really have any struggle with the conflicting lifestyles I was living. I simply didn’t think about it. One part of my life was what I did when home, and the other was what took place away from home.

In the summer of 1988, God interrupted my party. I had been spending a weekend in Bangor and was at a bar when my revelry was interrupted by a question that came to my mind: “What are you doing?” I tried to shake it off, but the sense of sadness and that question would not go away.

I left the bar and the next day headed back home. It was a few weeks later that our pastor preached a message. I honestly don’t remember what it was he said exactly, but I do remember knowing that I needed to make a choice about how I was living and who I would serve.

An invitation to come to the front was given for those who needed to make things right with God. I stood up and went to the front of the church. I was terrified. I knew how I had been living, but had worked hard to keep it a secret from everyone else. I knew that I deserved the condemnation and disappointment that was sure to come my way once others knew what was really going on.

As I stood at the front, the pastor called for deacons to come and meet with those who had gathered there. I looked up and was met by Larry Turner.  

Larry Turner was a potato farmer.   We knew each other well and had many conversations in the past, but at that moment I was afraid of where this was going. 

We went into a Sunday school room to talk.  He started with, “So what’s going on with you?”  I blurted out everything that had been happening and waited for the inevitable sigh or gasp of shock and then a word of disappointment and correction. 

Instead, there was a pause and the words, “Hmm, I’ve been there too”. No shaking of the head. No lecture.  It was grace that I experienced at that moment.  It was exactly what I needed in that moment, and those words changed my life. 

What I experienced through Larry was grace in action.  He didn’t overlook what I had done, but he simply expressed the understanding of someone who also had failed and yet had seen restoration and the forgiveness of his heavenly Father.  We talked a while more, and again, all that he said I don’t really remember.  But it was that one moment, that one phrase, that put me on a path to a wonderful relationship with the God of grace. 

It was a year later that I went on a short-term mission’s trip to Brazil and then on to Bible School, where I met my wife.  I’ve been a missionary and a pastor for 26 years, and have seen God do amazing things.  But I’ll never forget the impact of that one moment. 

I wish that I could have sat down with Larry and expressed more completely what he has meant to me.  But I know what that moment meant and the impact that it had on my life and the lives of others through me.  I look forward to someday having that conversation with Larry.

Often, we wonder if we are making an impact on those around us. Do my simple contacts with other people really make a difference? As believers in Jesus Christ, we are challenged to be light and salt in a world that needs both (Matt. 5:13-16). We are cautioned to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to get angry (James 1:19).

Proverbs 15 tells us that a gentle answer turns away wrath, and a soothing tongue is a tree of life! But what about those brief interactions throughout the day? Do they really make much of a difference in the big scheme of things? I would like to share a story about how a simple response changed the course of a life – mine.

I grew up in a Christian home and had received Christ as my Savior at the age of thirteen. I attended church with my parents and was a “good” kid. I had never gotten into trouble nor experimented with those things that were deemed wrong. During the beginning of my junior year at the University of Maine, I made a series of decisions that affected my walk with God. I felt that Christianity was boring, and I wanted to explore the “fun” side of life…

I began to spend much more time with those who looked forward to the weekend and the ensuing times of drinking and carousing at local bars and the occasional house party. I jumped in with both feet. I enjoyed the drunkenness and the perceived freedom I was experiencing as I gave myself with abandon to the party life. This went on for about three years. In 1987 I graduated from the University of Maine and returned home to begin working for my Dad in the family jewelry business.

…to be continued in March’s issue!