Take the Test: You Might Be a Conservative!

One thing the Democratic Party is wildly successful at is demonizing the opposition. Conservatives like me are routinely portrayed by the media as heartless extremists who want to starve school-children, keep women barefoot and pregnant, and push little old ladies over a cliff.

Why otherwise intelligent people believe this mystifies me. But we are creatures of habit, and if a big lie is repeated often enough, it becomes believable.

Sometimes we even vote out of habit. After several recent conversations with life-long Democrat friends, I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of them who automatically vote for Democrats in every election without ever giving it a second thought. 

Does this describe you? Don't worry, there is hope! Take the following simple quiz to find out what kind of American you are. You may discover that you really do have a choice.

1. The answer for every problem in American society is to create another government agency and borrow more money from China to pay for it.  T  F

2. The United States will be safer from threats by Communist dictatorships and rogue terrorist states if we slash our military defense budget and unilaterally cut our nuclear missile defense by 90%.  T  F

3. The best way to build a strong economy is for the government to gain more control over private businesses, and to keep printing billions and billions more dollars of paper money.   T   F

4. The Constitution is old-fashioned and out of date, and it prevents our government officials from creating the regulations needed to control us.   T   F

5. The best way to create strong, stable families is to promote homosexual marriage and provide government-funded abortions to teenage girls without their parents' consent.   T   F

6. Individual liberty is over-rated. We should learn to behave as we are instructed, and allow unelected government bureaucrats to decide what is best for us.   T   F

7. The best way to conduct honest elections is to let anybody who shows up at a polling place cast a ballot without having to prove who they are, which also allows them to vote at as many polling places as possible on election day.   T   F

8. Rich people are evil. Anyone who is successful must have stolen it from someone else, so the government should be encouraged to confiscate as much of their wealth as possible.   T   F

9. There is no God. The state is our ultimate authority. The only rights we have as citizens are whatever privileges the state decides to grant to us.   T   F

10. No one is responsible for themselves. The government should provide young women with contraceptives; food stamp recipients with cell phones; and those out of work with 2 years of unemployment benefits.   T   F

11. Congress is too powerful. If the President cannot ram his unpopular agenda through Congress, he has the right to simply issue an executive order and bypass the legislative branch of government.   T   F

12. It doesn't matter if our country goes bankrupt, as long as we get all we can. The future is our kids' problem.   T   F

Now check your answers:

9 or more TRUE answers: You must be a Democrat. You are just the kind of voter that welfare-state politicians drool over. You have my sympathy.
 
5 to 9 TRUE answers: You are either lost in the '60s, or you are just too young to know better.

1 to 5 TRUE answers: You are getting closer to the light. There is hope for you.

0 TRUE answers: Congratulations! You are a responsible conservative citizen with your head screwed on straight. And if you answered FALSE to all these questions, why would you even think about voting for Barack Obama?

Using the Poor as Political Pawns

Once again my favorite pundit, Thomas Sowell, pokes holes in some political myths about the poor. READ MORE

Comic of the Week

With Friends Like Us...

In case you haven't noticed, Israel lives in a pretty tough neighborhood.

Egypt lies to the west, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the east, Lebanon and Syria to the north. Geography is not her friend.

Fewer than 8 million Israelis cling to a little sliver of land on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, surrounded by hundreds of millions of hostile Muslims.

At the end of World War II, after more than 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, most of the civilized world was shocked by the horrors of the Holocaust. World opinion was shamed into a brief period of sympathy for the Jewish survivors, who soon began emigrating from Europe to Israel.

By the time Israel declared itself a nation in 1948, there were over a million Jews living there, and Democrat President Harry Truman immediately established diplomatic relations with the new Jewish state.

We have had a special relationship with Israel ever since. Israel glistens as an oasis of democracy in a mid-eastern desert of tyranny. Israel was our staunchest ally throughout the Cold War, and more recently, the war on terror.

For reasons only he knows, our president disdains the nation of Israel. Soon after his election, Obama made a bee-line for Egypt so that he could grovel before the Muslims during his "world-apology" tour. But he didn't have time to visit Israel.

Obama has had time to host lavish state dinners for the Communist Chinese. He has invited groups of imams over for several Ramadan dinners at the White House. But the first time Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu came to visit, Obama made a point of publicly snubbing him.

No state dinner for Netanyahu. No dinner at all, for that matter.

When the president finally agreed to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister and his aides in March 2010, Obama gave them an earful about making concessions to Arab demands. Then he excused himself to go upstairs and have dinner with Michelle and the kids, leaving the Israelis to stew by themselves in the Roosevelt room. 

Later that evening, Netanyahu was unceremoniously shooed out the side door of the White House.  NBC report of Obama/Netanyahu meeting

I suppose we should be thankful that Obama stopped short of offering him a ham sandwich and poking him in the eye with a stick.

Fast forward to today: With Iran on the brink of possessing nuclear weapons, Israel is understandably alarmed. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly declared for years that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

The Jews will soon be threatened with annihilation. There is a tiny window of time left for Israel to decide how to neutralize the grave threat posed by Iranian nukes. Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to Washington later this month to attend the U.N. General Assembly, and he has asked for a meeting with President Obama, presumably to discuss this dire situation.

But our president does not have time to meet with the Prime Minster. The Israelis were told, "The president's schedule will not permit that."

Obama has time to do the Letterman show. He has time to play golf. He has time to do celebrity campaign fund-raisers with Jay-Z and Beyonce. 

But time for a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, our only democratic ally in a middle east on the brink of war? Not so much.
  

               *Also see When Israel Draws a Line in the Sand

The Day the Liberals Booed God

Pat Buchanan gives a sober and disturbing assessment of a Democratic Party that has lost it's way.  READ MORE

If It Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like a Duck...

Out of curiosity, I occasionally visit the website of the Communist Party USA to see what the wackos are up to.

It amazes me that the Communist Party still exists. After almost a century of abysmal failure, one might hope that people would have figured out Communism is not the way to go.

Just consider the awful barbaric history of Communism: the millions of Russians murdered by Lenin and starved by Stalin, the tens of millions who perished in the slave labor camps of the Soviet gulags, the tens of millions who suffered and died in the inhuman conditions of Communist prisons in China, Cuba, North Korea and eastern Europe.

With such a track record of cruelty and human misery, you might think that the Communist brand would be out of favor. Unfortunately, you would be wrong.

Human beings have an amazing capacity to keep repeating the same stupid mistakes while hoping for entirely new outcomes. I cannot explain this. I can only observe that it is so.

So this morning when I visited the website of the Communist Party USA, I was not surprised to see the same tired old Socialist drivel being featured on the home page.

There were links to articles about: The War on Women -- The Dangers of Paul Ryan's Tax Cuts --  Recalling Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker -- Supporting the Occupy Movement -- Fighting Against Voter ID Laws.

I clicked a link to a page with this headline: 
Save the nation! Tax corporations! Tax the rich!

I read the usual boiler-plate indictment of the evil rich Capitalists and how they were destroying the lives of the poor downtrodden masses. At the end of the article, there was a bullet-pointed list of action items that I found interesting. I will quote this list below:

• End the Bush-era tax giveaways to banks, corporations and wealthy individuals.

• Close corporate tax loopholes, especially billions in tax subsidies for the oil companies.

• Raise new revenues by restoring 70% tax rate on incomes over $1 million.

• Raise $150 billion a year by imposing a financial transaction tax on Wall Street speculation.

• Cut the military budget by half. Bring troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq.

• Create jobs in a major public works program to repair our nation’s infrastructure and to make our nation number one in “green industry.” 

• Target the jobs to hard-hit inner city communities and the rural poor.

• Fully fund a national health care program and drastically increase federal aid to education, Pell Grants, and other vital human needs programs.
  

• Remove the cap on the Social Security payroll tax, so that CEOs and hedge fund managers pay the same rate as the rest of us.

Then it dawned on me: Everything written on this Communist Party website could have been reprinted verbatim on the Democratic Party website. There was not a single idea advanced by the Communists that I had not heard before from Democrats.

In fact, this action list sounds a lot like the Democratic Party platform.

So, I have a question for all my Democrat friends. Does it bother you at all that your party is completely in lock-step with the policy goals of the Communist Party USA?

And if not, why not?

Cartoon of the Week

Ruling by Presidential Decree

I had considered writing a post about President Obama's shameless unconstitutional abuses of power, but Thomas Sowell beat me to it and, of course, has said it much better than I could have. This is a "must read" before you vote!  READ MORE

Joy Comes in the Morning, Grandson Style

Sometimes God just gives you things.

Our two grandsons spent the night with us one evening this week. Zeke, the 5-year-old, slept in our guest room. Malachi, the 2-year-old (aka "El Destructo") slept in his playpen/bed in our bedroom.

So when the lady of the house woke up at 5:30 to get ready for work (much too early for me!) she did her best to quietly sneak out of the room without waking up little El Destructo. Of course, that didn't work. He was up in a flash and wanted out of that playpen.

I thought I would be a nice guy and try to keep him corralled for a while in the bedroom so that he didn't wake up his parents, who were asleep in our living room. So Peggy picked Malachi up from his playpen and deposited him into my arms as I laid in bed.

I am not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I have observed over the years that kids are usually more cuddly and snuggly when they first wake up. Malachi is such a ball of fire all day long that he hardly ever can stay still long enough to snuggle. The only chance for this kind of bonding is first thing in the morning.

So I took full advantage of the opportunity. At first he laid down, his head on the pillow next to mine, with his feet pointed away from me at a 90-degree angle. He babbled on and kept talking about something. I could only understand about every tenth word, but I was able to figure out he was talking about some game he had played with his brother Zeke.

Then he started getting restless and rolling around on the bed. He started playing tickle-belly, attacking my navel with everything he had. Of course I got him back.

After a good round of tickle-belly it was time to play tug-of-war with his blue blankie, which eventually evolved into a wrestling match that I finally let him win.

Then I tossed him into the air a few times and let him land on the bed next to me. He tried to jump on my belly and pin me down. We did this for a while until we both got tired, then he laid his head on the pillow again and started telling me another story that I could barely understand.

It was still dark in the room, and as I became fully awake, still listening to little Malachi babbling on about whatever it was, I was overwhelmed by a deep, warm, satisfying joy. I realized what a gift it was to be a "papaw" to this sweet little guy.

What a moment. What a treasure. What a blessing from God to experience the tender innocent love of a toddler grand-child.

Then God quietly spoke to me. He reminded me of how long it had been since I just laid down next to Him and babbled for a while. How long it had been since He and I just relaxed together and shared the love of a father and child.

I realized that the joy Malachi had given me, just by being there and playing around, was the same joy that I could give to God if I would make time to sit still with Him for a while and snuggle.
 
Things don't always have to be heavy. There is so much more to knowing God than doctrine and theology. Sometimes He just wants us to spend some time relaxing with Him. I believe that the God who created us enjoys having fun with His children.

It is an amazing thing to realize how much He loves us, and how much we can bless Him, if only we would just love on Him the way that grateful children should.

Can't I Even Dream About Sleeping In?

Some things just don't mix: oil and water, Tom and Jerry, grandchildren and sleep.

I love my grandchildren. They are sweet and lovable and endlessly entertaining. But I also love my sleep, so there are inevitable conflicts.

Miranda is eight, Zeke is five, Malachi is two. When we have them all at the same time it is like a three-ring circus over here. All we're missing is the clown car and the smell of elephant poop. (Though, on second thought, Malachi is a pretty dependable source of poop smells.)

It doesn't matter how much we ignore their parents' instructions, and keep those kids up past their bedtimes: They will still be up and bouncing off the walls at the crack of dawn, demanding breakfast and a trip to the playground.

At least when we are at home, we don't have to worry about them disturbing the neighbors, since the grand-kids' ruckus-raising can't be heard outside of our walls. But when we go camping, there are problems.

If you have ever been camping at a state park, you understand that there are rules such as: no fireworks, dogs must be on a leash, don't pick the flowers. One of my favorite rules is "Quiet-time hours are from 11 PM to 7 AM."

That is a good rule. After a long day of swimming or hiking or whatever, I am tired, and I need my rest. You can safely assume that your camping neighbors also want to enjoy their peaceful night of sleep.

Just try explaining that to a two-year-old.

On our last camping trip to Brown County, I was soundly sawing logs at 6:00 in the morning. Then I was mercilessly roused from slumber by a persistent noise that kept orbiting around the camper, like when a fly keeps zipping around your head and you get that disconcerting 360 degree "surround-sound" buzz.

As I groggily entered consciousness, I realized what was happening. Little Malachi was outside, running laps around the camper while chanting repeatedly, "Papaw...papaw...papaw...papaw..."

He apparently had decided that it was time for papaw to get up and play. Didn't he know it wasn't 7:00 yet?

I remember three years ago, before Malachi was around, when we camped at Salamonie Reservoir. Zeke was two years old then. His parents were sleeping in their tent, but Zeke wanted to sleep in the camper with us, which was fine -- until came the break of dawn.

All was quiet inside the camper. The prompting of my nearly-bursting bladder awoke me from a sound sleep. I laid there as still as possible, considering my options.

If I got up to relieve myself, I would probably awaken Zeke, and then I could forget about getting that last wonderful hour of sleep. On the other hand, if I stayed put, I probably only had another 30 uncomfortable minutes before I wet the bed.

While I laid there debating these issues, I decided to carefully, quietly, slowly turn my head 45 degrees to the left and take a peek at Zeke to see if he was still sleeping soundly. Maybe I could stealthily tippy-toe out to the comfort station and resolve this dilemma.

So I carefully, quietly, slowly turned my head 45 degrees to the left. I opened my eyes ever so gently so I could just barely peek through my eyelashes. And what did I see?

Zeke was standing on his bed, with his little arms crossed and resting on the counter-top, and his chin resting on his arms, staring at me like a cat watching a bird.

"Good morning, Grandpa! Can I have some oatmeal for breakfast?"

I have no idea how long he had been standing there, but I had to give him credit for at least waiting until I moved before he made me get up.

"Yes, Zeke, you can have some oatmeal, but first let's go to the bathroom."

A Breath of Fresh Air

I attended a very unusual wedding this afternoon.

Unlike so many of the weddings I have been invited to over the past 30 years, the bride was not pregnant.

It was a first marriage for both bride and groom. There were no past abortions; no fatherless children from past relationships; no STDs to be concerned with.

I have known the bride since she was a young teenager at my church. Amy has always impressed me as a beautiful young woman with a gracious spirit, who puts the needs of others ahead of her own. She is held in high esteem by everyone who knows her.

Soon after graduating college, she accepted a position at an English-language school in Guatemala, teaching first grade students of missionary parents. During her time in Guatemala she met, and fell in love with, a handsome young man named Daniel, a native Guatemalan who worked as a youth pastor and helped his father in ministry.

Their love story had the usual twists and turns of doubt, angst, and separation. Ultimately, however, they could not stay away from each other. When Daniel proposed in December of 2011, Amy said, "Yes!"

And so, today, I attended their very unusual wedding.

It was heartwarming to see the two of them as they exchanged vows. It was refreshing to see a young couple who honored God and kept themselves set apart until they were married. It was nice, for a change, to see two young people do it the right way -- the way God intended it to be.

In today's world, a majority of people will laugh at the idea of purity, of faithfulness, of saving yourself for marriage. Come to think of it, the kids I knew back in the day were laughing at these "old-fashioned" notions 40 years ago.

But when I look around at the decay in our culture, I cannot help but wonder how much better off our society would be if there were more people like Daniel and Amy.

Since we Americans are so hell-bent on throwing off the "shackles" of religion, and so busy mocking any suggestion that God might have an opinion about our behavior, should we be surprised at the results?

"Look out any window," goes the Bruce Hornsby song.

When I look out my window I see a community filled with fatherless children. I see welfare moms with 4 or 5 kids from 4 or 5 different "baby-daddies" buying junk food with their food stamps. I see young women having multiple convenience abortions. 

I see broken-hearted men and women going through their third or fourth divorce. I see splintered families, where the parents are so enmeshed in their own self-centered dramas that they don't have anything left of themselves to invest into their children's emotional needs.

I see young people hooked on crack, stealing from their own parents' homes so they can afford their next high. I see withered lost souls hoisting their cardboard signs at the interstate ramps, hoping to pick up enough spare change for the next bottle of cheap wine.

Ever since American society decided to flip God the bird, things haven't been so good around here. Yet nobody seems to make the connection: When a nation walks away from God, there is nowhere to go but down.

A day like today lifts my spirits, and gives me new hope. Watching Daniel and Amy begin their covenant journey reminds me of how beautiful life can be when people choose to walk in obedience to God.

It's a shame that is so unusual today.

So Now I'm a Terrorist?

Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security has re-defined "terrorist" to mean an American who engages in thought crimes like loving liberty and distrusting the federal government.  READ MORE

Judicial Betrayal

Thomas Sowell once again gets right to the heart of the matter: John Roberts has betrayed his oath to uphold the Constitution. 
READ MORE

Cartoon of the Week

The Fix That Has to Come

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expenditures for Social Security will begin exceeding revenues sometime in 2018 or 2019.

The insolvency of Social Security is a can that has been kicked down the road for too long now. There are a lot of partisan issues that Democrats and Republicans can lock horns on, but Social Security is a major commitment made to the senior generations of America that has to be upheld.

Three things are going to have to happen. Various interest groups will howl and moan, but in the end, the realities of the situation will demand a compromise that will include these adjustments:

1) Benefits must be reduced. Accountants can fuss over the details, but I would guess that something like a 10% to 20% reduction in benefits will be necessary.

2) Revenues must be enhanced. Again, the devil is in the details, but a raise in Social Security withholding in the vicinity of another 1% might be in order.

3) Eligibility age must be raised. Full benefits used to be available at age 65. That threshold has been raised to age 66 for some of us, and up to 67 for the youngest of us now. The full eligibility age may have to be raised again to 69 or 70. We are living longer now. That's just a plain hard fact.

From the standpoint of someone preparing to retire, none of these changes are welcome. Unfortunately, they are necessary.

We can behave like adults, look at the situation realistically, and deal with it...or, we can stick our heads in the sand while the whole unsustainable system crashes down around us.

We Americans can be pretty partisan and bellicose when we dig our heels in and decide to fight for our convictions.

But above all, I believe we are a pragmatic and practical bunch. It is in the interest of us all to save the Social Security system and put it on a sustainable financial path.

Just like death and taxes, old age will come to us all. We all share a common self-interest in compromising on a practical solution to fix Social Security.

Cartoon of the Week

A Father's Story

This is an updated version of a short essay I wrote many years ago. If you're a dad, you'll get it. 

My life changed forever on August 29, 1979, when my wife Peggy delivered a baby girl and turned me into a father. As I held that helpless babe, with her cute little pudgy nose and wrinkled face, I was overwhelmed by an awesome sense of responsibility. 

I knew I was not cut out for this. Patience? Nurturing? Setting an example? This poor kid had no clue what I had gotten her into. But I sure did love that little girl, so I resolved to do my best as a father, however inadequate that might be.

Eighteen months later, Peggy blessed me again, this time with a son. Now there were two young minds full of mush, depending upon us for wisdom, guidance and encouragement! The stakes were getting higher all the time, and I really wasn't feeling any wiser or more patient or confident.

I failed a lot. Too often, I was impatient with my children. There were too many times that I was so wrapped up in something else that I didn't give my kids the attention they deserved. Sometimes I was so tired at the end of a long day that all they got was a quick kiss and a hug before bed, instead of a proper dose of fatherly TLC. I knew I should be doing better, and I prayed frequently that God would help me improve.

Yet in spite of my paternal shortcomings, we had some great times together. We spent many long summer afternoons at the beach. We camped all over the state of Indiana. We had balloon fights and flew kites and shot off fireworks and sometimes we had long, long talks at bedtime. (I knew they were just stalling because they didn't want to go to sleep, but I didn't care.)

We played baseball and Frisbee and made popcorn and chased the dog and sang silly kids' songs and caught lightning bugs and lit sparklers and blew bubbles and jumped in leaf piles and made snow forts. They used to love to dance for me in the living room while we listened to my old Beatles' albums. Those kids were a lot of fun.


So even though I failed at times, there were many times that things were okay. And somewhere along the way I realized that my children would survive the ordeal of living with their imperfect and sometimes grumpy dad, because they knew that I loved them and they knew I did the best that I could.
 
As the years rolled by I actually started to think that I was getting the hang of this father biz. And darned if those two little munchkins didn't grow up on me! My kids have been out on their own for years now, and it's been quite a while since we've blown bubbles or sang silly songs together at bedtime. But I've got memories enough to last me a lifetime, and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Thanks to my kids I now have a grand-daughter and two grand-sons, and I get to re-live the past with my grandchildren. They are young enough to still enjoy blowing bubbles, singing silly songs and jumping in leaf piles. I am absolutely convinced that a grandchild is God's consolation prize for getting old.

And now, thank God, I am a mellower version of young Dave. My son Steven once asked, while I was patiently enduring some crazy thing my grand-kids were doing, "Where was this guy when I was growing up?"

Well, that guy was (and is) still under construction. God had an extra 25 years to wear me down before the grand-kids came along.

Watching my kids grow up was one of the great blessings of my life. They taught me things I could never have learned from anyone else. They filled my heart with a love I had never known before. God used (and still uses) them to touch me in a special way.

Now that I've had my shot at child-rearing, I realize that none of us are truly up to the task. We each carry our own hang-ups and misconceptions into the job, and we all stumble through parenthood doing the best we can. What else can we do?

Many times while I was growing up, I butted heads with my father. He was often insensitive and overly critical. On countless occasions I was sure that he was wrong and I was right. He once made me so angry that I didn't speak to him for over a year.

But looking back now, who was right or wrong doesn't seem to matter as much. I don't agree with everything my father did, but I know that he loved me, and I know that he did the best he could.

So, allow me a moment here to give him some overdue posthumous credit: Dad, thanks for raising me and loving me. Thanks for working two jobs and keeping me fed. Thanks for doing the best you could.

Now I understand how tough that can be.

Economics and the Bible

Rabbi Aryeh Spero wrote a great column in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year about what the Bible says concerning economics, and not surprisingly, free market capitalism seems to be the closest thing on earth to the biblical model of fair commerce.  READ MORE

80 Men Who Made History

This article about the 70th reunion of Doolittle's Raiders appeared recently in the Washington Times. It is a great story to read on Memorial Day, and it gives us a snapshot of the kind of extraordinary people who serve in our military.  READ MORE

The Happiest Day of My Life

For years, I was hesitant to share my testimony with people because it was so unusual, and because it was such a precious memory for me. I did not want to have to put up with people making fun of it.  Also, it was a long, messy and complicated story. 

Then last year my son talked me into joining a week-long missions trip to Guatemala. One of my assignments during this trip was to share my testimony with several groups of elementary school children. This forced me to prayerfully condense my first meeting with God down into a four minute presentation that was suitably G-rated and simple enough for young children to understand.

So I invite you to pretend that you are a Guatemalan third-grader, and join me on this very compact trip down memory lane. I warn you, this story sounds strange. But I swear this is just the way it happened.

When I was growing up, I often wondered about God. How could anybody really KNOW if God was real? How could you KNOW if He heard your prayers? I could not imagine how it was possible to know such things.

I got married when I was 18 years old. My wife and I were too young and immature. We argued all the time.

We tried to get along, but it was not a happy marriage. After being married for seven years, we had our first baby. She was a cute little girl who we named Stephanie.

After Stephanie was born, my wife and I argued even more. When Stephanie was 8 months old, I finally decided to move out. I did not know what else to do. I did not want to spend my whole life arguing all the time.

I went to live with a friend of mine named Dennis. I was very upset. I felt so guilty about leaving my baby girl. I felt like my life was a failure.

On Good Friday on April 4, 1980, I was trying to go to sleep. I kept thinking about all the problems in my life. I was afraid that God would never forgive me for the sin of divorce.

I did not know if God was real, or if He even heard my prayers. But I cried out to Him in my despair. I was tired of living. I asked God to please just kill me and get my life over with.

Suddenly I felt these huge fists pounding all over my chest and stomach. It felt like some big strong man was beating me up. I thought, “God really is going to kill me!”  I was terrified.  I did not understand this at all.  I thought that maybe I was losing my mind and imagining things.

This beating lasted for about a minute. When it stopped, I was afraid to move. Finally I looked over at the clock by the bed. The time was midnight on Good Friday. I thought, “That is strange.” Then I fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning I was in a daze. I wondered what had happened to me. Was it just a bad dream? I just felt dead inside my heart. I do not remember very much about that Saturday.

I went to bed that night and quickly fell asleep. Then early on Easter Sunday morning, about 4:00 a.m., the telephone rang and woke me up. The telephone call was about a friend of mine who was in big trouble. He needed my help right away.

I could hardly believe this was happening. I already had so many problems on my mind. Now I had to get up and go take care of my friend. I got dressed and went outside to leave.

As I sat down in my pick-up truck, I felt like the most miserable man on earth. I laid my head on the steering wheel and cried out in despair, “God, I just can’t take it anymore! I give up!”

Suddenly the love of God just flooded over me. A wonderful ecstatic joy filled my heart. I felt a warm tingling vibration throughout my whole body. I felt like God was hugging me!

 All of my anxiety was gone! All of my fears just disappeared! God had instantly washed away the shame of all my sins. My heart was at peace, and my mind was clear. I had never felt so alive before.

Instantly I knew that God was with me. I knew that He loved me. I heard His comforting voice speak deep down into my heart. He quietly said, “It’s all okay.”

After dreading God’s judgment for so long, it felt so wonderful to know that He was not mad at me. I had actually met God! And He was being nice to me!

All of this was such a surprise to me. I probably was acting a little crazy. I did not really understand what had just happened, but I sure was happy!

The next morning I went to my job. I worked with a kind woman there who was a Christian. I told her about everything that had happened to me over the weekend. She was very happy for me. She explained to me from the Bible that I had been saved. She explained to me that when I gave up to God, He came into my heart and I was born again.

She explained that being saved is more than just believing things ABOUT God. She said you must SURRENDER your heart to God to be born again. When I had told God that “I give up” He was merciful enough to accept that as my surrender.

It amazed me that God had such a sense of humor. He beat me up on Good Friday and then saved me on Easter Sunday. I thought that was pretty funny. I have seen God do a lot of other funny things since then. 

For example, He got me a good job as a mechanic even though I am very clumsy. When I was younger, I did not like children. Now I help teach a Sunday school class for 2-year-old children and I love it. God is full of funny surprises.

Since that day back in 1980, God has been so good to me. He brought me back home to my wife. He healed our marriage and gave us a good life together. He blessed us with another baby, a little boy named Steve.

And now God has blessed us with an extended family. When she grew up, my daughter Stephanie married a good man named Ken, and they gave us a beautiful grand-daughter named Miranda. God has also blessed us with a wonderful daughter-in-law, Andrea, who has given us two sweet grandsons named Zeke and Malachi. I love my family very much.

Jesus has guided me and blessed me for over thirty years now. I have made many mistakes along the way.  Many times God has had to discipline me to teach me a lesson.

But His love never fails. He always forgives me when I come to my senses and repent. I would never want to go back to the life I had before I knew the grace and mercy of God.

The day that you come to Jesus will be the happiest day of your life. He is kind. He is nice. He loves you. In fact, He loves you so much that he died for you.  He is waiting for you to give up your life to Him.