Real People in Real Places with Real Problems Looking for a Real Answer

Post date: Nov 25, 2020 11:26:14 AM

It was August 1995, but I remember it like it was yesterday. My wife Linda was going to this little country church. We had been having trouble with our marriage, so I decided it might help if I was to start going to church with her. I had been going a few months and listening to the preacher, but it seemed like every week that preacher was standing up there talking about me. So I did what a lot of people do. I quit going. I didn’t need that every week.

After I quit going, things got worse. We were arguing, and I told my wife to just leave. I’d had enough. Well, she did. She went to her pastor’s house, and it wasn’t long before he was calling me. He asked if he could come to my house and talk to me. I really didn’t want to hear what he had to say, but I really did like the guy. So I told him I guess he could. It didn’t take him long to get there, and when he showed up he had a little book with him called eternal life. He ask me if he could read the book to me. I didn’t want to hear it, but I didn’t want to be rude so I said, “Sure, go ahead.” He opened that little book and started reading. As he was reading, I was looking at the TV, the ceiling, the walls, anywhere to keep from looking at that little Real Life Stories. Being the good servant of God that he was, he just kept on reading. When he came to the end of the book there was a prayer at the end. He read that little prayer to me and asked me if I would like to pray and ask Jesus in to my life. He said Jesus would give me this eternal life if I would just confess my sins to Jesus with my mouth and believe with my heart. I told him that I didn’t think I was quite ready for that. He said that was fine and maybe I needed to think about it. Then, he

left.

I went on to bed because I had to get up at 3am to make a run to northern Illinois the next day. The next morning I was up by 3 and on the road by 4 headed to Galena, Illinois. I’d been driving about an hour when the tears started pouring out of my eyes. I remember I couldn’t stop crying, and I started talking to God. I said, “God, if there even is a God. I’m not sure if I even believe in God, but if you’re real I need you to show me a sign. I need a sign from God.” Well as I drove on the tears finally stopped. About daylight, I was driving up I-55 when I looked out in the field and there was this little blue sign that looked like it had been out there forever. As I looked at that old weather cracked sign, I read CHRIST IS THE ANSWER. When I read those words I thought, “That’s a sign, that’s a sign from God!”

Then I heard this voice inside my head saying, “That’s not a sign from God. That old worn out sign has been there forever.” Besides, when I asked for a sign from God, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t mean I wanted a sign. I meant I wanted something big something from God. So I started talking to God again, and I told God that wasn’t good enough, that wasn’t what I meant. I needed something else, something from God. So I wiped away my tears and drove on. I remember driving along and talking to God, and by this time I was on I-74 between Peoria and Galesburg, this little white van pulled up beside me. I looked down at this woman in the van. She looked up at me with a funny look on her face, rolled down her window, stuck her arm out the window, and pointed her thumb to the sky. I thought, “What is she doing? What’s that supposed to mean?” Then, as the van went on by, I read on the back of the van it was a church van. When I read those words the first thought that came to my mind was that it was a sign from God.

Then I said, “No, God. That’s not good enough either. That’s not it. That’s not what I wanted.” I wanted something big, something that would leave no doubt that it was from God. I drove on with lots to think about, expecting at any moment something big would happen.

I made it to my destination a little past noon. I started unloading my bulk tanker of explosives. As I was unloading, sitting on top of 46,000

lbs. of explosives, I started talking to God again. I told God that I was still waiting for something big. I don’t really know what I was looking for, but I would know it when I saw it. I had visions of a big bolt of lightning shooting down from the sky. When you’re sitting on 23 tons of dynamite a bolt of lightning is the last thing you want to see, but I was ready and waiting. Well, nothing happened. I finished unloading and left. As I headed east toward Rockford on U.S. 20, I started talking to God again. I remember saying, “God I’m still waiting for my sign, for something big.” I hit Rockford and headed south on I-39. About an hour later I looked to my left, and out in the field was a great big sign. On this sign was the face of Jesus and the words THIS ONE’S FOR YOU! As I looked into the eyes of Jesus and read those words, cold chills started running up and down my spine. Tears started running down my face. I started confessing my sins and trying to remember the prayer that was in the little book that Russ, my wife’s pastor, had read to me. I prayed that prayer the best I could remember it. I prayed a whole lot more just in case that wasn’t enough. The feeling that came over me was indescribable, but it was like I was floating the rest of the way home. Jesus had lifted all my burdens that day. I couldn’t wait to get home, tell my wife, and call Russ who now is my pastor and best friend. The next day the sky was bluer and the grass was greener. Everything had changed! My and Linda’s marriage gets better each and every day. The problems of everyday life are still there, but I don’t have to face them alone. Jesus is always there with me.