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My Summer Discovery
By Ron Reese
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| Ron Reese |
“Hey guys, you want to watch me test it out?” asked Duane. Our friend, Duane, kept us guys guessing for quite some time about what he was making. As we looked at it, we were all still clueless.
“Okay, Duane, what is it?” I asked out of curiosity. “It’s a sling,” stated Duane. “You know, like the one David used to kill the giant.”
Our Six-foot-four supervisor, John, suddenly hunched over. “Don’t shoot David. I’m just a little guy,” he teased in using a small child’s voice. We all laughed at John’s mock pleas.
“But that doesn’t look like the slingshots I made back home,” I interjected. With a smile on his face Duane assured me it was quite different. This is the type David used on lions and tigers and bears!” “And giants!” John added mockingly.
Duane then searched the ground until he found a projectile about the size of a baseball and loaded it into the leather pouch of his newly fashioned weapon.
“Okay now guys, I’ve never done this before, so you might want to give me a little room,” warned Duane. He didn’t have to tell us twice. We all headed for the hills and left Duane winding up by the lake.
Around and around went the sling with the rock tucked into the leather pouch. Then at the appropriate time, Duane let loose of one end of the sling, and we all watched with amazement as the rock became airborne and smashed with a “clunk” into the side of a pine tree on an island about seventy-five yards off shore.
“Look out giants! Ole Duane is gonna get you!” shrieked Larry. I stood and watched as Duane then gave rock slinging lessons to each one of the guys. When my turn came all I got was a big splash. Some of the guys did a little better than the others. The giant amongst us, John, actually mastered the weapon along with Duane.
As I looked around at all my fellow Forest Service teens, goofing around and having fun, I started thinking how terrible it was that the summer had slipped away and we would soon be going our separate ways, back to our respective colleges.
I also thought how terrible it was that I hadn’t admitted to Duane that he was right about there being a God. That summer Duane had been like a spiritual leader in our cabin. Not only had he tried to teach us how to defend ourselves against giants with a sling, but he was a black belt in karate and had showed us a few moves of self defense. We even tried breaking boards with our bare hands. After Duane broke several, the rest of us tried, but all we managed to do was get sore hands.
But the greatest defense Duane tried to give us that summer was a defense that would protect us from our adversary the devil. Duane tried to help each one of us become Christians. I don’t know about the other guys, but I know that I for one resisted. Even though I knew Duane was right, I just kept denying the very presence of God.
Finally, the summer had ended. Duane and several of the other guys had already gone back to their homes in mid August.
One Sunday night after their departure, I thought of how empty the cabin would seem as I returned from a weekend at my family’s farm in Parachute, Colorado. As I walked from my SUV past the empty cabin I made my way down to the shore of Ward Lake. I still couldn’t help thinking how Duane had given me much to think about during our debate over the existence of God.
As I did so I also thought back over the years to my childhood. There had been a point in my childhood innocence when I had readily accepted the concept of God. But then as my belief in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and even Santa were dashed to bits, I also found myself giving up on God. My science teachers hadn’t been much help either. They assured me that science held no room for a created universe. When discussing the origins of life they dealt in slimy ooze, pollywogs, and monkeys.
After much contemplation on my childhood, I noticed the sun had been replaced with a glorious array of constellations. I returned to the cabin and loaded up the wood stove. The dwelling had an eerie loneliness about it. I really started missing my buddies. That summer we had grown together like a family. Now we would never see one another again.
Finally, I crawled into my sleeping bag and contemplated sleep. But it wouldn’t come. With nobody else in the cabin I seemed to notice every minute sound. The logs in the fireplace started making all kinds of noises I’d never noticed before. They popped and sizzled. And they sputtered as the stovepipe became a cherry red.
Listening to the sizzling embers, I thought back to the devastation left from the forest fire earlier that month. Several rains had since drenched the site so the charred embers smoldered no more. All that remained was a ghastly site of charred trees and brush.
As I lay there I pondered the end result of the majestic timbers of that forest as well as the logs blazing in the woodstove. The pitiful sounds of wood sizzling reminded me of some Bible verses Duane had shared with me about the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” that would take place at the end of the world.
Suddenly, it seemed like there were others inside the cabin with me. The presence of the devil was pressing very close. I felt an uncontrollable fear enter my heart, with each popping ember in the sizzling stove. And beyond the ominous sounds there was an extreme weight pressing down on me that I could not withstand. It was as if I realized that in my weakness I could not save myself. There was only one way for me to live!
God was speaking to me, not in words, but in a still small knowledge. I knew what He wanted me to do. But yet I fought the urge to come to Him. The devil slyly urged me to forget all about this God thing. But finally, I slipped out of my sleeping bag and knelt on the wooden floor beside my bunk.
“God, I do believe in you,” I blubbered as tears trickled down my face. “And I apologize that I ever doubted you,” I continued. “God, I don’t want to be fuel for the lake of fire! Please forgive me of all my sins and all the times I’ve done things against you and your people. Come into my life and live. Help me Lord to live for you, forever. Amen.”
It was a short prayer. And it wasn’t worded so well. But in it I accepted Jesus Christ into my life and decided there and then to live for Him.
It would be some time before I decided which church I would join, but that night I made the most important choice of my life. I chose who would be the leader of my life and who would be the leader of the church I would join.
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