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The Wrong Way
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By Duane Maracle

Duane Maracle
I left the church when I was an adolescent. I was already on my way out, and my mom’s death from cancer when I was 14 sped up the process. I was tremendously angry at God. The teachers at the church school I attended didn’t seem to understand much about teenagers. I saw and experienced a lot of legalism—and it bugged me. My father was going through his own faith crisis, so he didn’t stand in the way when I wanted out of the church.

I was out for 11 years, and you’ve likely heard many accounts of the damage that alcohol abuse and a poor lifestyle cause. After 11 years of that I had an overwhelming sense that my life was heading for destruction.

One day on the subway I looked across the aisle at a woman who was reading the book Early Writings, by Ellen White. I recognized the dark maroon cover because it had been one of my mom’s favorite books. I wanted to ask the woman if she was an Adventist, but I didn’t have the nerve.

Finally it was time for me to get off the subway, and this woman got off at the same stop. I asked, "Are you a Seventh-day Adventist?"

The Invitation

"Yes," she said, "How did you know?" I told her a little about myself, and she said, "Why don’t you try coming to church this Sabbath, just to check it out?" I told her I didn’t know about that, but for the rest of the week I kept being impressed that it wouldn’t hurt just to go and see what it was like. I hadn’t been in an Adventist church for 11 years.

I looked in the yellow pages for the nearest church and went for the 11:00 a.m. service. They must have just finished an evangelistic series because there were several baptisms. After each one the pastor would say something like, "Maybe you’ve never been baptized before, but you want to accept the Lord." I felt uncomfortable.

After several more calls, the pastor said, "Maybe you were baptized a long time ago, but you’ve wandered far away and you want to come home."That was the day I returned to the Lord and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Then, I understood much more of His grace than when I was 14 years old. I never saw the Early Writings woman again. There were many other Adventist churches in the city, and that was years ago. I’ll have to thank her in heaven.
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Duane Maracle lives in South Carolina. All rights reserved © 2011 StoryHarvest.org. Click here for content usage information.