by Darrel Bird
have seen you; go your way.” Somehow, Darren knew deep down it was his Maker speaking. This voice was like no other he had ever heard from anybody. It carried with it a sense of infinite power, and it commanded obedience. It crashed through his being like a juggernaut. The One that created him for whatever questionable or unquestionable reason had spoken to him.
He didn’t know what it meant, but he wasn’t going to hang around and ask questions. It scared the living daylights out of him. He pulled on his shoes without bothering to tie the laces, and got down off that mountain in a hurry. He got back into the Olds, and that was the first time the old jalopy had peeled rubber in many a year.
That was the last time Darren Bond ever questioned whether or not there was a God. Darren’s world, where nothing ever changed, had changed again. He hardly ever missed a time going to the altar after his encounter on the mountain, and he had no problem praying. He studied his Bible and just about drove that pastor crazy with questions, but she never let on that it was any trouble.
A short time later he and James left the cheap company they were working for, and struck off contracting on their own. They didn’t make a whole lot of money, but it gave him more time to pray and seek God.
One Sunday night at “that there church,” Darren was standing with his hands raised and thinking about how Jesus had bled and died for him. He could almost feel the shock of the nails being driven through Jesus’ hands. Wham! Wham! Wham! He envisioned the dry ground soaking up the blood of the innocent Jesus.
The next thing he knew he was not praying in English any more. He was praying in a language he had never heard before. He didn’t know what he said or how long he stood there. He was completely unaware of the presence of the other people there, as he soaked in the glory of God like a sponge. He knew he was talking to God as if he was his next-door neighbor. Darren Bond’s world had changed again that day.
****
All that was years in the past. They had long ago moved to a different town and joined a different church. As he drove the freeway, he thought of how much his life, and his family’s life, had changed. He was now growing old and was tired most of the time, but God had given him a sense of usefulness and purpose. He remembered the little church with fondness, and he wondered if it was still there. As his memory took him back to that time in his early thirties, he felt again that sickening feeling of a world without God – a world that never seemed to change or get better. It was a world without hope of any kind, and it seemed to get worse every day. He would be eternally grateful to his Maker for changing his world.
Yes, many years had passed, and Darren still possessed a deep, abiding, and constant peace.
The End
Matthew 11:28-30: Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.