I am amazed

It is so amazing how we change. I have changed so much.

I used to meet my friend Dan down at Bewey's pharmacy, almost every day after school.

We would ride our bikes to meet there. We would park our bikes out front.

We never feared that they would be stolen.

My brothers yellow Schwinn was stolen, just three weeks after that K Mart purchase.

Bewey's Pharmacy was the typical mid 80's pharmacy. It was personable. It was small. It did not necessarily focus on medicine, but, rather, served as a place for people to buy many various items that they would need for their home. They had baseball cards.

Dan and I collected baseball cards. My brother Jonathan also collected baseball cards.

He was the inspiration behind me collecting.

I looked up to him, so, I wanted to do what he did.

Once at the pharmacy, Dan and I would roam the four or five isles.

An hour later, we would sit in my room, eating "Topps" bubblegum, sifting through our cards, after having paid nothing for any of it.

Why did I do that?

I never thought about it.

The school I went to, Summit School, had a teachers lounge.

In that lounge there was a stash of coke.

To me, this stash was for me to enjoy. So one day I brought a bag to school and I placed about 15 cokes into that bag, and biked home with the.

For ten years ( and I am serious), I worried whether I would be caught.

I did it in the 5th grade, I think.

But this coorects a misundertstanding about God.

God is not merely a moral judge.

God is holy. Yes. This is true.

But, God would never condemn me to hell, for instance, for stealing 15 cokes.

God is not a moral judge. God is a God of justice, yes.

And yet.

The same God that loves me, and that created me, changed me.

In 1997, my life changed.

God entered into my life, very radically.

God summoned me from my fence sitting and pushed me over into his green pastures.

It is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, and to you.

You see, now, I have a much deeper conscience.

The very life of God lives inside of me.

Not only that, but the joy of the risen Christ has taken residence in my heart and in my longings. God has changed my desires.

And God can change your desires.

You can change.

Life is not over. Life is good. God is good, and God wants you as His own.