Do You Really Think I Want to Annoy You?

INTRODUCTION

The day is bleak, it’s cloudy and gray. This is it; I’m starting this book, and following through to the end. I want to write this book for all those I love; my family, my friends and anyone who has, or will have, a heart for God, but may be on the fringe of being a “Born Again” believer.
There I go again, annoying the heck out of many of you. I drew the line in the sand. That line that says this is the way, the only way, and how dare I do that. I know you’re thinking, “how do you know, and who are you to say?” I am saying this for one reason and one reason only, I LOVE YOU and I care about your eternal life.
I entered a different realm somewhere around fifty five years ago. I went from one life in the winter of 1957 into a whole different life in a matter of just a few minutes. Some may say how can you possibly know that? Did you ever hear of hindsight? Looking back from where you are, over many years, and seeing how certain experiences were the cause of your life taking a definite direction.
My father was one of those causes, and was to my knowledge a good person, but he had a lot of baggage. He lived in a very limited world that I believe had a cause, but I don’t know what that cause was. For the most part he would go to work, come home, sit in his chair, and do crossword puzzles. He contributed very, very little to the family. Why this was, in this life I will never know but I know I love him. I am including a poem that I wrote in June of 2009 that says it all.

FATHER’S DAY CARDS

It was hard to find that certain card
That told just how I feel,
They just don’t say what’s in my heart
The words just don’t seem real.

I used to wish my dad was like
The ones they write about
It made me sad and sometimes mad
My heart would want to shout.

Why can’t you be that full of love?
Why do you let me down?
That dad that’s special in those cards
He must not be around.

And then as time went on I grew
The thoughts that changed with time,
Discovered there’s more to my dad
Than can be put into a rhyme.

I know the past left some scars
I know you did your best,
And love has healed so many things
It put my heart at rest.

I love you dad, you are special
God’s love has changed the rhyme,
The card that’s written on my heart
Has stood the test of time.

During my father’s younger years, in his early twenties in and around 1923 he was in the Salvation Army, which to me means he had a strong spiritual nature. I know nothing about that part of his life except for an autograph book, from his Salvation Army days, that somewhere along the line ended up in my possession. I read the messages written for Siggy and wonder what ever happened to you dad?
Our family was not one to talk about any personal matters. We just seemed to go on from day to day, and keep to ourselves in our own personal thoughts. There is only one time when my father said anything to me in a spiritual context in my life. I will share that with you later on in the context when it happened. The negative influence that his lack of involvement had on my life was dramatic.
My mother was definitely a very positive influence in my life. She was a very strong but gentle lady. She was strong in character, strong in will, strong in her belief, but yet quiet to the point that you knew who she was without her saying very much. She was a very wonderful influence on all of us in our family. I know some wish I could be more like her but “it don’t work that way.”
I’m sure we can all look back over our lives, hindsight, and see those situations or people that had an influence, either negative or positive that have lead us down a path in life in some way that we would not have traveled if they, or it, had not been there.
My experience in the winter of 1957, at a small church in my hometown, Allentown, Pennsylvania, was, and is what this book is all about. It was so unplanned, so subtle, and yet so natural that it’s almost like standing outside of my life and watching it all happen on the movie screen. Some people believe in chance, that we move along in life and make the best of the “cards we are dealt.” Then there are those who, like me, believe in a Creator of all that is, an intelligent, all knowing, and all loving, completely involved and in control being that wants only for us to trust Him.
Journey with me through the pages of this book, and see what conclusion you will come to. Is there one true path that takes you to the heavenly Father at the end of what we call life? Do we have a choice, or do we just wander through the years our physical bodies keep functioning. Then when something causes that to cease, we either totally stop functioning or we go on into another life that may or may not be pleasant. There are so many ways that our fellow human beings, for one reason or another, choose to think, or not think, about their eternal future. Is there, “The Way, The Truth and The Life,” or is it all up for grabs? Is this all, “a bunch of bunk”, or is it, THE MOST CRITICAL DECISION IN ALL OF OUR EARTHLY LIFE?