Counterculture

Chapter 12 Red Wine, a Flat Tire, and a Really Big Bible Please let me take you back to a night many years ago that I will never forget. It was early fall of 2007, and I was only a few weeks away from the greatest breakthrough of my life. In October 2007, I would have a supernatural encounter with the Lord that would change my life and my destiny forever. However, on this night I was still an alcoholic, an addict, and deeply traumatized by the events of the previous year. I had moved out to my family’s farm in rural Georgia a few weeks earlier to try to get a better perspective on my life. It was a remote farm surrounded by acres of pine trees and a small spring-fed pond. I was living there in a small cabin in the middle of nowhere with my two dogs, Beazy and Bogey. I was miserable, and alcohol and prescription pills seemed to ease the pain somewhat. I felt it was the only relief I could find at that time, but any relief I found came at a great cost. I had become a slave to substances. On a trip into town to buy groceries, I also stopped by a liquor store to get a few bottles of wine. I can still hear them rolling around in the passenger seat next to me as I quickly made my way down the country road that would lead me back to the farm. The farm was about a twenty-minute drive from my hometown where I was shopping, and it was well past five o’clock. Since I was still an alcoholic at the time, I obviously wanted a drink. On the way out of town and headed to the farm, I began to pick up speed. And just as I did, I began to hear an unusual sound. “Clunk, clunk, clunk!” The sound seemed to repeat like clockwork, and my car began to shake some, so I pulled over in the dark at the closest and safest place I could find. It just happened to be a small church parking lot. At the time, I paid little attention to where I had stopped. I was just interested in finding out what the problem was. Agitated and annoyed, I got out of the car and discovered that my rear tire was flat. I grabbed my cell phone, but because I was just outside town, I had no coverage. Great, I thought. What am I supposed to do now? I looked up and realized that the church parking lot had several cars in it, and the lights were on in the church. I had no idea, but this flat tire was about to be turned into a moment of destiny. I had passed this little church hundreds—if not thousands—of times in my life. I would pass this little church every day on my way to school for years. I passed this church every time we went to the beach. The beautiful beaches of the Gulf Coast were just over an hour from my hometown, so trips to the beach were frequent and greatly loved. I would also pass this church every time I went to our family’s farm. But I had no idea I would ever step foot in this church, nor would I have ever imagined that the Lord would use this church to speak to me and even recommission and remind me of my calling. You see, I grew up in the Deep South. Many—and I could even say that most churches at that time—were still largely segregated in the Deep South. I knew this was a black church. I find it amazingly prophetic that I found myself stranded alone at what I would discover to be John the Baptist, Baptist Church. I had no choice but to go inside. When I walked into the small and humble one-room sanctuary, I found myself walking into a small Bible study already in progress. I was obviously a stranger, and I was the only white person in the group, but they opened their hearts and church to me like I was a long-lost member of the family. I felt very loved there and completely accepted. Today one of my favorite scriptures speaks beautifully to exactly what I felt in that moment. “Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy” (Psalm 68:5–6 NLT). You see, I was a very lonely person, and I would eventually discover that the family the Lord would place me in was the body of Christ. They would become my brothers and sisters in Christ and my family. I was walking into my future, but at the time, I had no idea. I felt strangely different as I walked into the church. I now know what that feeling is, but at the time, I had only encountered it on very rare and providential occasions. I was experiencing the presence of God. It was surreal, and there were moments where I actually felt almost like I was in a dream. The man leading the group looked at me and said, “Come on in!” Reluctantly, I did. I did not want to disrupt them by explaining my situation, so I did as he said. I came in, and I sat down on one of the pews. He saw that I did not have a Bible with me, so he took the huge Bible that was on display at the very front of the church and handed it to me. The Bible felt bigger than me. It was huge, and this was the part where everything in the room seemed to almost fall still and silent. It felt as if time stood still, and the moment was amplified by something supernatural and dreamlike. Looking back, I know it was the Lord, and it was His presence that was thick, heavy, and tangible. The man leading the Bible study asked me if I would like to read from the Bible. I said, “OK.” I opened the Bible directly to the book of Revelation.