Will You Be
Ready?
I was 18 years
old and a senior at Cordova High
School. It
was a dark and rainy night as I prepared to leave Son's Supermarket where I'd
labored in the meat market for about five hours after school. It was Friday, which meant it was pay-day, so
I cashed my $88.45 check at the customer service desk and headed out the
door. A man at the payphone outside
approached me and asked me for a lift, and as was my custom in those days, I
gladly agreed. As we drove along, I felt
uneasy about this man, but I kept going.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye his arm flew towards me and I saw
the screwdriver as he came close to lodging it into my chest. I reached out and caught the
tool-turned-weapon and we began fighting.
I wrestled it away from him and lunged at him as he leapt out of my 1970
Chevy C10. I turned to chase him, but he
quickly disappeared into the nearby woods.
As I drove home
on that dark, lonely road, I cried, partly from fear, but mostly because I
wasn't sure what the destiny of my eternal soul would have been if my attacker
had succeeded. I was a Christian, but I
didn't have a living faith (James 2:24). I had been baptized, but I was not
"walking in the light" (I John 1:7).
And, for the first time, I was awakened to the fact that even though I
was young, God still expected me to do what I could in His kingdom.
“Let no one despise your youth,
but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in
faith, in purity” (I Timothy 4:12). The young can be so effective in the Lord’s
church. They can be an encouragement to
the brethren, do many good works, and most importantly, they can help save lost
souls by teaching and living right.
Don't let the
devil convince you for one more day that you can put off becoming a Christian
or serving God faithfully. Don’t wait to
become the person you want to be
before you turn to God. Turn to Him and
let Him make you the person He wants
you to be! Our last breath could come at
any moment. Will you be ready?
----Darrell Powell