College sophomores can be jerks. I was one of them.

One night we glued our dorm counselor’s door shut and he missed an urgent counseling session with a friend. Afterward, Larry told me he was just trying to do what God had called him to do. A year later, I went to Larry, broken and filled with questions.

When I was growing up in Delaware, my parents taught us a lot about the difference between right and wrong. But we never talked about God and the great truths in the Bible. We attended church, but mostly on Christmas Eve and at Easter. I just wasn’t interested in spiritual matters. Our Boy Scout troop met at the church and so when I dropped out of scouting in the eighth grade, I stopped going to church as well.

Soon after heading to the University of Tennessee, I started drinking and taking drugs. One evening, some friends and I were in a car accident, but nobody was hurt. Later that night, while high, the same friends and I were talking about Heaven and whether we would go there when we died. One friend said, “Well, if we’re good enough.” That answer didn’t satisfy me.

Days later, I called Larry and asked if we could meet. After dinner, I opened our conversation with a pointed—and poignant—question, “I’m afraid to die, will you help me get prepared for it?” He shared how God created us to have a personal relationship with Him but the Bible says that our sin prevented us from knowing Him because He is perfect and holy. The Bible says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Good News is God sent His Son Jesus Christ on a mission to rescue us from our sin. The Bible says, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God loved us that much. He died on the Cross for the sins of the world—including mine—but that God raised Him from the dead and conquered death. As a result, if I turned from my sins and put my faith in Jesus, I could be forgiven and be assured of eternal life. That night, on December 6, 1973, I prayed and committed my life to Christ.

God enabled me to immediately give up drugs and to start living for Him. God even directed me to change my major from broadcasting to print journalism. That radically changed the course of my career—and life.

Larry, and some other friends, helped me to read, study and memorize the Bible. And to share my faith.

One afternoon, as a young believer, I was reading the Bible when I came across several verses in Hebrews that included these words: “Today, if you hear His Voice, do not harden your hearts.” I looked across the room where my roommate was sitting. I knew God was prompting me to talk with Gary about Jesus. Palms sweating and my mouth dry, I plunged in. We talked openly and genuinely. Gary listened and disagreed respectfully, and though he did not accept Christ as his personal Savior that day, he definitely understood the claims of Christ. God taught me for sure to respond to Him in obedience.

Throughout my remaining years at Tennessee, Larry met regularly with me, making sure I was grounded in God’s Word before I would head off to Chattanooga to tackle my first job as a newspaper reporter. Those three years of discipleship carried with me—as they have all these decades later.

2021 is off to a rousing, but shaky start. We desperately need God’s grace and hope. Those are found in God’s Word and through His Holy Spirit working in our lives. What helps me is using the chronological Bible to read through the Scriptures in a year. Always in the forefront of my mind is my favorite passage of Scripture, Jeremiah 9:23-24. “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord.”

Just think, the God who created the universe wants you and me to know Him and not just know Him but to understand Him. That’s mind-blowing! But true.

ACTION STEP: How about you, my friend? If you haven’t done so already, resolve to spend time with God each day. He longs to meet with you. Then look to Him for His strength and His wisdom for whatever you’re facing. Spend time with Him and trust His Word and His precious promises for your life today. He loves you and wants you—and me—to lean on Him for His guidance. And, when 2021 reaches its final days, we’ll be able say that we know and understand Him better and are walking with Him more closely in concert with His Spirit. May God bring that to pass for His glory!