It was August 1982.

I was home for the summer after my freshmen year at college.

My first year of college was not a high point in my life.  I had been living a partying lifestyle since my sophomore year of high school and being away at college didn’t make that any better.  In fact, my friends and I would party 6 days a week with Wednesdays off for studying.  Needless to say, looking back, I was a bit lost and not very happy.

My conversion to Christianity was an unusual one.  I had people try to witness to me and I just ignored them.  I had considered myself a Christian since I was eight years old and a Baptist friend of mine told me that if I wanted to go to heaven I had to believe in Jesus, say a prayer and I would be saved.  Sounded like a good idea to me, though I had no idea who Jesus was.  I prayed with my friend and went to Church with him, but nothing changed.

Back to the summer of 1982.  I had gone sailing on the Potomac with my parents one day and we just got back to the dock.  My chore was to fold the jib ( the front sail).  So I took it up to the grass to fold it up for storage.  As I walked down the dock, I remember praying, “God, I love you”.  I also remember thinking to myself, “That’s funny, I have never prayed that before”.

That was it.  At that exact moment my life changed dramatically.  No one knew what happened to me.  I didn’t even understand the implications until a month or so later.  As days went by from that moment, I knew I could pray and that God heard my prayers.  I suddenly, without anyone’s input, wanted to read a Bible.  I used to sneak at home and watch Christian TV shows and turn the channel when someone walked in the room.  Finally I made the decision to tell my brother, who had become a Christian a few months before, about what happened to me.  He gave me the help and direction that I really needed.

I went back to college and continued in my partying ways.  After a month or so, one night, I knew that I had to give up the partying or give up my relationship with Jesus Christ.  This might not be theologically correct in some people’s minds, but I had to give up this idol and I knew it was my choice.  I chose to give up partying.

One day, several months later, I was home for a break from school and I panicked.  I had changed so much, so fast, with very little input that I no longer knew who I was.  I called a national TV prayer line and the councilor prayed for me and the panic went away.

My life has been steadily changed by the power of God ever since that summer.  I have challenges and blessings.  Everything, from my family to my running is only possible through the blessings I have received from being a Christian.

I really don’t know why things happened differently for me that the norm.  I don’t know why God saved me the way he did.  I do know that He is part of my DNA.

All I do and all I am is influenced and completed by my relationship with Him.