My Anniversary

It was fifty years ago this month when I had a life changing experience with God. There I was, Jonah like in a car trying to outrun God and the revival meeting at the little Baptist Church in my home town of Ina, Illinois. But I failed. Nobody can outrun God's Spirit.

Where can I go from your Spirit...? Nowhere.

Ten years before I had come to Christ but the intervening years had taken a toll on my walk with the Lord. My Grand Dad Taylor with whom I was very close, had passed away and I was lost in a jumble of fears, anger and rebellion.

Pastor Fred Boatright was holding a revival at our church and everyone was praying for me so I decided to "Get out of Dodge" and escape the pull of God's conviction and love. But I could not escape. God had a plan for me and He pursued me to accomplish that end.

Many years ago a homeless man in London took to writing poetry and leaving it under the door of a newspaper writer. The poetry was so good that the paper decided to hunt the author down. Much to their surprise they found him to be an alcoholic who lived under a bridge. He wrote the following words.

The Hound of Heaven
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the Feet --
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised with intertwining charities;
(For, though I knew His love Who followèd,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside.)

The final verse:

Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit ;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea :
"And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard ?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest me !
"Strange, piteous, futile thing !
Wherefore should any set thee love apart ?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),
"And human love needs human meriting :
How hast thou merited --
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot ?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art !
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me ?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home :
Rise, clasp My hand, and come !"
Halts by me that footfall :
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly ?
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest !
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me."
Anon

Despite the old English this poem indicates much of my journey. God sent a wild sea to tame a rebellious Jonah. He sent jealous brothers to bring Joseph to maturity. He caught me while driving a 57 Ford to a night of gambling and drinking. That was almost exactly fifty years ago and I am so thankful He would not let me go.