Don't Waste Your Life! Part 1

Don't waste your life. I am ashamed to admit that I have wasted a good portion of my life up to this point. I don't mean that it was wasted from God's perspective. In His economy, I have walked a path that He foreordained. I have experienced the trials and the successes that He has used to "sandpaper" me, in order to bring me to this moment. From a human standpoint, however, I have wasted a lot of time. I am writing this article to help others avoid the same traps.

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When I was in the eighth grade, I "walked an aisle", prayed a special prayer and "asked Jesus into my heart". In the twenty or so times that I've read the New Testament, I have yet to find any mention of walking an aisle or asking Jesus into my heart, but more on that later. In retrospect, I was upset about the demise of my parents' marriage and I was looking for something to give me a feeling of security. I thought that it was a great side benefit that this prayer would buy some "fire insurance" for me. I really didn't savor the thought of going to hell, and this seemed like a great solution. With the quick recitation of the prayer and all the sincerity that an eighth grader can muster, I took care of eternity. At least that's what I thought.

Life continued as usual. I did well in school and attended a little Baptist church in my hometown. I went to Sunday School, learned some facts about God, and made sure to participate in all of the social events that the church offered. When I went to college the bloom fell off of the Christianity flower and I dabbled in other religions and some less than savory activities. After messing around for awhile in school, I made up my mind that I was going to go into business with the goal of becoming a billionaire before I turned 30. I met my future wife while in college and three weeks after I graduated, we were married. I spent the first two and half years of our married life, pouring myself into my work and spending every evening lifting weights. I was making money, I was physically fit, I saw a bright future and life was good. What more could I ask for?

In 1984 my oldest daughter came into the world and she stunned me. Before she was born, I regarded kids as a little project that would keep my wife busy. She was going to breast feed the baby and wash the CLOTH DIAPERS that I so generously purchased for her. That should have taken care of that problem, don't you think? When our oldest girl came into the world, my wife needed general anesthesia because of an emergency cesarean section, so it was just my daughter and me. I wept. For the first time in my life, I realized that if life begins, then life also ends. I experienced waves of emotion that day. Elation, relief, exhaustion, joy and fear all served to knock me out of my comfort zone. Was it possible that there was more to life than pleasing myself?

Within weeks I was able to squeeze those thoughts out of my mind. I had more important fish to fry. I was moving up in my company and started making a lot more money. In fact, I was given part ownership in the business and promoted to general manager. I found myself working many seven day weeks, but I found time to take my little family to a local church because I knew that my daughter would need to be exposed to some "Christian stuff", so she could grow up with a proper worldview.

The church thing blew up. This particular church practiced "outreach night" and the gentleman that visited my house turned out to be a disgruntled customer of mine. After I threw him out of the house, I swore that we would never go back. I kept my promise.

In 1986 I sold my business and used to proceeds to buy minority shares in a much larger business in another city. I packed up my family and moved away from my childhood home. The money was big, the new house was bigger, my biceps were enormous and my head was far and away the biggest thing of all. I had another daughter on the way and things couldn't have been better.

In 1987 I had a visitor from out of town. I had met him the year before at a business conference, and he had mentioned that he might stop by when he was in town. This was a perfect opportunity for me to brag about all of my accomplishments and to show off the new house that I was building. While he was in my office, he asked me a strange question. "Are you a Christian?" Of course I was a Christian. Isn't everyone? He made me a little uncomfortable when he asked me to recount my "conversion experience". I told him about eighth grade and the special prayer. I was sure that answer would satisfy him, but undaunted he insisted on inviting me to a Navigator's conference that evening. I thought that I would turn this situation to my advantage. I would attend this little meeting and then I would drive him over to my new home and bask in the glory! Perfect.

That night it was a typical Navigator's meeting. The speaker was probably interesting to someone in the room, but not to me. My recollection was that he talked about personal discipleship and memorizing scripture, but honestly he could have been talking about NASCAR and I don't think that I would have noticed. Finally, the meeting broke up and I was ready to execute my plan. Unfortunately, my friend was swept away by several conference attendees who suggested that we take a few minutes to attend an impromptu prayer meeting. This was really cramping my style, but I agreed to take a few minutes to "pray".

The hotel suite was full of men sitting along the walls and on anything with a flat surface. There were about 20 people crammed in the small room and I didn't know anyone other than my friend. Since this was obviously going to be a sell-out I had to sit in the midst of several strangers. As the room quieted, the leader suggested that we ask the fellow sitting next to us for any "prayer requests". Frankly, my only request was to get out of there!

The guy sitting to my left was from New York. He told me about his sick mother and some other stuff that I needed to memorize for the prayer. Blah, blah, blah! Someone across the room began to pray out loud. I really don't remember being in a less comfortable situation than this, with the sole exception being the time I wet my pants during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in first grade. I had been asked to do public speaking many times in my life, but this was a new and strange feeling. They actually wanted me to "talk to God" out loud, and not only that, they wanted me to speak about someone I didn't know and about something I didn't CARE about!

The prayer was moving around the room and I was madly rehearsing my speech. Let's see. . . New York, mom, sick. . . I didn't want to look like an idiot, so I put together a nice, tight little sermonette. I wanted to use a few thous and thees with a generous helping of "Oh, Lord!" When it came to my turn I began to speak. "Dear God, I don't remember the last time I prayed to you. In fact, I don't think that I've EVER prayed to you." WHAT?? This was NOT the speech that I had rehearsed. I was going on about asking Jesus to take away my sin and about begging Him to redirect my life. All of this was spilling out of my mouth and NO ONE in the room was more surprised than me.

After the meeting I raced home to tell my wife about what had happened. As you might have guessed, she looked at me with that incredulous look that only a wife can have. "D. L., is this another one of your "things"?" Track records are difficult things to overcome! Only time would tell if this was a D. L. thing or a real epiphany that would change my life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (One thing must be clear from this story. If nothing changes in your life after your commitment to Christ, you AREN'T a Christian.)

I was 28, a baby Christian and still full of ME. I was convinced that the best approach to my new Christian life was to use the same techniques that I had used in business and weight lifting. I would work hard, memorize scripture and jam the Bible down anyone's throat that would give me the time. 28 years down and how many more would I waste?

Tomorrow Part 2.

His Servant,

D. L. Culiver