Full Circle

Life has many surprises. Sometimes they come in unique ways. They come when you aren’t suspecting them. They come in a form you aren’t expecting.

Sometimes good surprises come, and you say, “What is this? How amazing? This is remarkable!” Then you see the “writing on the wall,” so to speak. You see the principle, and you go, “Oh, now I see!,” and you marvel at God’s work.

Recently, I received four books in the mail from my friend, Dale Howard, in Baltimore, written by his son, Brian. The books fit perfectly into my study of “Those Who Have Gone Before, Great Christians From Our Past.” This is my daily radio program that broadcasts from 18 stations across the nation.

The books are well written, very informative.

It didn’t dawn me right away that the books really are the result of something I had sown several decades before. The sowing had come full circle. This was the result. Now, I was reaping.

I have told this story before, but this time it has a new ending. And of course, God’s not done. He will continue to write new endings.

In 1971 I was drafted into the Army. I went to Fort Lewis, Washington, traveling three days by train. When I arrived, I was placed in a large bay for three days with many other recruits, while the Army processed our assignments.

The bay was filled with young men who stood around in smaller groups, smoked, swore a lot and told filthy stories. I didn’t want any part of that, so I stayed to my bunk, my Bible close at hand. I was a new Christian, three years old in the Lord.

A young atheist sauntered over and wanted to debate me. I was not in any way prepared to debate an atheist, and I was shy. The conversations were painful for me. All I could do is tell him what had happened to me, how I surrendered to the Lord, how He changed my life completely, gave me hope, peace and a fresh start.

We would talk, he would go back to this group, then after awhile, he would come back again to talk more. Inside, I was saying, “Oh no! Here he comes again!”

Buy the third day we were all assigned to our unites. I finished Basic Training and on the last day, just before I was to leave for Fort Dix, New Jersey, I was handed a letter. It was from Dale Howard. In the letter he told me how he had become a Christian, because of my life.

I was surprised, dumbfounded, and exhilarated all at the same time, that my life had made that kind of impact on an atheist.

Some years past. One summer after my third year of college at Crown College in St. Bonafacious, Minnesota, my first wife, Nancy, and I planned a singing tour aroiund the United States. We visited Dale, his wife Marge, and their two small sons in Baltimore.

One day we went to the zoo. I remember standing in front of the cage of some zoo animal, and the two small boys, Barry and Brian, got into a tussle. Dale applied some discipline, administering a spanking right there in front of the animals.

A lot of years passed. I learned that the boys had become fine young Christian men and one of them served with Youth With A Mission, or YWAM, as it is commonly known.

Recently, when Dale learned I was doing a radio broadcast on great Christians from our past, he mailed Brian’s books to me, which contained perfect information for my broadcast.

When I showed my daughter one of the books I was reading and told her the story of Dale and his sons, she said, “It’s come full circle.”

The full impact dawned on me then. I thought about young Dale, the atheist, and our conversations in that smoke-filled bay. Then the picture of Dale spanking his small son at the zoo came to mind. Next I realized that those little boys grew up and I was now holding in my hands, one of the very excellent books Brian had written.

It had come full circle. It is the law of sowing

and reaping.

I had sown the story of what Jesus did for me to Dale in that Army bay. What came back to me decades later, was four very well-written Christian books, written by his son. How cool is that!

Photograph designed and taken by Lorraine