Mike’s Story
Revelation 12:11
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
You know how at the beginning of books the author will dedicate his work to someone who inspired and/or supported him. I’d like to dedicate this story (which may rival a book in length!) to my wonderful Savior, Lord and God. Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He didn’t shrink back from sacrificing all He had to save me from my own mistakes. My life was headed for certain death and destruction. He saved me from all that and is now blessing me with a good life. Thank You Jesus. May I never doubt your goodness.
My Story
I was reading my Bible this morning. I try to read several Psalms, a Proverb, 2 Chapters in the Old Testament and 2 Chapters in the new. I just happened to be in Jonah today. I have used Jonah in the past as a jumping off point to tell my story and I just felt like God was asking me to tell it here now. In the interests of being obedient and avoiding giant waves on a deep ocean (just kidding :-), here goes.
I guess I should start from the beginning. I was born in 1963 in Compton, California. My Dad worked as the youngest Assistant Manager in the California Safeway chain. My Mom and Dad got divorced when I was really little and Dad remarried not long after that. One of the highlights from living in L.A. was the Sylmar Earthquake of 1971. I’ve never experienced such a dimension of sound in my life! Shaking and rattling in the bedroom and a rumble as far as the ear could hear. Dramatic, for sure and I remember it vividly even today.
We moved to Oregon later that year. Not because of the quake, but because Dad was now an accountant and he got a transfer to Portland. I spent the second half of third grade in two different Oregon Schools, finally settling in Canby, Oregon. Mrs. Case was my 3rd grade teacher at Eccles Elementary!
We lived about 4 miles out of town and I rode the bus to school every morning. I miss the Oregon drizzle (seriously). Sometimes it would be so thick that there was just no staying dry no matter what you tried. It was during this time that my life changed forever, although it took me several decades to realize it.
Mamaw came to visit from Mississippi. A woman who loved God and was as sweet as her caramel cake. I can still hear her voice in my head, “Bless your heart.” Our family was not a church going family. However that changed the Sunday Mamaw was visiting. At least for one week. We all got dressed up and went into town to attend the First Conservative Baptist Church of Canby. I really really really liked it. I had such a warm feeling there in my heart. Pastor Brindley was drawing stick figures on the overhead projector and it was just neat. I was 10 years old.
Mamaw went home, but I wanted to keep going to church! My folks said that that was fine and I started riding the church bus to Sunday School every Sunday. I don’t remember my Sunday School teachers name, but I remember him telling me that the Bible was true. That it talked about springs in the oceans thousands of years before scientists confirmed it to be true.
Job 38:16
“Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in search of the depths?”
I loved science! If the Bible knew about springs in the ocean thousands of years before they were discovered, well, it sounded to me like the Bible was true. I had the faith to trust God about who His Son Jesus is. At the end of Sunday School, our teacher would always ask if anyone wanted to give their heart to Jesus. I was ready. I remember that the Sunday School teacher led me in the “sinners prayer.” An amazing thing happened. In my minds eye I saw light bursting from my heart in all directions! I had a feeling of joy that was bursting in the same way! I felt my heart being scooped clean of gunk. It was quite dramatic.
My family didn’t go to church and so eventually I quit riding the bus and maybe within a year I was no longer going to church. I continued with regular school and growing up in rural Oregon. Climbing to the tops of tall trees and hanging out with my brother and friends and my dog.
By the time I got into Junior High, my Dad and step-mom divorced and we (my Dad, brother and I) moved into town. It was when I had a lot of free time and access to my friends in town that I started experimenting. I smoked a little pot now and then even in Jr. High, but mostly I was a great student and also by now enjoying success on the football field and track. I also started smoking more pot. During the off season at first, but eventually I quit football to party and got kicked off the track team for skipping school. I dropped out of school my senior year and got my GED.
I was lost. I used to get high and then sit in my room and write poetry or think about the Universe. I had developed a New Age way of thinking about life and if you asked me I would have told you that I was an agnostic. It’s not that I didn’t believe in God, it’s just that I wasn’t sure. I figured the forces of the Universe blah blah blah all paths lead blah blah blah. I thought I was so smart with my alternate Universes thinking! Meanwhile, my life was spiraling out of control and I didn’t know how to stop it.
I eventually moved to New Mexico to start my radio and TV career. I was 21 years old and took what I could carry. I stayed with my friend’s grandma for a couple of months while we got jobs and then moved in with a bunch of roommates. I got a part time job as a DJ at a local radio station and started learning broadcasting while I waited tables at Chew Den to pay the bills. Over the next couple of years I worked my way up to Music Director at the radio station. I also moved in with an older woman and I was still drinking a lot. Not the most wholesome life, but I was also seeing success in my new career, and I thought success in life.
I was living in the world and was quite comfortable with it. A couple years after that I was working part time at a TV station in the production department and full time as a disc jockey in a lounge. I call it the lost summer. We drank so much Peach Schnapps that we called it water. We would drink all night at work. Drink after work at the bar and then drive to our house where we had a pool table and drink all night. There were other things going on as you can imagine. Thankfully I lost that job at the end of the Summer and I was able to concentrate on my TV career.
That’s when I met my wife and her wonderful daughter. Amber was just 4 at the time. I’d post a picture, but will refrain so I can remain on her good side :-) I was married about 3 years and we had a son during that time. Both kids have grown up to be such great adults! Amber with a lovely family of her own and Michael getting married next month (as of this writing). During our marriage we didn’t have God at the center. As a result it only lasted those 3 years. I continued to drink a lot. One of the downfalls of our marriage for sure.
After our divorce I remember Mamaw mentioning something when I went to Mississippi to visit. She was sad that I was sad over the divorce. I remember thinking that I wasn’t as sad as she thought I was. Now I know that really I was. I was hiding it, especially from myself. She knew because she knew God and His feelings about divorce and it’s difficulties. Mamaw was wise like that.
I remember talking to her on the phone once when I was a teenager. I asked her what it was like to be old. “Bless your heart,” she said. She told me it was like your mind wanting to do something, but your body wouldn’t do it. We had that kind of relationship. I didn’t see her often, but I cherished those times.
It wasn’t but a year after Papaw died that she died. I was so glad I was able to fly in and attend the funeral. They played Amazing Grace at the service. Her favorite. I was gonna miss my Mamaw.
Meanwhile, life was getting better for me. I had moved to Lubbock, Texas as the morning show weather guy. Women were calling me at the station to ask me out and I was having more fun then I should partying with my friends. I was even able to buy a house! I was still quite the drinker. I could even drink an entire 5th of Jack by myself. Well, I did one time anyway. How sad is that? Funny how you can’t escape life through a bottle. I thought I was having fun! I was dying.
In 1999 God had started to draw me back to Him. I was driving to Dallas to see my kids for Easter. I remember listening to a sermon on the radio and actually listening and not turning the station. I remember saying to my ex wife, “why would you (you in general, not her specifically) believe in a God who created the whole Universe and not follow Him?” or something like that. See God knew something I didn’t and His timing was amazing.
Also during 1999 I met the General Manager of the Family Life Radio Station in Lubbock. My good friend Don Webster. He took me to lunch because he wanted us to promote a station event on the morning show I was on. We had a great lunch. During our conversation He asked me about Jesus and I gave the wrong answer. Still, we became friends despite our “religious” differences.
About the same time I met a beautiful woman at the Buddy Holly Festival. (They couldn’t call that because of a legal battle they were going through, but that’s what it was… anyway) This beautiful woman was working at the festival and I was there doing live shots for the station. We became friends with me interested in more than that. She was a good Christian woman and didn’t give in to my advances (thankfully).
One day in October I was watching football. I had a 30 pack in the fridge and I was waiting for some friends to come over. I had NFL Sunday Ticket, so we would watch the best game on and flip around during the commercials. I remember that no one came by that day. I was on my 9th beer and it was only half time of the early games. I looked at the beer in my hand and thought, “What am I doing?” I reasoned that if I could quit drinking for a month then I wasn’t an alcoholic. So that’s what I did. One month became two and then three. My head cleared! I was able to think. It was like a cloud was lifted.
At work, we had a wellness test every year through our insurance. They did the tests right at the beginning of the year. In January of 1999, my liver enzymes were fine. In January of 2000, not so much. They were elevated. I found out a month or so later that I had Hepatitis C. When I was 19 or 20 living in Oregon I contracted it by sharing a drug needle. My friends had some friends visiting from California and they were shooting cocaine into their arms and asked me if I wanted some. I only did it twice that week. The only two times in my whole life! It was enough.
Meanwhile, my friend whom I met at the Buddy Holly Festival was going through some health issues. I was very concerned. I said the first prayer that I meant since I was a kid. I was all alone in my house about 10:00 at night. As I prayed, God gave me that same feeling He gave me when I prayed to accept Him as a kid! Joy bursting from my heart! And it kept going and going. I was laughing and I knew. JESUS IS REAL! Jesus was the answer. That feeling that was in the back of mind all those years that I would explain away. Wow. Jesus is real!
I waited a couple of days, but I told my friend what happened. She was very excited for me as you can imagine! I asked her, “Now what?”
“You go to church.”
“Which one?”
“I think you will like Trinity,” she said.
So, the next Sunday I put on my suit and made the short drive to Trinity Church. I can’t remember if I was nervous or not, but my friend said something interesting. She said, “God’s gonna wow you.”
“Come again?”
“God’s gonna wow you. You’ll see.”
OK. That’s interesting, I thought. I arrived at Trinity and found a friend in the balcony and sat by him and his wife. The service was good and everything was fine. Then at the end of the service they asked everyone to stand and we closed the service with one more song. Amazing Grace.
As I sang memories of Mamaw flooded my mind and my heart and my tear ducts. Then I realized. It was her prayers all those years that were being answered that morning! My hero of the faith who never let go of God’s promise for me. Who stayed faithful in prayer for my salvation. I knew I was gonna see her again! I was crying and rejoicing and I said in my mind, “God, please tell her THANK YOU! and that I love her!”
I heard him say in my heart, “She knows.”
WOW did God wow me! I can’t help but get emotional even now 10 years later as I am typing.
So I started going to church and to Bible study. I started making new friends who love God. I called my friend Don and volunteered at Family Life Radio where I eventually went to work. It was a wonderful time of growth.
I remember starting to write a check for my NFL Sunday Ticket and just not feeling right about it. So, I canceled it instead. By the next month I canceled my satellite service all together. That’s when I discovered Christian Television and Pastor Duane Sheriff. God used Pastor Duane’s teaching along with my Bible reading and my church all together to pour His word and Spirit into me. Like I said, it was an amazing time of growth that lasted for several years.
But, there was still a matter of my Hepatitis C. I put off treatment for awhile. Almost a year. The doctor told me I had the hardest genotype to cure and that I would have to go through a year of drug combination therapy. He said it was pretty much like Chemo and that it would not be easy, but there was about a 60% chance that my Hep C would be put in remission after the treatment. I put it off.
I was scared. Not just about the physical challenge that was described to me, but also that people would find out. I was a TV morning show anchor on two stations. I wasn’t comfortable AT ALL about talking about sharing a drug needle when I was a young adult. Are you kidding me? It was hard enough telling my family. I was sure that if it got out that I would lose my job.
Meanwhile, I found out something amazing. I quit drinking just in time. If I had continued to drink while my liver was inflamed it would have been like throwing gasoline on a fire. God took the desire to drink away at just the right moment that October day. He showed me this kindness before I even came back to Him! It likely saved my life.
So now I was faced with a new challenge. Could I get through a year of “Chemo” (daily self administered shots of Interferon and pills of Ribavirin) and would I be cured of the disease? I was worshiping God at church crying out to Him about all this and I heard Him say, “I’m going to take this from you.” I heard it in my heart very clearly. I’m so glad He said that.
I did start the drugs in late 2000. I did stay on them for a year. I did keep it a secret.
After my first shot of interferon it was like a severe case of the flu all night. My sheets were soaked in sweat and I was concered. Is it gonna be like this all year? Thankfully the reactions weren’t as severe over time (at least not most of the time), but the side affects were a challenge to say the least. I lost hair. My hair lost it’s curl. I lost weight. (muscle, not just fat) Food lost it’s flavor. I was depressed at times. I had suicidal thoughts. But all through the year I had God’s word that He spoke to me. “I’m going to take this from you.” I clung to that word and I took God at His word. Finally the year was over.
I went in to the doctors office for the results of the last blood draw. Disaster! I still had a tiny bit of Hep C in my body. How could that be Lord? You promised! I was hurt. My doctor told me not to give up. We would test again in two weeks. That there was still some of the drug in my system and to wait to see if it was still working.
Two weeks later, after more prayer from my friends and from my Pastor and friend TL (the prayer of a righteous man!), I went back to the Doc. Hepatitis C FREE! 1 year later, 2 years later, 5 years later. Hep C free! God is faithful and He brought me through. I don’t know what I would have done without His promise to hold on to when there was nothing else to hold on to. And of course God was true to His Word.
A lot of things have happened in my life in the 10 years since God pulled me back to Him. He has shown me some things very key about His character. There are characters in the Bible that testify as well. My life is yet another example. God cares! He cares more than you know. God is GOOD! God will get in the middle of the mess that YOU CREATED and help you out of it. He will save your life and save your soul and give you life that is more abundant!
Now I am healthy, serving in ministry and looking forward to the great plans God has for my life. At 47 I can say that I believe He is just getting started with me. There is no adventure like the the adventure of serving God. He will take you places you didn’t expect and He will show you things you couldn’t imagine. In the meantime He will fill you with His Spirit to give you power to live the Christian life. He will comfort you when you need it and lead you to all truth. He will show you in His Word His knowledge and as you live it out He imparts Wisdom.
Sure, the world will call you crazy, but you will also have the privilege of showing others how good God is so that they can enter His Kingdom too. Besides, if you believe that God created the whole Universe why wouldn’t you serve Him? How much better when you find out that He cares! that He is WITH YOU! and that He is full of love toward you even when you make a mistake.
Thank you Jesus for all that you’ve done! Thank you that you are with your children always. Even to the end of the age.
