The "ME" Years

Unfortunately, I did my own thing for a while and had no real direction in life. The first half of the “ME” years was me moving out, serving in the military, and working. The second half started after getting back from Desert Storm in ‘91 and getting settled back down into the grind of life. I finished out my time with the Marine Corps and got out in Sept. ’92. I went back to my old job at Metagram, located near Baseline and the I-10, and started a part-time night job at Walgreens at Baseline and Hardy. During this time, my car stopped working and I didn’t have the money to fix it and so for a few years I had various modes of getting to work, such as walking a mile to the bus stop and taking that to work and then roller-blade to my next job and then roller-blade home. I did this for a couple years. There was a while when I just roller-bladed both ways.

For a while after coming home, I did go to church and hung out with some of the singles. We’d party on Saturday night and go to church on Sunday. My friend, Code, who was in the Marine Corps with me, came to church and got saved but beyond that nothing much spiritual happened. After a while, with working so much, I didn’t make room for church or God and I just quit going. The amazing thing is that I always had a quiet little voice telling me that I wasn’t doing right. I wasn’t doing what I’d been taught but I ignored that voice but the Holy Spirit never ignored me. He never gave up on me and I’m sure that had a lot to do with not only my guilty conscience but also the prayers of my mom.

You might expect me to tell you that life was terrible but in reality, it wasn’t. I could barely pay the bills. I didn’t have a girlfriend or date, although that would have been nice. Code and I became best friends and we did just about everything together. We made a memorable trip to Vegas one time to meet another MC buddy who said he’d show us around. I made about $100 at the slots. That was cool but mostly we just worked, hung out, played pool, watched movies, played Nintendo, and other stuff.

A couple years went by and I decide it was time for me to go back to church. I showed up at Tri-City but felt judged because I was not a good Christian. I knew I wasn’t spiritual but I wanted to change. I felt I should have been accepted for where I was spiritually not for where they thought I should be. I didn’t go back and didn’t think about going to any church for another six months. But the Holy Spirit would let me go and I kept being urged to go to church. I finally decided to look for one and showed up at First Baptist Church of Tempe. After going a couple Sundays, I decided to go to the singles Sunday school class. This was a great class with a great teacher and I met a lot of great singles. Over the next year or two, God used this church to do a work in my heart. I started having an interest in spiritual things again. I desired to learn and grow. This is the church where I was challenged to “prayer and fasting.” I was encouraged to listen to God’s voice and obey. This was the church that helped me get back on track to wanting to serve God with my life.

I met numerous mature married couples but there were two that had the biggest impact on my life. One was the Sunday school teacher & his wife and the other was Lee and Faye. When I felt God calling me to go back to school, Lee and Faye said that “God can only direct your path if you’re moving your feet.” I loved that and still believe it’s true. They opened up their home to me about six months later during my family’s tragedy, but more on that in the future.

In 1994, I packed my car and moved to Pensacola, FL. But that’s a whole ‘nother story that I’ll tell at another time but it ended the “ME” years in search of pursuing God’s purpose in my life.