Mission of the Garden

2 Corinthians 4:5–6 ESV

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

I first remember my heart being softened to the invitation from the Lord in an emergency room in Arlington, TX. I was under arrest for my second DWI, and I had refused a breathalyzer test, due to some poor advice that I received after my first DWI. Turns out that was a bad idea. In tarrant county they have pre-signed warrants that allow the officer to take you to the nearest emergency room to get your blood drawn. So, that is where I found myself on a March night in 2016. An emergency room in Arlington, TX.

My life had been in a downward spiral for some years up to that point, my wife had divorced me and asked me to move out, I was absolutely miserable in a career that I had loved just a few years prior, and to be honest, I thought the world would probably get along a little better without me in it. I was in a bad spot. Empty. Helpless. And in need. But God in his kindness and his mercy tends to meet us in places where the rest of the world turns away. And that’s what he did that night. Met me when I had no more fight in me.

As I sat there in the waiting room, I began talking with a police officer, whose name I do not remember. He knew I was a musician and he used that as a reason to come talk to me. He told me how he was a drummer that could have been in my position many times in the past, had it not been for the church and the grace of Jesus Christ. I normally felt guarded when people talked about Jesus, but like I said I had no fight in me. He asked if I knew Jesus. And if I really understood what he had done. How he came to give hope to the hopeless, and new life to all who had fallen short of God’s glory. I’m certain that I had heard all that he was saying before, but this was the first time that I really remembered talking with a Christian, expecting judgment or condemnation for my actions but not receiving it. I didn’t feel like I was disappointing this man by the way I was living my life. But I did feel like he was offering me so much more. He was helping me see Jesus with his voice and his life.

This started me down a path of seeing the hand of the Lord at work everywhere. I saw him at my work. I saw him at the courthouse as I was slowly being sentenced. And I saw him as I was working for the county doing a work release program. A man named Steve who worked at delta steel in Fort Worth from 5am to 5pm would come and pick us up from the county barn at 7:30am every day of the week to go and work at Fort Worth Hope Center. He had not been asleep. And he would drive us along interstate 35 in a bus that could barely go 50. People would honk at him, cussing and giving him multiple hand gestures, and he would always reply “Praise Jesus.” At first I thought he was crazy, and then after weeks of this, I realized, oh that’s just who this brother is. He was helping me see Jesus with his voice and his life.

During this time my heart slowly but surely became on fire for the Lord. I learned all that I could from God’s word. I was like a sponge. He slowly redeemed and restored my marriage, and reunited my family. We sold our place in Fort Worth and moved out to Weatherford, where we could start a new life and pursue Jesus. It was there that we began going to church with some friends that had been in my life since I was little. I had seen their lives with Jesus and without, but they always loved me fiercely even at my most foolish. Baily had been asked to write the names of two people on rocks that she thought would never be saved. One was Howard Stern, and one was me. Here is a picture of that rock.

Years later she told me that she left that rock in a pair of pants and washed them and my name came off. Baily and her husband Toby had been planting and watering gospel seeds in my life for a decade, and I didn’t even realize it. So, I kept coming around them. They consistently helped me see Jesus with their voices and their lives.

And this caused me to go back even further in my mind of Virginia Uptain, born Virginia Glasstetter to German immigrants in Oran’ Missouri in 1927. 58 years later, she had no idea what the Lord had in store for her when I was born. I tested her patience, her ability to love, and her faith anyway and every way I could.