IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT I'M SAVED...
By Officer Jimmy Meeks
By the time I was 5 or 6 years old, I had my whole life planned out, and it never dawned on me that it would go in any direction other than what I had planned...
I grew up up in Arkansas, and like so many other young boys in the state, I was fully determined that when I graduated high school, I would play football at the University of Arkansas. I recall my dad once taking a vacation while I stayed at home to run his paper route. He traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas (we called it the Holy Land!). While there he tracked down the address of Arkansas’ head coach, Frank Broyles. Dad went to his home and spent a few minutes with him. Before leaving, he told Coach Broyles that they next time they saw each other, he (Coach Broyles) would be knocking on our door - to recruit me! After my illustrious college career, where I would break all kinds of records, I would enter the ranks of the pros, where my stardom would continue. One Super Bowl after another... |
|
Along with my my incredible, record-breaking pro football career, I would also star in movies in the off-season, winning an occasional Academy Award for “Best Actor.”
I also loved music, and though I couldn’t sing, I knew by the time I was a celebrity, I’d also perform as an entertainer: singing, playing the guitar, wowing crowds with my multi-talented skills. Oh how the girls would love me! They could barely control themselves in my presence... |
After my football and movie star days, I would spend some time studying how the political system works. Once I grasped that, I would run for Governor of the state of Arkansas. After two very successful governorships, I would move to my new address: 1600 Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. (It happened to another guy instead who also lived in Arkansas. His name was Bill...)
There’s not a bit of exaggeration in this story (except that it never happened!) And it never dawned on me that my life would take any other course. I had it all figured out till the day of my death...
And then came “the day of my death...”
In April of 1973, sitting in an auditorium in Little Rock, Arkansas, I died. Jesus interrupted my life and claimed me for Himself. In that moment, I lost every right or claim I ever had on my life. I no longer belonged to Jimmy. I was a “Dead Man Walking.”
A few years ago I was sitting in a theater watching Walk the Line, the story of Johnny Cash. One scene depicted Cash boozing and doping with Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. They’re all having an apparent good time: living high, making big bucks, their stardom increasing. Before long they’d be household names. But as I watched them, I heard what I believed to be the Voice of God: I SAVED YOU FROM THAT LIFE...
The fact that I am follower of Jesus was really not my decision, or even my idea. You see, I was going my own way, doing my own thing, when He came and got me. Jesus put it this way:
“You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”
When I read a Bible verse like this, I consider how honored and privileged I am - and in spite of my horrendous, miserable failures. I have failed in just about every way possible: as a husband, a father, a cop, a friend. It may not be “psychologically correct” to say, “I am a failure” - but that is precisely what I am. Don’t get me wrong; I am experiencing more success than ever. And I am grateful for that. But the successes I experience are due solely to the Grace and Mercy of a Compassionate, Merciful, Loving God - who came and got me!
I shutter to think of where I might be today had He not interrupted my life with a better plan. Maybe I would have won Super Bowls and performed at sold-out coliseums: but what would that matter if my personal life was a fractured, broken, womanizing, boozing, drug-addicted going-nowhere life: only to come to the end of my days and ask: “What Have I Done?”
Left to myself, I’d be dying on some hospital bed, stuck in a body riddled by alcohol or some STD. That would be my story.
BUT IT’S NOT! And though I died - I came back to life...
CLICK HERE FOR CONCLUSION OF THIS ARTICLE
There’s not a bit of exaggeration in this story (except that it never happened!) And it never dawned on me that my life would take any other course. I had it all figured out till the day of my death...
And then came “the day of my death...”
In April of 1973, sitting in an auditorium in Little Rock, Arkansas, I died. Jesus interrupted my life and claimed me for Himself. In that moment, I lost every right or claim I ever had on my life. I no longer belonged to Jimmy. I was a “Dead Man Walking.”
A few years ago I was sitting in a theater watching Walk the Line, the story of Johnny Cash. One scene depicted Cash boozing and doping with Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. They’re all having an apparent good time: living high, making big bucks, their stardom increasing. Before long they’d be household names. But as I watched them, I heard what I believed to be the Voice of God: I SAVED YOU FROM THAT LIFE...
The fact that I am follower of Jesus was really not my decision, or even my idea. You see, I was going my own way, doing my own thing, when He came and got me. Jesus put it this way:
“You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”
When I read a Bible verse like this, I consider how honored and privileged I am - and in spite of my horrendous, miserable failures. I have failed in just about every way possible: as a husband, a father, a cop, a friend. It may not be “psychologically correct” to say, “I am a failure” - but that is precisely what I am. Don’t get me wrong; I am experiencing more success than ever. And I am grateful for that. But the successes I experience are due solely to the Grace and Mercy of a Compassionate, Merciful, Loving God - who came and got me!
I shutter to think of where I might be today had He not interrupted my life with a better plan. Maybe I would have won Super Bowls and performed at sold-out coliseums: but what would that matter if my personal life was a fractured, broken, womanizing, boozing, drug-addicted going-nowhere life: only to come to the end of my days and ask: “What Have I Done?”
Left to myself, I’d be dying on some hospital bed, stuck in a body riddled by alcohol or some STD. That would be my story.
BUT IT’S NOT! And though I died - I came back to life...
CLICK HERE FOR CONCLUSION OF THIS ARTICLE
