By Dr. John E. Morgan

Pastor–Collinsville Baptist Church

I only went because of a girl.  Second year of college.

A girl I really liked asked me to go on a Baptist Student Union retreat in a nearby state park.  I only went to please her.  But I was prepared for all those there to be a little weird.  I had been a church going guy all my life.  I just wasn’t weird about it.

There were about sixty students on the retreat.  We played football.  They settled for a tie.  Un-American and weird.

Supper was followed by singing and speakers.  We walked the girls to their cabins.  A good night kiss.  The boys were all sleeping on the floor of the lodge. I got my blankets and went to a corner to be alone.

Someone rolled out a sleeping bag near me as the lights went out.  He started talking to me.  I could not see his face in the dark.  We talked for two hours.  We were really a lot alike. His name was Morgan Wallace.  When we went to sleep we were friends.

The next morning I saw Morgan for the first time.  I was shocked.  He looked way different from me.  He had a flat top.  Nobody wore their hair that way anymore.  His clothes weren’t right.  I had learned he wanted to be a preacher.  I knew I would never be one (God’s humor).  Never, ever would I have talked to him if I had seen him.

And now it was too late.  He was already my friend. He had found me in the dark.

Morgan and I would room together for two years.  I was best man in his wedding, and he was best man in my wedding.  The girl that got me to come on the retreat?  We just celebrated our forty-fifth wedding anniversary.  Think what I would have missed if I had not gone on that retreat.  If Gloria had not invited me.  And if Morgan hadn’t decided to talk to me.  There was one more who wanted to talk to me in the dark.

The second night we had a campfire.  It was dark.  I don’t remember what the speaker said.  Because I was having a “coming to God” moment.  He and I had a short conversation.  He told me it was time for me to get serious about being a Christian.  Time to be completely committed to Jesus Christ.  When I left the fire I was.  And I have kept that commitment.  In the dark, He had found me.  And He wanted me.  With all my prejudices, prejudgments and pride.  He wanted me. Remembering that moment still moves me to tears.  He wanted me.

And He wants you.  With all your problems and failures, He knows you and still wants you.  Just like He wanted me.

For those of you who are ignoring God because some of us in the Church have failed you, please forgive us.  Don’t let our failures keep you from Jesus.  We really aren’t as weird as we look.

For those of you who are Christians, find somebody this week that needs Jesus.  They are there in the dark.  Where you are not looking.  But God is.  Open your eyes and see them.  It might change your life.  And theirs.