S c o t t F a r b
Acts 3:19
Repent therefore,
and turn again, that
your sins may be blotted out
In this passage, we are reminded again that it is never too late to turn your back on sin, and turn back to The Lord.
When I was 21 years old, I felt lost. I had turned my back on God, and was living without a moral compass. My friend Joe and I were sitting in the back room of a bar owned by my father’s friend, Skip. Three young men walked from the bar to our backroom table. They were wearing football jackets from the town next to where Joe and I grew up. The boldest one sad hello, then asked if we wanted to go outside. I replied, no, we would like to sit right here, thanks. He said to me, no, we’re going outside. I knew he wanted to fight, but that was not going to happen. I yelled to my father’s friend, “Hey Skip, these guys want to go outside”. Skip leaped over the bar with a baseball bat and screamed, “OK, boys. you’re going outside!” We had a great laugh, watching them being chased out the door.
At that time, I was working in my father’s motorcycle shop as a mechanic. I was very unhappy with my life, and each day, I would wonder what I needed to do to improve my unhappy situation. About three weeks after the barroom incident, a young man came into the shop with a motorcycle wheel. The tire was flat and he needed it repaired. I slowly realized this was the same young man who had challenged Joe and I to fight weeks earlier. I told him I recognized him, and asked if he recognized me, to which he replied, no. I tell him where we met, and his face flushed with embarrasment. He apologized profusely, and told me that was out of character for him. I shook his hand and asked his name, and when said it’s Chris, I realized that, years before, we had been in Sunday school together! In the following weeks, we renewed our friendship, and one day, he called me and told me his employer, Lipton Tea, was looking for a clerk in the mailroom, where Chris worked. He said he could arrange an interview if I wanted, and I replied, Yes, absolutely!I was hired, and later on, was able to get other friends hired, which I thought was fantastic. Little did I know the true purpose I had ended up working there.
About two years after I was hired, I met a girl at Lipton who told me she was going back to God, and that she was being confirmed. She asked if I would attend her confirmation, which I did, and then I asked her if I could start attending church with her. I did so, and eventually, I was confirmed as well. I then felt ashamed that I had ever turned my back on God, even declaring myself an atheist from the age of 19-21.
It only took me three weeks to realize that I was deeply in love with this girl, and I told her I was going to marry her someday. When I had that epiphany, I understood the majesty of our God: at a time when I had turned my back on God, HE had brought a young man into my life, in a bar, who challenged me to a fight. HE granted me the grace to not engage in that fight. HE brought that young man back into my life weeks later, only for me to learn that we had been friends - at church - many years earlier. HE allowed me the chance to be hired by a great company, and to turn my life around. All of this HE did for me at a time when I still shunned him. Then, HE allowed me to meet the young girl whom I would love like no other, and eventually marry - my wife, Monique.
You see, HE brought all these things together, long before I realized it, just so I could give up a life of wandering, lost. All I needed to do was “turn again”, so my sins could be blotted out.
That is the grace and majesty of our God.
Scott T. Farb
Historian
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