Throwing Out A Fleece

On June 10, 2004 two days before our scheduled trip from Michigan to Minneapolis to visit our daughter and her husband, I received a surprise phone call from St. Paul, Minnesota.” This is Bob Hazen. Do you remember me? I was just phoning to thank you.” I sure did. I hadn’t spoken to him since 1975 and he had no way of knowing that we were coming his way. Three days later we were in his home and met his wife. Bob retold his story.

In the early 1970’s Bob was a mathematics student at Macalester College, St.Paul and he became involved in the hippie scene. He described himself as being a “long-haired, dope smoking, acid dropping, draft dodging, radical leftist hippie.” He also took a course in religion which dispelled his nominal belief in Christianity. He believed that life was going along fairly well until his girl friend and then his best friend rejected him. He felt very alone and became depressed over the thought that life was basically meaningless. He also fell into philosophical dispair, believing himself to be just a random mass of molecules. He made a half hearted attempt at suicide and then deliberated as to what his next step should be. He was desperate.

Pondering his options he recalled reading a book that some Christians had given him a few years before entitled The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson. The book was about the Holy Spirit radically transforming the lives of street gang members in New York City. This recollection caused Bob to open the phone book to the listing of churches. He put his finger down and where it landed he phoned that church. He inquired of the pastor,” Do you know anything about the book The Cross and the Switchblade and the work of the Holy Spirit?” The pastor replied that no he did not but that he knew someone who did. The pastor gave him my name.

At that time I was an assistant pastor in St. Paul and overseeing a group of people who were part of the charismatic revival. Bob phoned me and I invited him to a prayer group meeting. He came and he did not look very happy. After coming twice to the meetings he did not return. I phoned him and asked if we could meet. His first inclination was to say forget it, but life being as miserable as it was, he decided it wouldn’t hurt.

It was an evening in February when I arrived at the house where he was living. The new fallen snow was two to three feet high, yet the temperature was mild and I suggested that we walk the streets. As we walked for an hour or so I listened to him and all his questions and then shared with him stories about all the lives I had seen transformed by the Holy Spirit at our church. At the conclusion I challenged Bob. Much to his own surprise he invited Jesus into his life. But immediately he added, “May I throw out a fleece?” (Judges 6:36-40)

He had remembered reading about throwing out fleeces in The Cross and the Switchblade. He wanted some objective evidence that God was truly out there and not just a figment of his own imagination. I responded “Yes” not having any idea of what he was going to ask - but I did sense that he was truly seeking the Lord. Bob then prayed that his friends from Iowa would phone him before the weekend. I agreed with him in prayer. It was a Tuesday night – three days before the weekend. Before leaving he identified his friends as a Presbyterian pastor and his wife who had recently moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa from Bob’s home town of Grand Forks, North Dakota. As Bob retold the story he informed me that the pastor and his wife had always been hospitable to him and they had had discussions about the Christian faith, but they had never ever phoned him.

Driving home it occurred to me to see if I could locate the phone number of the Presbyterian pastor and help God out, but I didn’t pursue that. Instead, when I arrived at home I told my wife and we added another prayer.

The next day at the dinner hour I received a jubilant phone call from Bob: “Praise the Lord! I received the phone call at 8 a.m. this morning!” The pastor’s wife Susie had phoned saying that she just wanted to know how he was doing, that they were thinking about him. Deeply moved, Bob told her of his prayer request. Later that same day at lunch time Susie’s husband – Pastor John - called Bob not knowing that his wife had also called earlier that morning. This was the beginning of Bob’s walk with the Lord.

Attending a campus church with a knowledgeable pastor, Bob was directed to the works of great Christian thinkers who answered his philosophical questions and help ground him in his faith. What a wonderful reunion we had as Bob, now a deeply committed Christian, retold his story. But that was not the end of it.

In August of the same year I attended my DeVilbiss High School Reunion in Toledo, Ohio. There I met my high school band director Jack Tongring, now in his eighties. I shared the story with him and then sent him a copy of Bob’s testimony. A couple of days later Jack phoned me saying, “I thought I recognized Pastor John and his wife Susie as the couple who had moved from Iowa to pastor at my church - Collingwood Presbyterian - a number of years ago.” (Note: This also happens to be the church that I attended until age 10.} Jack phoned Susie, now a widow, and asked her if she knew Bob Hazen. “Certainly!” she responded. The story included Bob’s phone number so she phoned Bob that day and another amazing reunion took place.

For Bob Hazen’s full testimony from his perspective, contact him at bob@AlgebraForKids.com or 651.645.2706

There Is A God

Vera came to church regularly. Her husband Skip never came. I called on them one evening. When I asked him where he was as far as his beliefs he readily responded. I would describe him as being a dogmatic agnostic. He was absolutely convinced that one could not know for sure whether or not there was a God, it was simply beyond human knowing. He spoke for some
time. Even though I had taken a seminary course in apologetics which dealt with responding to skepticism and intellectual arguments against Christianity, I just kept quiet and listened which must have been by the grace of God. When he finished his lecture I simply asked him if he would be willing to read a book. He agreed and I handed him a copy of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

Like many other thinkers Skip read and soon after accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. What a joy it was to see Skip and Vera in church worshipping together! For anyone struggling with Christianity from an intellectual philosophical perspective I highly recommend that book. C.S. Lewis was an intellectual, an atheist, and an English professor at Oxford College, England. He described himself as “England’s most reluctant convert.” He is best known today as the author of the popular Chronicles of Narnia. Years later I gave a copy of the book to Bill who described it as “most compelling.” He too came to accept the Lord.

One By One

I remember another recently baptized in the Holy Spirit believer who came to me all excited. She decided to start a neighborhood Bible study. She mailed out invitations to all those in her neighborhood. We prayed for God’s blessing on the study. The next week she returned with a big smile all over her face. She then shared that only one neighbor lady showed up, but she testified to that lady and led her to invite Jesus into her life!

Extinguished

In the seventies I remember a lady sharing an unexpected experience. She attended a charismatic luncheon meeting where Francis Hunter spoke. At the conclusion Francis invited all those who wanted to quit smoking to come forward. Now JoAnn didn’t smoke herself, but her husband did. She wanted him to give up smoking so she went forward as a proxy for him.He was not present and knew nothing of this. Francis had those who came forward toss their cigarette packages, if they had any, into a wastebasket next to the pulpit. JoAnn didn’t have any but she went forward. As people came forward Francis added, ”Now if you start smoking again you will feel sick to your stomach.” JoAnn could hardly wait to get home because in the afternoon when her husband returned from work, the first thing he would always do is to take out a cigarette and light up to smoke. He came home later that afternoon and took out a cigarette. As soon as he started to smoke, sure enough, JoAnn felt sick to her stomach. Later she explained and as I recall, in time he quit smoking.

Lima Blessings

Pastor Bill Salsbery took Bettina and me out behind his house to proudly show off his little garden. The green beans, tomatoes, and a variety of other vegetables were flourishing, everything except a row of small emaciated lima beans. They looked like they were dying. I asked Bill what happened. With a sheepish grin he explained,” When I blessed the garden I blessed every row except the lima beans. I don’t like lima beans.”