The Bonus Years

If you knew my past, you'd understand why I say I'm in the bonus years. Before deciding to believe in Jesus as my savior I was pretty messed up.  My life up 'til then could be characterized as one ugly bowl of soup:

• Always in trouble in school; getting suspended and even expelled.
• Dropped out of high school near the end of the 10th grade.
• In trouble with the law for dope and fraud.
• In trouble in the military for fraud and being a malcontent.
• One of the largest volume wholesale drug dealers in northern Los Angeles (high quality pot, hash, and LSD).
• A total stoner; spent almost an entire summer on LSD and other hallucinogens.
• All this by the time I was twenty-one.

I really never expected to hit fifty years of age.  I don't think anyone who knew me expected me to live that long either.

But then something happened.  Through a series of events I was confronted with the promises of God over the summer of my 21st year.  In September I told God, "To the extent you're faithful to your promises, to that extent you can have my life."  One of his names is The Faithful and True.

So here I am, in my fifties!  And that's why I call these The Bonus Years! And there is truly no greater joy than knowing God and living life his way.