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By Al Snyder, U.S.A.
I gave my Harley Davidson motorcycle more gas and took the blind corner as I passed cars. I was drunk and angry at the girl seated behind me on the bike, so I was trying to scare her. The twisting two-lane mountain road didn’t deter me.
Suddenly a set of headlights bore down upon us. I looked at the high cliff on my right and the drop-off to my left. There was no way to get back on my side of the road.
The thought, “Lay the bike down,” flashed through my mind. I had learned in the years of riding to lay my bike down whenever I was going to hit something. Then the thought of losing my legs flashed through my mind. I remember the bike going down and sliding in the gravel to come to a stop. I heard brakes screeching all around us as cars skidded to a halt in a big cloud of dust. I couldn’t see much. The girl that was with me had come off the bike, slid on the road and then into the motorcycle.
I didn’t feel any pain and wondered if I were dead. But everything around me seemed very real and I could hear the bike running. I stood to my feet and cursed God that I was still alive; I cursed Him that I had survived another accident. I was fed up with life and wanted to die. Why did God always spare my life? Why didn’t He just let me die and go to hell?
However, there was a time in my life when I had responded to God’s love and had tried to obey Him. At age seven I gave my life to Christ at a summer camp in Alberta, Canada where my family lived. My parents said that I showed good signs of following the Lord then, but I only remember my failures. I recall lying to a baby sitter and not having the courage to go back and apologize to her. From then on, I lived in terrible fear that I might be killed in an accident riding in my Dad’s truck and go to hell before I straightened out my life. This fear built up in me until I reached a kind of turning point in my life. From about age nine, I don’t remember walking with the Lord anymore.
As time went on I became bitter towards Christians to the point I got myself expelled from a private school to get away from Christians. A year later I left home never to go back except to visit.
I soon discovered that I could not do what I wanted to do and be with the people I wanted to be with unless I was drinking. I was able to keep a good job, but I spent all my free time with a fast-riding gang of outlaw bikers. They were all experienced riders. In trying to keep up with them I was frequently going off the road. I found that when I drank alcohol I was relaxed and stayed on the road. This pattern led me into real dependence on alcohol. I even had to drink to get married because I couldn’t handle what I was doing when I was sober. Alcohol kept me from developing and growing as a husband and father. The problems in our marriage were never resolved because I would just drink instead of working them out. The marriage ended first in a separation and two years later in a divorce.
I had given up motorcycles during my marriage, but now I went back to them. However, something was amiss. Either alcohol or age was taking its toll, for my response time was slipping. Accidents increased. Because I was the only straight person among the outlaw bikers, I was always trying to outride them to stay in their graces. As a result, I was always in some mishap and very much aware that miracles were keeping me alive. I got the idea that God was keeping me alive and I could do nothing while riding to kill myself.
Now and then I had the feeling that I should give my life to the Lord, but I just could not come to Him. Once in a while I would go to church, though I would have to drink to do that. I made sure I would not be involved in an altar call, so I left before the service was over.
At 37 years of age I realized I was in the grip of alcohol and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I quit smoking cigarettes when I felt I had had enough, but I couldn’t quit alcohol.
One weekend I made a great effort to stop drinking. I left my money, credit cards and my motorcycle at home and went in my car to visit friends that did not drink. On the way home, I gave a guest of theirs a ride to work. He offered me a drink to thank me. I thought if I stopped I could still get home to get some sleep before going to work Monday morning. Well, the man did not get to work and I was stopped and charged with my seventh D.U.I. (driving under the influence). While I was waiting for a friend to bring my checkbook so I could pay my bail, I spoke to God. I said, “If You take the desire for alcohol away, I’ll take care of my free time.” To me one was just as big a problem as the other because that’s all I spent my time doing—drinking, shooting pool and riding my motorcycle. That very moment I was delivered from the monster of alcohol. By God’s grace I am still free from alcohol and any desire to drink.
When I had gone through Christmas and New Year’s without drinking, I realized I was at the point where I could ask my children to live with me. First my son spent eighteen months with me, then my daughter came to live with me and he went back to his mother. The following year they both came to live with me. Both of the children were born-again Christians. A baby sitter had led them to Christ. So I began taking them to church.
One day the pastor approached me about my need of salvation, but I told him to mind his own business or neither I nor the children would be back to church. He agreed that he would leave me alone. In his Sunday School class, he was teaching on end-times and the rapture of the Church. I had the idea that I could live as I pleased until the Tribulation times began. I would then repent of my sin, give my life to the Lord and go up in the Rapture.
One summer my sister Ruth, who is a Christian worker, was taking care of my house while I went away on vacation. She herself had recently come to the Lord and wanted to attend an outdoor Christian music concert. She saw the date marked on my calendar, so she was sure I would be attending. I hadn’t planned to go; someone else had marked the date. She gave up a ride because she wanted to go with me, so I had no choice but to take her.
We ended up in a field outside a large city among 36,000 people in temperatures of 108 degrees with the bunch of Rock musicians screaming Christian words. I was terribly upset.
Hal Lindsay, author of THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH, was one of the speakers that night. I had heard about his book and had seen one of his movies, so I listened to him. All I remember of his message was that those who planned to give their lives to the Lord needed to do something about it right then. He asked, “If you can’t give your life to the Lord with the Holy Spirit’s urging, how will you ever do it when He is gone and you are faced with death?” I repeated the salvation prayer after him. I didn’t think about what I was doing, I just did it. The biggest load imaginable lifted off me. I had not been aware that I was carrying a burden. My life was better at that point than it had ever been. It shocked me when I realized that God had heard me. It wasn’t just words. I felt something definitely was happening.
Musician Keith Greene followed Hal Lindsay. He talked about the cost of being a Christian. He said Christianity wasn’t a feeling; it was actually changing your life, turning around from what you’re doing and going the other way. I stood at his invitation to make public the commitment I had made to Jesus Christ.
On the way home the motorcycle seemed to be four feet off the ground. I couldn’t believe the joy in my heart. That experience was only the beginning of many, many changes in my life. I gave up my motorcycle, then my home and my job and enrolled in a Bible school for four years. After graduation I served my Lord on a full-time basis for four years.
Now as I look back on my life, I see the Lord’s goodness to me. He has led me, cared for me and richly blessed my life with family and Christian friends. My daughter is in nursing; my son is a teacher of children with special needs. God led me to Maureen, a fine lady who became my wife 15 years ago. She successfully raised her two sons with the help of the Lord and has been and is a great blessing to me. I never cease to be amazed that God can take a rebel, forgive him and change him to be a true servant of God. What an awesome God He is!
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