You might have looked at him, and walked the other way. You would have requested that your sons find another friend, and you most certainly would
not have wanted your daughter to date him. You would have taken one look and thought, "That boy is trouble, he will never make it." Or perhaps you would have thought of him as "a lost cause." He was a rascal, he lived in a run-down trailer-park, he was a product of a broken family, and he was very familiar with red and blue flashing lights. He was trouble. He was lost.
Who was this lost boy?
He is my husband, Charles.
You would not know by just looking at him today that he was ever a lost soul. There is no external evidence. No tattoos (Read:
THIS), no scars -- except those he carries inside. But how can one change so much without being internally scarred forever? He is not the same person he was, but that boy is still part of him -- his past is what shapes who he is today. For the better, I believe.
I have had the pleasure of watching his continued transformation. Let me make it clear, I had
nothing to do with it. I was not even in the picture when his life was altered forever. But I have been there to watch how a rascal can change into a respectable man. And it has been an honor. I have been allowed to witness the fire of someone truly converted to the gospel. I have lived with someone rescued from the gates of darkness and allowed to live in the light.
It is miraculous.
Charles was a full-fledged hoodlum, when he started attending Church. He went to meetings at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He did not look the part, nor did he "fit in." He sat in the chapel with his head on the pew in front of him. He was not your average white-shirt-and-tie guy. I am sure he stuck out like grey feathers, on the ugly duckling. He was not like everyone else, all clean-looking and sparkly. He was dark. He was different. No one could see any evidence that he would one day become a beautiful swan.
But even in his darkness, and difference, he would sit in Church. And every now and then, his heart would pound as someone spoke with the Spirit, from the pulpit. He felt something. Something began stirring inside him. A fire began to burn.
And then, he was driving one evening, and there was a horrible accident. He was hit by a semi-truck. He walked away, miraculously unharmed. The details are his personal and sacred story, but I will say that God spoke to him. He read The Book of Mormon. He chose to be baptized.
He went into the water, and he washed away the hoodlum for Heaven's gates.
His life changed. It was hard. There were old friends, who did not want him to change.
But he changed.
He changed everything.
He went to seminary everyday of his Senior Year, he drove many miles to pick up other students, on cold Alaska mornings. He graduated from High School, barely. He worked 2 jobs and saved the full $9,000 it cost to serve a mission. He became Elder van Ormer for 2 years.
He served a faithful mission.
He changed his life, and the lives of others, forever.
He came home from his mission. He got married in the temple.
He was the first in his family to graduate from college. He went on to go to Law School.
He passed the Bar exam, and became an Attorney.
He has a beautiful family, who all love him, dearly.
He is a wonderful father. So fantastic with children.
He runs his own law firm. Helping out those who might appear a bit rascally, too.
His life went from night to day.
When you are baptized ALL your sins are washed away, and you are made new.
I know it. I have seen it.
When you see someone who you may think is a "lost cause" . . . don't think it.
You never know who people can become.
God can move mountains.
People can change.
We have to let them.
