Looking back is how I often see the movement of God in my life. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way that I came to faith in Christ.

As a freshman in college I certainly wasn’t looking for God. Spiritual things weren’t much on my mind. I was trying to adjust to living at Oklahoma University. My dorm had more people housed in it than the population of the county where I grew up! I had tried to walk on as a football player for the Sooners. I found the talent level there was phenomenal, and I was just a slow, 175 lb guy trying to play offensive line. The defensive tackle across from me could run 40 yards in 4.8 seconds and weighed 250 lbs. He whipped my butt on every play!
Trying to adapt to college life from little Beaver, Oklahoma, all alone, not knowing anyone else on campus, not being part of the football dorm or training table, trying to even make it back to get something to eat after practice when my cafeteria had closed, facing the challenge of increased levels of academic pressure—all these overwhelmed me. So, I quit football. I wish I hadn’t. It is one of the biggest regrets I’ve ever had, but that’s a story for another day.
A surprise party
“300 college students singing songs about Jesus!”
After that I settled into my first semester life and studies at OU. My dorm had suites, two rooms with four guys sharing a common bathroom. Sometime in late October or early November one of my suite mates told me that he had been invited to a sorority party one Thursday evening and asked if I wanted to go with him. Well, certainly I did! I was thinking beautiful girls, music and beer. But, when we arrived, we found about 300 college students in the living room of the sorority singing songs about Jesus. We didn’t realize it, but the party we had been invited to was a Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as Cru) “College Life” meeting. Needless to say, I was quite surprised.
After they sang a few contemporary songs about God—this in itself was new to me since I had never heard anything but hymns in churches before—a student was introduced who spoke for five minutes about how Jesus had changed her life. If I remember correctly she was a beautiful member of the sorority and she talked in a warm and winsome way about her life with God. Then, after she sat down, a few other students put on a humorous skit depicting some aspect of college experience which drew laughter from the crowd. After a few minutes of being a little skeptical, I found myself settling into enjoying the meeting.
Then someone introduced the speaker for the evening. His name was John. The emcee told us that he had been a captain of his team and either an All-Conference or All-American nose guard for a Division 1 football team. He had also turned down opportunities to play in the NFL because he chose to spend his time telling people about Jesus on college campuses. This was quite outside the norm of anything I had ever heard. John spoke for about 15 minutes, presenting the Person of Jesus in a compelling way that I had never really heard before. At the end, he then invited anyone who wanted to receive Jesus into their life to do so. He offered a sample prayer indicating how to establish a relationship with Christ.
Then several students passed out 3x5 cards to everyone. John asked us to write down what we thought about the meeting or if we had questions about what we had heard. He also asked anyone to indicate if they had prayed with him to receive Christ. He asked for our names and phone numbers, but I did not fill out a card. I’m not sure why. Perhaps I was still a little skeptical. More than likely it was the peer pressure of my suite mate sitting next to me who didn’t fill out a card either.
I left the meeting quite perplexed but remember feeling deeply impressed. Over the next few days, as I got back into my routine, what I had experienced that evening began to fade, though I would occasionally think about what I heard that night. I learned that they hosted “College Life” regularly on campus, but I never returned for another meeting that semester.
A bigger surprise!
Though I had quit the OU team, I still had some desire to try to play football on a college level. My inspiration was my brother, Clifton, who had been an all-conference player at Northwestern State College in Alva, Oklahoma. He had some contacts among coaches in that small college league and arranged for me to meet the coach at Central State College (now UCO) in Edmond. After we met, the coach invited me to walk on to their team the next spring and give it a shot.
So, I transferred from OU after my first semester and started classes at CSC and began conditioning workouts with the team before spring practice. Sometime in the middle of February our coach announced to the team that there were going to be a couple of guys hosting an optional meeting that evening to talk about “success in life” (or something like that) for any of us who would like to come. I was all about trying to find out what a successful life looked like, so I showed up with around 20 or so of my teammates.
As we got seated, I was shocked when in walked John, who I had heard at OU, and another guy! Again, he was introduced according to his football credentials, then he spent the next half hour or so talking about his experience as a college football player, eventually transitioning into the difference Christ had made in his life. After he finished, he again pulled out the the 3x5 cards and passed them out, asking for our contact information to see if anyone of us would like to meet with him to discuss these matters further. This time I wrote down my name and phone number.
A life changing meeting
That was the beginning of my new life.
The next day I got a call from John and we set up a time to meet in my dorm room. He and the other guy from the night before showed up after one of my classes. They asked me what questions I had about what I heard them say. I don’t really remember the exact things we discussed, but I do remember distinctly them pulling out a small booklet called “The Four Spiritual Laws,” and asking if I had ever seen it. I told them “No.” Then they asked if they could share it with me. I said yes and the other guy was actually the one who read through it with me.
And that was the beginning of my new life in Christ!
As I look back on this I see some pretty amazing things that happened. First, my non-believing suite mate invited me to what he thought was a sorority party where I heard John speak. I did not respond to his invitation to get together that evening. Then, I transferred to a new city and new university to play on a college football team. John traveled to that new city and arranged a meeting with anyone who wanted to come, unaware that I had ever heard him before, let alone the previous semester at OU. When he showed up this time, I responded.
John had a great influence on many people during his time as Campus Director for Cru at OU (which I later found out was his position). But, I am convinced that one of the reasons that God sent him there was so that a freshman boy from a small town in Oklahoma would hear him at a meeting one Thursday evening in the fall of 1969. Then He sent John 40 miles up the road to Edmond in the middle of February, 1970, to find me and tell me again that Jesus loved me and offered a wonderful plan for my life if I would simply put my faith in him to forgive me and start his new life in me!
Thank You, Lord, for chasing me down through John until I found You!
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