LSD GUY
This message began as a meditation on the claim by some in today’s society that they were “born that way,” and cannot change. This is to explain and excuse certain behaviors, especially those that are delineated as sin. My mind ran to 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
But my mind immediately turned to the summer of 1968 when I was a camp counselor at Word of Life Camp in Schroon Lake, New York. I was reminded of two guys who became “new creations” that summer. They definitely changed.
The camp is in upstate New York and a lot of NY City kids were bussed up to the camp for a week away from the ghettoes and other influences of the city. They could not even bring radios. They got to live on an island, which was a very good move for some of the more “transient minded.” I do not recall anyone “running away and escaping. They also got to enjoy camping in the woods, water sports on the lake, and just experiencing the outdoors away from the hustle and bustle (and all the rest) of the Big City.
But more important, they were exposed to the message that Jesus saves. Two lives specifically come to mind. The first was an older “child,” who, many of us counselors estimated to be in his early to middle twenties. How he got into the camp was a mystery–until you hear the rest of the story.
This guy was “on something” as he seemed to be perpetually stoned. Most of us counselors were middle class, midwestern or southern born and bred, and the most severe “addiction” or intoxication we had ever encountered was alcohol. Harder, or more exotic drugs were outside of our experience. When it did not wear off in a few hours, we were more suspicious.
My co-counselor, John, and I were just happy that he was not in our cabin. I seem to recall that he was somewhat voluble, and even vociferous. But, at the same time, he was very personable and likable, to the point of being memorable. (That was 50 years ago.) Then, one night, he went forward and got saved. The skeptic in me said that he had “read the writing on the wall,” and knew he was about to be sent back to New Yawk. This would forestall his departure for a day or so.
I, along with several others, maybe a lot of others, discovered, to our delight that he had truly been saved and changed. Just talking with him revealed a completely new person. He was still the same personality. And in respect to the “50 years,” the thing that made him memorable was the transformation that occurred in his life.
He testified to the entire camp, and, I believe the next group or two as the administrators invited him to stay for an extra week or two. He told these groups of “know it all” city kids that he had been like them, but was now different. He had been on LSD. He may even have brought some to camp. But the second that he received Christ as his Savior, he was freed. He was freed from the wanting for it, and even the effects of his most recent dose. “I do not even want a cigarette, and I have been smoking since I was a little kid,” he declared.
Not every addict is released from the physical effects like that, but he was. I hope that someone, somewhere kept in touch with that guy and maybe we can touch base again. I know I will see him in heaven, but would like to “catch up” on the past half century and see how the Lord worked in and through his life.
God clearly and definitely did a miracle in his life; several miracles, in fact. First, and most important, he was literally a new creature, just as 2 Corinthians says. (He even threw away his drugs, as I recall.) His physical body also experienced a supernatural “healing.” He was delivered from the “addiction” or whatever accompanies LSD, and he also was delivered, for a while anyway, from the residual effects of LSD.
He had experienced “flashbacks” before, and that is when he took another hit. AC, after Christ, he had no flashbacks while at camp. (I imagine that he did not want to go home when the season ended.)
I was able to talk to him and, discerning soul that I am, was able to determine that he had been in a real, life-changing, experience. And I had actually watched him walk down the aisle. I was ashamed of my skepticism. God had worked in his life, and he was a walking miracle, a new creature.
Story number one of WOL 68 is at an end.
See Episode 2 above in the post. (LeTourneau North Word of Life Episode 2)
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