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assistant’s predicament. we decided to pool our money together and change what seemed like this guy’s bad fortune. When we arrived at the clubs, we found out that he had never been drunk either. My friends and I continued to buy him shots until he was completely annihilated. After about 30 minutes of throwing up outside we hailed a cab to go to a place called Hooker Hill. When we arrived it was dark and there was a small street with glass bay windows out front with about ten to fifteen different places to choose from. The neon lights were on and women were standing where manikins would normally sit dressed like what you would expect. Then there were women coming out of each establishment pulling on us to try and get our business. They even began to fight one another. In the end we paid a very large sum of money to make possible what I am now ashamed of being a part of. Back then though, I did not know what I was doing. We continued to drink until morning where my last memory was throwing up on a prostitute, then sitting on the curb outside of the club and then in a waiting room in a hospital lobby. As I came to, I learned that the chaplain’s assistant was lying on a table in the operating room getting his stomach pumped. My head hurt so bad that I had no idea where I was or how I got there. You can imagine my surprise when the next person I see is my commander standing in the hospital lobby. He was asking me questions I didn’t understand. Eventually I just said, I’m hammered and I don’t know how I got here. I knew I was in deep trouble, all of us were. But during the ride back to our 300 man outpost, the commander just said “you owe me for 2 hours of driving”. The next weekend, the four of us pulled some weeds around the company headquarters building for about 45 minutes and that was that. I share that story with you because in my youth and in my wandering I have done things that I am most certainly not proud of. Even still, we can find grace and mercy at the foot of the cross because Isaiah 53:5 says but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed! So you see that as my environment shaped me and told me who I was supposed to be, without knowing the truth, I conformed to it because of my selfishness and arrogance. Don’t be fooled into what others want you to be or who you think you are. Instead be the person God says that you are! Your slate is clean. Yesterday, today and always!
