Where Would I Be Today?

I wrote the following song in August 1982.  The words pretty much reflect what I was thinking at the time:

WHERE WOULD I BE TODAY?

        I can still remember the very time and place,

        I came to know Him and trusted in His grace,

        T’was something very special and beautiful to me,

        He loosed the bonds of sin and guilt and gave me liberty,

        Thank you for the preacher who told the Old Story to me,

        Thank you for the Sunday School teacher who taught it to me.

        Where would I be, oh, where would I be, where would I be today,

        What would have happened if no one would have shown me the way,

        Where would I be, oh, where would I be, where would I be today,

        What if nobody had taken the time to tell the story to me,

        The story to me, the story to me?

        Ev’ry day I praise Him for a brand new day,

        I thank Him for the strength He gives to walk the narrow way,

        I’m so glad I’ve found Him, He’s everything to me,

        He’s at my side in all I do and gives me victory.

        Thank you for the parents who read the Old Story to me,

        Thank you for the Christians who were an example to me.

        Where would I be, oh, where would I be, where would I be today,

        What would have happened if no one would have shown me the way,

        Where would I be, oh, where would I be, where would I be today,

        What if nobody had taken the time to tell the story to me,

        The story to me, the story to me?

I don't know if you have you ever stopped and thought about how different your life would be today if you hadn't put your faith in Jesus as your Savior?  It's definitely something to think about.  In my case, as a child, I had a terrible temper.  We're talking uncontrollable rage.  Once I punched my fist through the glass in our front door when my younger sister locked it on me.  I might have been 10 at the time.  Then, in 4th grade, I was involved in a fight at school during lunch hour that ended up in a brawl.  I was suspended from school for the remainder of the year and spent 5th grade at home with a tutor.  Funny, today I tell people about my temper issues and they can't believe it - thank you Jesus!  I know for a fact that if I hadn't become a Christian when I was 13 that, sooner or later, I would have either killed someone and/or been killed myself.

In the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, George Bailey gets an opportunity to see what life would have been like if he had never been born, and it was very different, in an extremely negative way.  I don't know when we get to Heaven if God will show us what our lives would have been like if we hadn't put our faith in Jesus as our Savior or not.  Time certainly won't be a factor!  If He does, I am sure that we will watch with horror and then deep gratitude, appreciation and worship over the difference He did make - and will continue to make for all eternity! 

Lord, thank you so much for the difference that You have made, and are making, in our lives!  Only You know how different they would have turned out otherwise.  Continue Your wonderful work of transforming us into the image of Your Son.  In Jesus' name, Amen.