Some say God goes to great lengths to save His children. I used to think terrible tragedies only happened to other people. Now, looking back, I see I’ve been through a lot of what “only happens to somebody else.”

At the age of thirteen, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor; I had brain surgery and I’ve been a different person ever since. I’ve often felt I missed out on a lot during childhood. Now, I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. My situation was like a hedge around me that kept me safe from many negative influences. If only I’d known then what I know now, maybe things would be different.

When I was sixteen, I became reacquainted with a childhood friend who was living the type of lifestyle I yearned for. Before long I was living it too: staying out late, roaming the streets looking for girls, and yielding to the sins of the flesh. I was a mack in the making and getting good at what I did.

However, my innate sense of simplicity contradicted my newfound lifestyle and our quests for enjoyment often led to coincidental trouble. I’ve been harassed by police officers, jumped on by gang members, and even shot at! I was often in the wrong place at the wrong time, in search of fun. The problem was, I didn’t know the right place to find it. Soon I grew weary with my way of living.

When I was a senior in high school, a representative from the U.S. Navy came to recruit me. However, this was not my way out of the game. Tests revealed a second brain tumor; another surgery left me worse off physically than the first. Bleeding on the right side of my brain impaired the entire left side of my body.

At the time, I was too heavily medicated to understand what had happened, but my life would be changed for years to come. Many of the physical activities I once enjoyed are now memories. I try not to ponder what things would be like if only I’d done this or that differently, but there is one thing I know for sure. You can’t put God on hold. I should have been seeking fun in Christ.

Securing salvation should have been my chief concern. My advice to anyone experimenting with a lifestyle not of Christ: don’t. God will go to drastic measures to save your soul (John 18:9). I never thought these things could happen to me. Please, answer when the Lord calls; don’t let it take an unnecessary tragedy for Him to get your attention too!

Steve Scott is a communications major at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. Steve Scott is from Chicago, Illinois, and is a member of the Altgeld Gardens Adventist Church, Lake Region Conference. He will receive a $100 scholarship because his article was selected for publication.