I grew up a nominal Christian in a home where my parents sent me and my siblings to parochial school and made us go to church on Sunday, but they rarely went themselves. Then, while I was in the Navy, my father went to a weekend Christian retreat and met Jesus as his personal Savior.

When I next came home on leave he and my mother were completely different people. They were still the loving, funny, and sometimes loud parents they had always been, but they read the Bible and talked about spiritual things. I respectfully resisted them for a while, but finally took the time to read the Bible myself. There was my Creator, loving me and desiring for me to be closer to Him. And there was Jesus...sacrificing Himself for me.

Then at one of the weekend retreats my parents conducted for high school students, I accepted Jesus' sacrifice, asked His forgiveness, and became a joint heir of the salvation He earned at the cross

The first step in an eternal journey.

That was about thirty years ago, and every day with the Lord is better than the day before. Today I love Him more than I did yesterday, I love His word (the Bible) more than I did yesterday, and I look forward with great anticipation to spending eternity with Him.

In return for earnestly and honestly seeking Him, I have been blessed on this earthly journey with a wonderful and beautiful wife, two fabulous children, six amazing grandsons, two intellectually-challenged Labrador Retrievers, and two white cats (one of which thinks he's the second coming). I'm also privileged to serve as an elder at my church.

I have witnessed many miracles over these decades, not the least of which was my wife being delivered from a deadly six pound tumor the size of a basketball. So I can honestly say that I KNOW God is real, and I KNOW Jesus loves me and watches over me and my family.

But what about you?

I won't pound on the table, grab you by the lapels, and challenge you about where you'd end up if you died right now. But I will ask you to ask yourself if you're confident about your spiritual position.

Why am I asking?