He is my nephew, the son of Ellen’s sister and brother-in-law. They are North Carolina “Tar Heels” to the core. Living for the best part of their lives in Asheville, they now live close to where it all began for these descendants of Marvin and Carrie Beshears—in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, at the foot of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.
Jason has lived the life of many an offspring of Christian parents. He is the product, for the most part (grades K-8), of a Christian-school education. He grew up attending fundamental, Bible-preaching churches. He made a profession of faith as a young child, whereupon he followed the Lord in believer’s baptism. He was a good student, an obedient (only) child, and before graduating from high school he had achieved a license to fly a small aircraft, solo. Upon graduating from high school, he attended college and pursued and achieved a license to fly planes commercially. Jason lost his desire to become a commercial pilot, met and married his wife while in his mid-twenties, and fathered two sons, all the while still attending church services.
For the next 20 years, Jason supervised the operation of a popular, family-oriented outdoor amusement park in Orlando. His marriage suffered some rocky, violent storms and eventually ended in divorce. Jason dropped out of church and, for several years in the early 2000s, “lived as though there was no God.” He drank alcohol but says, for him, it was not an addiction but only a “means to an end.” He devolved for several years deep into sin, abandoning his fellowship with God and burying, or trying to bury, any moral moorings that he had once adhered to for stability in his life. He was valued by his employer, made lots of money during those years, and traveled extensively—all in pursuit of some fulfillment which, of course, was always still awaiting him. He never was happy, and there was some sense that a “shoe was going to drop” at any time.
What I have described many people who are reading this can, without doubt, identify with. A child, a friend, a once fellow, faithful church member who hit the skids spiritually and dropped out of everything that had to do with God, church, or the Bible.
The story has been and is being repeated ad nauseum in every Christian community, church, fellowship—and in far too many Christian homes.
But thankfully, Jason’s story did not end with the dropping of the shoe, even though some really hard times came to him and his family. I will not spell out the details of those events.
One of Jason’s sons attended a Bible college in Florida, and since it was a short drive from where Jason lived and worked, he drove to the Bible college and attended the Sunday worship services with his son. Through the strong, faithful preaching of the pastor-college president, Sunday after Sunday, Jason’s spiritual sensitivities were awakened. He knew that God was dealing with him, and he made a decision, in 2020, to return to his roots in North Carolina. His boss wept when Jason tendered his resignation. While making two trips back to North Carolina as he moved his belonging via a U-Haul, he tuned in to a Christian radio station and heard more Bible preaching. Jason’s life was changing moment by moment.
After settling back into the Wilkesboro area, Jason began searching for a church to attend. One Wednesday night he visited a church, tucked away in the mountains, near to where his great-grandparents had lived decades earlier. It “so happened” that the pastor of that little white-framed church was a second cousin of Jason’s—they only knew each other as acquaintances. This became home to a prodigal son that, once so very far away from God, was given an opportunity to come back to a loving Savior who was waiting with opened arms.
Jason grew much in Christ the next few years. Today, he is an adult Sunday School teacher in his church, and also the pianist. He never dreamed of teaching a Sunday School class or of playing the piano in the services. He had taken piano lessons all the way through school, but when wandering in the fields of sins, the piano was not on his “radar screen” in any sense of the word. When he finished high school, he was quite proficient in piano; when he came back to Christ and His church, he couldn’t even identify the keys. But he is taking lessons, and since there is a need, he is willing to do what he can, and the piano is coming back to him without too much effort.
Jason’s story has not concluded yet, obviously. But when asked what one event occurred in his life that caused him to abandon the world’s “pigs-pens” and return to his Heavenly Father, Jason says it was hearing the messages when attending church on Sundays, just to be with his son, plus the messages on Christian radio that he heard when moving back to the Carolinas. He knows, too, that the Holy Spirit was always “dogging” him, and that the prayers of many people followed him at every turn.
So, friend, parent, grandparent, church member, pastor—do not give up on that prodigal child who seems so impossibly far away from God. No one has drifted further than Jason did from his moorings, teaching, and training. God’s Spirit is not limited by time or space. He can follow your loved one to places you would never dare to go. His arm knows no limits. Prayer, love, and patience can win them back to Jesus. Do not give in; do not give up. With God, nothing is impossible.
“I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore; very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more; but the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry, from the waters lifted me, now safe am I! Love lifted me, love lifted me—when nothing else could help, love lifted me.”
(James Rowe, Howard Smith)
“But he that lacketh these things (faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity) is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” (II Peter 1:8)
YOU and GOD 