Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (Col 2:6-7 NASB)

As the reality of spiritual forces at work in the invisible realms roiled through my once-tranquil mind, I grew more contemplative at work, at home, and everywhere in between. I couldn’t shake the growing sense of uncertainty that my soul did not lie secure in the Father’s bosom. I felt deceived, misled by the spirit of the age. Why had this truth eluded me for so long? Why did I see things more clearly now than ever before? What do I do next? How can I rectify my grave errors in judgment? How can I change teams? Is it too late? Had I already sealed my own fate? This spiritual tumult finally came to a head on an ordinary day in mid-January 1995, at the close of an uneventful shift. It was a day like any other, except it turned out to be unlike any other day I had ever experienced. 

I finished closing up the shop, dismissed my workers for the day, and walked into the office, where Earl sat quietly at his desk, an unusually contemplative expression fixed on his weathered face. I stood by his desk, waiting for him to dismiss me for the evening. But I had a sneaking feeling he wanted to share something with me first. Now, I had long endured his lectures and gospel proclamations throughout the years. By then, I had heard it all, several times over. However, my attitude toward his ramblings had changed since God opened my eyes to Ephesians 6. I grudgingly admitted I had come to enjoy hearing him expound on what the Bible had unveiled to Him in his daily readings, or on cultural issues from a biblical perspective.