My Autobiography
Part Six--Salvation

A few days later, I hopped in my car and drove up Candler’s Mountain Road to smoke a cigarette. I had smoked off and on since I was fourteen. My mom had sent me a tape of an evangelist that had spoke at our church a few weeks ago. His name was Bailey Smith. As I listened to him speak, I finished my cigarette and I began to drive back onto the campus. As I parked my car, holy conviction fell upon me and I began to cry. The evangelist began to talk about hell and for a split second I forgot everything that I had been taught concerning salvation. For the first time in my life, I realized that I did not have what my friends had. They were living their lives for something other than the letter of the law. They were living their lives for something other than pride and they backed up what they lived. I realized that I was a sinner bound for hell and there was absolutely nothing that I could do to save myself and I listened as Bailey Smith told me the plan of salvation. I cried even harder and I prayed the sinner’s prayer. I cannot describe the after effects. Yes, I felt free, but it was so much more than that.
I instantly ran into the dorms and called Rachel and told her to meet me outside of her dorm. When I met her, I told her what had happened and she rejoiced with me. I went to the campus pastor’s office, but it had already closed for the day, but I was there the first thing the next morning. The night that I got saved, I told Ben, the SLD, and Clint. Ben was so excited he began to run up and down the halls screaming, “Praise the Lord!” and knocking on doors. The next day, at the campus pastor’s office, I was given a book called “The Survival Kit for New Christians” and I began to read about all the basics of Christianity, things that I had heard many times before, but now relearned and applied. I look back now and it seemed so hard, but it was so necessary.