Lee Strobel wrote this great book, The Case For Grace (published by Zondervan, 2015, ISBN978-0-310-25917-6), in which you can find the next three stories that have impacted my experience. I'm recounting them in the context (my own words) of how they entered my brain, were born into my journey and what they continue to show me about the never-ending way.

Andrew was the third son of a famous evangelical preacher. He grew up in this Christian family where all the God-given input was placed before him every day, at home and church.

He did everything a good son of an evangelist was expected to do. He was part of the church's youth group, he memorized Bible verses, went to conferences and attended church every Sunday. But, during the week he was involved with a group that got their kicks by making pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. They raided the liquor cabinets in their neighbors' homes and filled garbage cans full of jungle juice (a mixture of alcoholic drinks) for their parties. They created bigger heart rushes by smoking marijuana and steeling cars for joy riding trips.

He was living deep in the weeds where everything but what the weeds needed and wanted was choked out. The weeds came first, everything else was background noise and took no root in his brain. His friends,drugs and joy rides gave him the sensation of living large, on the edge, and getting away with it.

What was a father to do? His son was headed down a dark path that would only end in the final pronouncement at death's door. Andrew's father had seen dying, and he'd also seen people find new life in an eternal path out of the weeds, in earthy neighborhoods, into the fresh air of another neighborhood. Another neighborhood, where the burden and hardships cast on them by avoiding their true Father, were forgiven.Where they could enter into real love and family life. That's what he so desperately wanted for his son. Life!

After high school Andrew's father sent him to Biola University,definitely hoping and praying that a more positive example would put Andrew in a better mind zone.

The cure didn't work. After a year of partying Andrew was asked to leave.

He transferred to the University of Oregon where the less confining atmosphere allowed Andrew to pursue his life's ambition for having a good time.

Eventually his fraternity was banned from the campus after they set an old Volkswagen Beetle on fire—that belonged to one of the frat brothers. He soon dropped out of school and moved to Boston looking for a job.

Not one to give up easily, Andrew's father invited him to Jamaica where he'd be holding an evangelistic meeting. At first Andrew was not interested in going. But, the cold Boston air (where he was now working and partying) put another thought in his mind. He decided to go and take in some sunshine and good old Jamaican rum.

Andrew ended up staying with a local family where he met the son and daughter, Chris and Wendy. They were warm, friendly and living in the never-ending way with Jesus. They had been healed of addictions and restored to sharing Jesus' love with their community. They'd found the way out of the weeds.

One night he went to one of his father's meetings. By the end of the meeting he'd told himself that it was time to get right with Jesus.He didn't walk forward with the other repenting people. Instead, he made his own private mental decision.

Even though he'd told Chris, Wendy, his parents and his skeptical friends,after returning to Boston, it didn't take. Once again he wandered back into the weeds, partying with his friends and unable to give up his friendship with earthy culture.

Andrew again adopted his friend's idols and accepted the lie that the goodlife was a great party in an earthy neighborhood. His brain was focused on what his body was demanding, and his body was being fed by the weeds.

Months later Andrew was drawn back to Jamaica by the memory of the friendship he'd started with Wendy and Chris.

Actually it was Wendy's charm.

When he arrived he'd tried acting Christian, but one of Wendy's friends saw through Andrew's pathetic drama. Steve asked Andrew why he didn't seem very sincere about his walk with Jesus.

Andrew must have wondered what clues he was giving Steve. Because Steve wasn't fooled by his faked Christian-like behavior. Andrew admitted that he was having some spiritual struggles. Steve invited Andrew to read and pray with him in the morning.

Andrew found himself on his knees listening to Steve read the first verses of Romans 12. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good,pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)

These words rattled around in his brain. He wasn't sure what they were telling him. They were talking about something with which he had absolutely no experience. He felt a profound sense of guilt for where he'd been and what he'd done, a life experience totally dedicated to an ego that worshiped at the altar of whatever made him feel good.

Steve could see Andrew's inner turmoil. He invited him to the annual camp meeting in the Blue Mountains. It would give Andrew some time to relax and talk with others who'd found there way out of the weeds.

Andrew agreed to go to the camp meeting, thinking that maybe there was something to what his father had been trying to impress on his brain.There were other voices talking about there experiences with a Father, and a family in a different neighborhood.

Andrew wanted to know once and for all if there was any truth to what these people said they'd experienced. Something had to happen to convince him that God really existed.

He prayed for God, or Jesus, to show up and hit him with the magic salvation wand. But nothing happened. Finally, frustrated Andrew simply asked God what he wanted from him.

There was an unmistakable answer that erupted, like a conscious volcano and rose up like some kind of revolutionary event. Everything pushed its way to his conscious surface, everything Andrew had imagined and acted out in earthy weeds. All of this experience in the dark corners of earthy neighborhoods had built a curtain between Andrew and God. The Father pushed all of the earthy garbage from the shadows into the light for Andrew to see and reject.

...confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans10:9-10, NIV)

This Bible verse made its way through the dark paths his brain was hanging onto, which had been sustained by his life style in earthy neighborhoods.

Andrew confessed. He said everything he'd ever done as the pictures were pressed into his brain. Confessing went on for a while, until the last sentence left his mouth.

What a great way to loose weight, the weight of guilt that'd pulled him down for so many years.Now he was free. He didn't have to pay the guilt-price for his sin any longer. Jesus had done that for him, showing him how to walk out of the weeds.

Why did that story hit me so hard? Were their weeds growing in some dark corners of my mind? It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep watch.

That sounds a bit over the top by earthy standards.

These days I've been born into a new, Spirit-added experience. Earthy weeds aren't allowed in the Father's garden and, I'm ok with that because there is treasure to be found in His garden.

At some point after Jamaica Andrew's life took another turn into the never-ending way. He went to seminary and started working with his father. Now Andrew has become an evangelist in his own right, and speaks at rallies and festivals all over the world.

What happened to Wendy? At the writing of this book ( The Case For Grace, Lee Strobel) they have been married for twenty years and continue living in the never-ending way with Jesus.

Andrew found some real treasure in a life experience that was entertaining a new direction, a new path that cuts through earthy neighborhoods with love and life. It is a path that leads to the Father and an eternal place in His family.

What's this about treasure? In the next story we'll see how the Merwins found it.