Your Redemption Stories {Sherwood M.}

I recently shared a post asking for your redemption stories. I’m so excited that I’ve heard back from a couple of you with permission to share your stories! Please feel free to send your story, if you’re interested - my email is on the Contact page at the top of the blog. I love to hear people’s stories and I love the opportunity to share the stories for the glory of God.

Today I have the honor of introducing you to Mr. Sherwood MacRae. He has been such a blessing to me in my blogging. He doesn’t just get the emails and read them, he takes time to respond and share his thoughts with me. Today I have the pleasure of sharing his story with you. Thank you, Sir, for sharing your story with us!

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I was born on August 28, 1929, not a good year for those who were financially set for life as sixty days later, the Stock Market crashed, and men were known to have jumped out of windows in their proverbial Ivory Palaces to their untimely deaths.

I have the feeling my father was not particularly pleased. He had been married before, had two sons, and married my mother with the dream, he would finally have his daughter. I was not what he had hoped for, planned for and I had heard that story, long before my young mind could grasp its true meaning.

To make my birth a little more confusing, they had to find a name for their new son, and it was mentioned to me, it should be something like Shirley, as that was the name they had chosen for their daughter, after Shirley Temple, the child star of all child stars. So, I was named Sherwood, a name I would detest for far too many years. Worse, my middle name is Brown, in honor of my grandmother’s maiden name.

And to complicate matters, I had the measles when my sister was finally born and they could not bring her home immediately, because of my measles. So, they sent me home with my grandparents to their farm, which should have become a God send. I loved it and cherish the years I was privileged to live there until I joined the Army Air Corps at age 17.

Actually, I was running away from the family that would never be able to send me to college, a hope I had cherished for years. My father had died along the way, I was not told or if I was, I never had an opportunity to mourn his passing. Actually, he was only a man that others seemed to like, but he was never a part of my life. And my mother was never really a mother, she was an occasional visitor to the farm.

The Air Force was a grand experience. After basic training, I was sent immediately to Japan, in 1947, where I would be stationed until May of 1950. I did two tours, was promoted to Tech Sergeant and was very proud of all my accomplishments.

I came “home” to a place where I was scarcely recognized, except for my “grand” mother, so I went back to my real home in the Air Force. Three years later I decided to go to college and for the first time in my life - that I could recall, my mother helped me to enroll at Georgia Tech. I would live with her for a while and then ran away - again, to the arms of a lady I had met in church and we were married.

Really bad mistake. I had not realized it yet, but I had developed an escapist mentality, if I ran into problems, I would just leave. And all the while, I continued as I had since my earliest childhood, I was “in” church, not really listening. The marriage did not last and I was gone.

Met the sweetest girl I had ever known, in church of course, she became pregnant and we were married. Our oldest child was the answer to my dreams. I was a father. There would be three more children and lots of problems, problems piled upon problems, most of them I would eventually recognize had developed because of the decisions I made along the way, but since she denied any involvement, the marriage would end in another divorce.

I had to find help for what I had come to realize was MY problem. The church was not any help, so I sought help from a Pastor I knew in a distant city. Along the way, I opened my Bible that I knew so very little about, to where Jesus was speaking and He called upon His listeners to repent. I had no idea as to what He meant so I tried a practice I had used over the years to no particular avail; I cried out to God. This time I had to believe He heard me as my mind began to be filled with thoughts of my life over the years, the times I had tried to control the circumstances and the times I thought others had abandoned me and it became apparent, it was not the others, but my responsibility to make amends. I was a mess, tears streaming from my eyes, I cried out to anyone who might listen and then, I was at peace. How did that happen? But then, I knew. Old things were passing away; a peace like I had ever known overwhelmed me. I was not in church, I was on a bus!

And I knew that I knew, I had new life and I knew that as I stopped hurting myself and blaming others, my prayers would be answered. And they were. Not all of them of course, but since I began to believe that my mind had been renewed and my heart had taken on a new dimension, “we” could make it. And WE have.

I started back to church and continue to this hour. The Bible I hardly knew became my daily guide. Some believe in promises, I believe in premises - evidence leading to the right conclusion, based on what God has had written in the scriptures for our guidance.

I recently celebrated my fortieth anniversary of that night on the bus and my declaration that I would never turn back - and I never have. Perfect? Oh, no! Perfected, oh yes, by the constant presence of His Grace. We used to sing that song that goes, “It gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by, Oh what a love between my Lord and I.” I will never forget that song. The Sunday after my renewal, I found a church and they were featuring an “older” group singing songs that had changed their lives. Afterwards, I approached an “older” guy and asked him if that was true in His life. He assured me that it was and that now that has become my testimony as well.

Some have told me that they were in Hell before He came into their lives. Well, I have never gone that far but the more I think about it, I probably have smelled the smoke.

But I etched in my heart, not long after I came to know the Lord, these words from the book of Acts; “And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be My witness - not in the days and circumstances of the world when they were first uttered, but here today, ever present, even as I pen my words of affirmation.

‘Come now”, the Lord is saying, “let Us reason together….”

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Sharing at Grace & Truth