Duncan M. Wilkie
My Search for the Abundant Life
My name is Duncan M. Wilkie and this is how abundant life eventually became mine.
I joined the Denver Fire Department April 1, 1955. What a job! I was thrilled to be a part of such a neat group of guys who really looked out for one another. The fire department became the focal point of my life. I was vice president of the union. I ran 5 years with the State Fire Convention team. I played on their basketball and softball teams.
At the fire department I worked 64 hours a week. My other activities took a lot of time. Also, I had a construction company and I often would go straight to work from the firehouse and not get home till 8:00 or 10:00 at night. I was so busy I didn’t have time for my family. I had a wife and four children. They were going to have everything I didn’t have as a product of the depression.
I was on the merry-go-round and couldn’t get off. I had two homes, building a third and money in the bank. Things were really going well. I thought I had provided the physical needs and what more could a family want.
All I worked for was wiped out with one phone call to a divorce lawyer. I was out and I told myself stubbornly I didn’t need anybody. I had my kids once a week and I’d get by. I spent the next two years in bars trying to fill the void in my life. I traveled to Europe. That was satisfying. I questioned myself as to why I was sitting in Zermatt, Switzerland, looking at Mount Rosa, their highest mountain, which is 13,000 plus feet high, when I could look out my apartment window in Denver any day and see mountains over 14,000 feet. The people in Europe showed the strain of the war on their faces. They didn’t seem to have the answers to the life I was seeking. I was seeking a reason for living.
Back at the bars, I watched how guys would accept another if he had money for drinks; but if the money ran out, he just wasn’t welcome. I came to the conclusion that no one really cared about me or anyone else, just self. There was nothing satisfying in life. Life was like a beautiful soap bubble with colors of the rainbow. You reach out for it and POP, its gone! It seemed that is all life held for me. I could find no reason for living. If all life offered was to work to make money to buy food to gain strength to go back to work, I’d had it. Suicide did not look too bad.
My health was not the greatest after 2 years of abuse. I injured the cartilage in my knee playing basketball. After the operation, I met my therapist. There was something special about her. I tried to date her, but she would not go out with one like me. She did consent to go have coffee with me if I would attend church with her.
I went and the preaching tore me up. I heard, “What profits a man if he gains the whole world and losses his own soul, or what should he give in exchange for it?” That was me! I tried to gain everything and had nothing, not even a purpose for living. The preacher went on, “Jesus said, ‘I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly’.” I tried most of what this life had to offer and it was not satisfying. The people at the church seemed to have something I didn’t; and I figured when I found out what it was, then I would buy it. I thought there wasn’t anything without a price in this world. For 5 months I attended that church and found I couldn’t buy what those people had. It was free! God’s gift --- Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of my sins --- was free! It was hard for me to accept this. Two things held me back. First, it was free. No one had ever given me anything without wanting something back. Now I wanted to do something to earn acceptance. I couldn’t. Second, it was to accept love. To believe someone loved me? I was from a broken home as a kid, my wife left me as an adult, and now should I chance being left again? Overcoming fear of rejection was tough for me.
Give God a chance to change me and give purpose to my life, or check out. That became my choice. Checking out of life became more of an option each day for me.
October 22, 1963, I asked Christ to forgive me my many sins and come into my life. That afternoon, I stopped in the bar as usual and I realized I had to give Christ a chance to work in my life. Drink had caused me to do things I was ashamed of. I left and, by God’s grace, that was the end of my drinking. My drinking buddies didn’t care to have me around. God gave me a new circle of friends --- people who walked with Him.
Life since I asked Christ into my life, has not always been easy. Heart attacks in July of 1964; disappointment of not going into Jewish missions after bible school; various problems with the changes taking place in the fire service have not been easy to accept. Yet, everyone of these testings has been of great blessing to my growth of trusting in God and His precious Word.
What I was going to buy was free. The contentment of those people at that little church is mine. God has given me life and life abundant.
Working with and encouraging my brothers and sisters in Christ through the Fellowship of Christian Firefighters is a blessing and joy only God could give. I can say in truth the fire department and the Christian life has challenge and thrills, but the greatest reality is knowing what is done for Christ has eternal value.
God’s blessing to me have been numerous. He changed me. He gave me the capacity to love and be loved. He gave me a new family and super wife. All my children walk with the Lord. Praise God!
Abundant life became mine when I asked Christ to forgive my sins and come into my life. The Bible guides me day by day as I walk with Christ. Is your life all that it could be? Will you give Christ the chance to fill your life abundantly? I know it works --- won’t you trust Him too?
If you would like to know more about the abundant life please call 1-800-322-9848
I miss you Uncle Duncan
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