TESTIMONIES: New Birth or Just Another Same-old/Same-old New Year?

Happy New Year! How’s your head feel today? Remember who you were with last night? Wish you don’t remember who you were with last night? And be honest, do you recall what you did with them? Do you even want to recall?

If you are like I was earlier in my life, your head hurts, you may or may not remember who you were with or what you did with them. And come tomorrow, it will be back to the grind, everything pretty much just like it was before the New Year.

So, why do they call it “Happy” New Year? Been there, done that.

Prior to March 1, 1991, I was the guy you see all the time in the nation’s capital – 20s or 30s, moving up in politics or some related career arena, college-educated, born and raised in the Flyover Country, and to all external appearances living the good life, heading toward success.

But behind the facade, something wasn’t right. Over a period of nearly two decades, I steadily drank more, partied more, became more ambitious and was all but totally self-absorbed. Toward the end of that sad phase of my life, it was obvious to everybody who knew me that something was seriously wrong.

But it wasn’t obvious to me. I grew up in Oklahoma, attended a Southern Baptist church and was baptized in the eighth grade. Through my undergraduate, graduate and early career years, I claimed to be a believer, but, as the years went by, being a Christian became less and less meaningful. I was “having too much fun,” I rationalized, and “nobody’s being hurt, right?” At a certain point, I didn’t even bother with the empty rationalizing.

Finally, Jesus brought me face-to-face with reality. It happened at 9:15 am on March 1, 1991, when I woke up from what has since proven to be my last drunk. He opened my eyes, for the first time, to see the utter wreckage of my personal life and all the people I had hurt or neglected along the way. The word that best described me was “hypocrite.”

Thank God that, despite all the years of ignoring Him, I knew where to look for the root of the problem — at the man in the mirror. I cried out “Lord, please help me.” And He did.

I finally understood, if only at the most basic level, that I needed Jesus actually to be the Lord of my life, not just a slogan. I needed to admit my sin and ask for His forgiveness. In other words, I needed to do what Jesus had explained to Nicodemus, I needed to be “born again” in Him:

“This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’

^“Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

^“‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again.The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’”

Sobriety and humility are wonderful and I’ve been blessed in the decades since with a wonderful wife, a son and daughter, six grand children, and a renewed career that I absolutely love.

The new career, as an investigative journalist, has led to many opportunities to shine the light of transparency and accountability in dark places in government and resulted in something I am especially proud of, being voted in as a member of the Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame. It was an honor being named Journalist of the Year by CPAC in 2008, too. And I’ve even been a consulting editor on a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporting series in 2014.

But growing in faith and serving my family are vastly more important than any career success. My day-to-day happiness depends not on me, but on the fact that I am His and my greatest desire in life is to serve Him wherever, whenever and however I can. And to hear when I finally see Him face-to-face, the words “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

That is also when I will fully and forever know the meaning of II Corinthians 5:17 that tells us: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.”

That’s the way to the truly Happy New Year and New Life. If you would like to know more, or maybe you just have some questions about these things, I am happy to sit down and talk with you, absolutely off-the-record.

Don’t worry, it’ll be a friendly conversation, no judgements, no preaching, just two people talking about how to make it on the Hill and elsewhere in life. I strive to always have a listening ear, a truthful tongue, a caring heart and a helping hand.

We can talk for half an hour (or more, or less, if you like) over coffee. And as I said, absolutely and completely off the record. Senate or House side. Tell me what works for you. God bless. Email me at: [email protected].