By signing, clipping, and mailing in a coupon, my life was revolutionized. It is interesting that the Lord used such a means with me, since in my advertising-promotional background, I had prepared coupons for everything from fountain pens, to pianos, to information for colleges. With a Master's degree in business advertising from Northwestern University in America and four years of promotional experience with advertising agencies and colleges. I thought I was well on my way to a successful career when I was given the position of director of public relations and instructor of journalism in one of Southern California's most outstanding private liberal arts colleges. I was married and with two healthy children and a third on the way, there was every reason to be happy.

Through a family inheritance we were able to buy a large four bedroom house in the nice section of town. Because of my position at the college and a measure of wealth, my wife and I soon found ourselves involved in many civic and cultural activities, being entertained among the higher social set in the community. Outwardly we appeared like the model family, but within there were growing tensions. The evenings out for a dinner, a concert, or a play no longer seemed to be able to salve the growing frictions over a thousand and one little differences. Finally the sputtering fuse exploded.
It was a beautiful spring day when I was directing a carefree laughing group of students on my committee to decorate with boughs of forsythia and colorful bunting the college gymnasium in preparation for the annual Mother's Day celebration. A phone call from my wife shocked me quickly out of my happy mood. She had left home with the children and did not plan to return. I thought she would change her mind and return, but she didn't. The days wore on into weeks and then on unto drudgingly long months of aching loneliness. Eating breakfast alone in the large breakfast nook, seeing the unnaturally tidied toy box, hearing my own footsteps echoing through the large house, the absence of the ring in the bathtub, all became daily painful reminders of my loss. For two years, I apologized, begged, reasoned, brought flowers, and triexl every strategy I could think of, to try to get my family back. A 5,000 mile auto trip to Alaska that I thought would help me forget my problems only gave me more time to think and added to my loneliness and despair. Back in California, the dances, the socials, the parties only taught me the grim reality that one can be most lonely in the midst of a crowd.

Finally with the increasing anxiety at the possibility of a complete breakdown, I resolved on a drastic plan to force my wife and family back. I was still rational enough to see the danger of someone being physically injured or myself being jailed, but I felt so desperate I just didn't care. The day I planned to take action, my roommate, an unbeliever, observing my tense behavior at breakfast, stated facetiously that I was acting just crazy enough to go to "that group of converted businessmen" that were having a luncheon that day. Of course they were too much interested in God for him but maybe they'd do me good. I laughed his suggestion off, but while I was on my way to see my wife, I saw the sign in front of the restaurant advertising the meeting. It was lunch time, I had to eat somewhere, so I reasoned I might just as well stop in.

The speaker had not shown up as scheduled, so individual business men were voluntarily getting up and telling how they had found fellowship with the Creator and peace in their hearts through Jesus Christ. My heart was strangely stirred. My mind seemed to flash back to a saying I used to read on a giant billboard coming out of my advertising agency office in Chicago at the corner of Wicker Drive and Madison Ave. They were the words of Jesus: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."' At that time, caught up vi the business world, the word had no meaning to me. But now after several years of going from one friend to another, to outstanding counselors and religious leaders and finding no rest, I wondered about this challenge of coning directly to Jesus. But How?
After the meeting a friendly fellow mimed Robert talked at length with me. At his encouragement, I decided to forget my foolish plan for forcing a showdown with my wife and to trust God for a solution. As Robert left me, he handed me a little booklet, "What Must I Do to be Saved?" I remember wondering , "Saved? But saved from what?" I didn't want to show my ignorance or perhaps I was afraid of his answer being embarrassing, so I simply said, �Goodbye."

I forgot all about that booklet until two days later. It was December thirteenth, to be exact, just twelve days before Christmas, and I was sitting alone in my public relations office. The building was unusually quiet, the students having gone home for the holidays. I was feeling sorry for myself at the prospect of facing another Christmas, alone and without my family. With a heavy sigh, I leaned back in my chair and plunged my hands into my pockets. I was surprised to find the little booklet. I began idly thumbing through it, but my attention was caught when I read the Words from Isaiah 53:4 "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." I thought, how could this be so in my life?
Immediately the words of Jesus I had seen on the billboard flashed back into my mind: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."1 And just as quickly I saw that the props I had built throughout my life for success and happiness were only elusive facades, miserable crumbling cardboard figures, and here was One who was offering me rest and a reality I'd never known.

When challenged by the coupon on the back of the booklet to indicate my desire to come to Jesus for fill and free salvation, I signed with a sense to transferring ownership of my life, at any rate the broken pieces that were left. In that moment, I found a peace that passes understanding. The next morning when I awoke 1 felt I was in a new world. I had never seen the sky so blue, I had never heard the birds singing so beautifully, and food never tasted so good. As I began walking around I felt as though someone had pumped clean fresh air into my lungs and helium into my shoes. Though I did not spend that Christmas reunited with my family, and though my wife subsequently remarried, in the forty plus years that have followed, I have never stopped marveling how God's love and warmth have dispelled the loneliness of my heart and how Christ has faithfully proved all-sufficient for my every need. I have experienced the reality of 2 Corinthians 12:9, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

RAY LENTZSCH
P.O. Box 4245
Modesto, CA 95352-4245
USA