Beginning Tomorrow Today - By Timothy Sherman

Background

Just one year prior to the time of my story, something of God's love had begun mysteriously shifting my prodigal heart and lifestyle. I was consistently crossing paths with new and intriguing groups o fhippies. I had not known them closely and was only slight ly acquainted with them. These people had left the lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock'n roll for a higher enlightenment as Jesus freaks. I was a hippie, also, and was falling into a warm and caring friendship with one of these hippie girls named Deborah. She was constantly talking with me about our mutual desires to leave the shameful life of self-gratification and paranoia that was characteris tic of the culture. Our relationship, and specifically her influence, was drawing me increasingly closer to choosing the deeper longings and higher aspirations of a new love that was awakening in our hearts. We were finding an open agreement that was greater than our empty lifestyle. She led the way by constantly asking me about my knowledge of God. In deep sincerity she kept asking questions and making con victing statements that rang true in my gut, statements about spiri tuality, about the unknown and the unseen, statements about Jesus. From my early childhood I had been drawn to these things. Like so many in those psychedelic times, I was intrigued, and I was drawn increasingly to a new lifestyle commitment. These new direction friends seemed to have been transformed into excited, happy, giving, individuals who loved everyone without looking for something in return, and they did it without the high of drugs. I unexpectedly ran into them everywhere I went, whether I was strolling through the park, walking along a street, or hitchhiking across town. Without planning on it, the one I kept connecting with the most was this young lady, the one with whom I would some day 2 1