I pulled into the church’s parking lot in a monsoon. Patrick Hazard agreed to meet me in the Youth House. There were two houses on the property. I had forgotten to ask which one belonged to the youth. Fortunately, he arrived shortly after I did, and we splashed our way to the Youth House.
Pat gave his life to the Lord at the tender age of five. Misguided Christians taught him that life would be wonderful if he served God. Reality shook his faith when his third‑grade teacher had him suspended for preaching the gospel in school. Throughout his childhood, he attended church camps, which renewed his zeal, but the blaze quickly flickered into a smoldering ember.
The theology Pat embraced shattered when his parents divorced. Disillusioned by the teaching he had accepted as truth, Pat abandoned his faith to pursue a life of crime. He left home at age fifteen and survived on the streets of New York dealing drugs and sleeping on park benches. Two years later, Pat stood before a judge who gave him an ultimatum: join the Army or go to jail.
Before Pat left for boot camp, a friend asked him a simple Bible question. “I don’t remember the question,” said Pat, “but I remember feeling sorry for him. My friend came from a wealthy family. He had everything he wanted in life, but he was so miserable that he wanted to commit suicide.” Pat searched the Bible to find answers for his friend. Instead, he found the truth. The Christians he read about were persecuted, imprisoned, and some died for their faith. Pat closed his Bible with the realization that his early instruction in Christianity had been wrong.
He hoped a military career would give him a fresh start, and he resolved to abandon drugs. But his addiction refused to abandon him. While stationed on an Army base, he discovered pushers were scamming unsuspecting recruits by drying leaves and stems, adding seeds, and spraying the fake weed with roach killer. “I helped the recruits find the good stuff,” said Pat. The military police discovered his activities, and he soon found himself in jeopardy of being kicked out of the Army.
A compassionate sergeant kept Pat from a dishonorable discharge by building on the one thing Pat could do well—run. He assigned Pat to teach the men in his platoon how to run better. Pat quickly improved their running scores. Discovering his natural ability to teach redeemed Pat and set him on a new path.
“I was aware of a void in my life when I met Yulanda,” said Pat. “Her parents invited me to attend church with them. My relationship with Yulanda wasn’t working, so I decided to break up with her by embarrassing her family during a church service.”
Pat mocked the congregation, which patiently endured his antics. Then he spoke profanity loud enough for the pastor to hear as he preached his message. When Pat saw the pastor walking toward him after the service, he was positive he would be banned from attending the church. Instead, the pastor gave him a warm handshake and invited him to attend their Thursday night prayer meeting. Disarmed by the love expressed toward him, Pat accepted the invitation.
He arrived with Yulanda’s family expecting the kind of prayer meetings he had attended as a child—fifteen minutes of prayer followed by socializing. Two hours later, the people were still praying. Bored and ready to leave, Pat started an argument with Yulanda. Her father intervened and challenged Pat to consider his life.
Pat walked to the back of the church and sat down. He thought about the constant trouble in which he found himself and admitted that he wasn’t happy. He studied the people in the church. The emotion they expressed as they prayed contradicted his belief that God no longer speaks. He wanted the relationship with God they had.
In a moment of honesty, Pat told God he would read the Bible and pray, but he would not change. He didn’t want another stint within the white‑washed walls of a church. Pat kept his commitment, and God did what Pat couldn’t. He turned Pat’s love for drugs and alcohol into disgust. Instead of breaking up with Yulanda, he married her.
Shortly after they married, the Army sent Pat on his first hostile fire tour in Haiti. While his combat buddies sought to escape their misery on the Army imposed two beer limit per week, Pat read his Bible. He also met Sgt. Woodson, a devout Christian. He taught Pat how to study the Bible, how to preach, and how to design worship services around the Word of God. “I wasn’t easy to work with,” said Pat, “but Sgt. Woodson had a philosophy: ‘I’m willing to make you mad now to save you later.’”
Pat completed the Haitian tour and received orders sending him to Bosnia, where he met Sgt. Cahill. “Cahill was a walking Bible who taught me how to analyze Scripture,” said Pat. The year-long tour in Bosnia had been difficult on his family. He declined reenlistment and accepted a job as an ironworker. The company immediately sent him to rebuild a high school destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Over the next forty days, he had a similar conversation with a young coworker.
“I vividly remember the last time we had this conversation,” said Pat. The young man said, “Hazard, I’m twenty‑three. I have fifty years before I need to think about that church stuff.”
“You’re not guaranteed to make it home after work,” Pat replied.
“I’m a good person.”
“If you are judged for the good you have done, you’ll also be judged for the bad you have done, and any bad at all will disqualify you from heaven.”
“If everyone fails, how can anyone go to heaven?”
“By choosing Christ as your judge, confessing him as Lord, and receiving the gift of salvation he has freely provided.” This time, the young man received Pat’s message and prayed for salvation. They agreed to meet early the next morning for coffee and donuts. “He never made it,” said Pat. “On his way to meet me, he died in an automobile accident.”
Pat reminded me of my sister. Both were caught in a web of false doctrine that led them astray. The Bible warns us that there will be false teachers in our day, just as there were false prophets in the nation of Israel. But you can always find truth within the Bible, irrespective of religious leaders.
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