I've chosen this hymn as every verse means something special to me, including the chorus, How Great Thou Art. I cannot ever hope to understand why God would choose me, but he has had his hand upon my life and he has called me, in spite of my sins and weaknesses. It's obviously got nothing to do with me. It's all down to his amazing grace. It's very humbling to know that there was nothing I did or there was nothing special about me, but God chose me anyway. When I look back, especially on my childhood, it could have been so different. I was brought up with a father who had strong atheistic views. He had been a prisoner of war in Japan and had suffered horribly. When I became a Christian and tried to share my new faith with him, he used to say that he could never believe in a God who would allow such things to happen. And I think I can understand why he would have had that attitude after what he'd been through. I think mum was a Christian, but she never ever spoke about it. And when I was growing up, there was nothing remotely Christian. No church or prayers or anything like that. Anyway, as is quite common, I got in with the wrong crowd. I used to follow my brother everywhere and do whatever he did. He was six years older than me, so when he started smoking at age 12, I started smoking at age six. When he started drinking, I followed on likewise. There were all sorts of parties and all sorts of drugs and bad things happening. Looking back now, it's really amazing that I didn't end up in a very bad state. There was a specific experience, which I don't need to go into here, but it did have an impact on me and shocked me into changing my ways. I still was completely unaware of God, but I made some life-changing decisions on my own, so I thought. I was settled then into a normal, routine, safe way of life, until I felt the urge to go to church. I had no idea where this urge came from. No one had asked me or prompted me to go, but it was a strong urge that I couldn't shake off. I went to the nearest church to me, which was a very high Anglican church, with all the incense and tradition. I kept going every Sunday for quite a while. And I used to come home afterwards feeling pretty pleased with myself. There was never anything challenging to me personally in the services, but I usually came away with a nice warm glow. At that time, I was working in an office with one of these born-again Christians. She was also called Karen, and I used to find her a bit of a nuisance, to be honest. I used to think, well, I go to church, too. Why does she seem so much holier than me? But she was always doing the right thing, even when it meant going against the rest of us. For instance, she would insist on claiming the correct expenses for mileages instead of the amounts that were agreed by the rest of us, which was slightly exaggerated, of course. Anyway, one day Karen was reading a book by the American Chuck Colson. He had been sent to prison for his part in the Watergate scandal and became a born-again Christian whilst there. I was completely ignorant at the time about the whole Watergate affair, and I thought it would be a good idea to read a book about it. I asked Karen if I could borrow the book when she had finished with it. Strangely enough, she finished it the next day. Karen had gone home and phoned some people in her church, and they immediately started praying for me. So I guess I didn't stand a chance from then on, really. I read and enjoyed this book and discovered that Chuck had been changed by reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I was so challenged by Chuck's story that I went out and bought Mere Christianity for myself. I started reading it and I didn't get very far. Page 52. I hope you don't mind me reading a bit of it to you. The chapter was discussing the fact that Jesus had amazingly told people that their sins were forgiven. And C.S. Lewis goes on to say, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with a man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God, or else a madman, or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not have come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Well, that made me think. I knew I believed in the actual fact that Jesus had lived on Earth about 2,000 years ago, but documented evidence for that fact was overwhelming. I didn't believe he was a madman or evil, so that left me with the only option, that he really was God and that I needed to do something about it. C.S. Lewis mentioned falling at his feet, but I felt too unworthy to even be in his presence. I knew that you could ask Jesus to forgive you and come into your life and that you were simply then to believe that and he would come into your heart. I was on my knees straight away and praying for forgiveness for all my sins. I was aware that I was hopelessly lost and that I needed help to get right and clean before I could even begin to contemplate falling at his feet. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and he did. He is so gracious to me, I knew straight away that I was forgiven. I had asked Jesus into my heart and he came in. I was changed in an instant, how beautifully, wonderfully easy it was. The following days were very memorable to me. Everything was wonderful. The colors were vivid, nature was poetic, the birds seemed to be singing just for me. As the hymn says, when through the woods and forest glades I wander, and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. when I looked down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze. I was forgiven. I was saved. The most wonderful thing though was that I now had a precious relationship with Jesus. Just to think that the creator of the whole universe came and died on a cross for me. How could it not fill me with astonishment and wonder and gratitude? And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. I've been through a lot of living since I became a born-again Christian back in 1982. Like everyone else, I've had times of pain, loss, and sickness. But I've been kept strong in my faith, and I keep coming back to the knowledge that when I die, I will spend eternity with my Lord in heaven. I realize that every day is there to be lived to the full. It is up to me how I spend my time each day. Rather than focusing on frustrations and problems, I get the right sense of priorities when I look up to Jesus. If I can keep remembering that life is temporary, and at the end of the day, what is it that is going to matter? When Christ shall come, we shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then shall I bow in humble adoration, and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art. By the way, I did read The Whole of Mere Christianity, and it is a book I would highly recommend to everyone. It is such a wise and encouraging book, I really wish my father had been given some of C.S. Lewis's books on suffering and pain. Lewis himself saw plenty of that in the war, and he writes with amazing insight and clarity. And isn't it great that God used my love of books to bring about my salvation? How great is he!