My Faith Story
By Gina Scruggs
Image by Blakeney Clouse
The high school football field that sits near Jasper’s downtown area holds many memories for me. From football games, to graduation ceremonies, over the course of five decades, that small patch of earth has been the location of some really fabulous memories in my life.
We have always loved attending high school football games. As a teen, I attended every game and watched my sister perform at halftime in the band. As a young parent, my husband and I raised our kids to attend the games and we would stay long past the last play to let our young kids play on the field before the lights were turned out for the night. In later years, we were able to experience the thrill of victory as our son played and our daughter cheered on that patch of ground during middle school and also during the high school years.
However, if you were to ask me my most treasured memory that I have of the high school football field, I would have to tell you the story of how it was on that field that I took the step to answer God’s call and ask Jesus into my heart at age 8.
In the spring of 1974, all area churches gathered at the town’s football field for several nights to hear the traveling evangelist, James Robinson. This was a much-anticipated event and the different congregations had different sections of the field where they gathered with their close friends with paper fans and song sheets clutched in their hands.
I was eight years old that spring and even at that young age, I had a clear understanding that Jesus loved me. I knew that God sent his son to die on the cross to provide forgiveness for my sins, yet I had never personally accepted this forgiveness and offered my heart and life to Him.
I remember that at the springtime crusade, the evangelist so clearly described the love of Jesus and he painted a picture in my mind of Jesus standing and knocking at the door to my heart. To my innocent, childlike mind this image moved me and helped to make me aware that I must take action, open the door, and accept forgiveness and invite Jesus to live in my heart.
Music has a way of cementing memories in our minds and I vividly remember the song leader singing these words, “The Savior is waiting to enter your heart, Why won’t you let him come in? There’s nothing in this world to keep you apart, What is your answer to Him? Time, after time, he has waited before, and now he is waiting again. To see if you’re willing to open that door, Why won’t you let him come in?”
As the song was being sung, those words finally had a very real and personal meaning to me. At the young age of eight, I walked down the stadium stairs, onto the grassy field and asked Jesus into my heart at the hash marks of the 50-yard line.
Some might doubt that a young child can have the awareness to make a clear and solid decision about their faith, but I can honestly say that those steps down those stadium steps so many years ago were the foundational steps for the life I live today. I am thankful for forgiveness; I am thankful for those who invested in my life as I was growing up and I am thankful for my small Alabama town that provides me with so many solid Christian influences and experiences. 78