That time Dr. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins FOMOed me into repentance.

In September 2000, I deployed to an Airbase in Kuwait, and like most young service members, I struggled with relationships and my faith. I was a Christian, but thought being saved was enough.

I didn't care what I did or who I hurt because I was already going to Heaven. Plus, living like how I believed a Christian should, felt more like a punishment than a calling. More of a tradition versus a conduit to God. So I continued to live life just as I had before I got saved. Simply put, there were no changes and no repentance.

The deployment was especially hard on me because I was learning some hard lessons as a young man and working 12 hours a day. Plus, I had a Christian supervisor who would not relent on my salvation and scrutinized everything I did (with love), including my work ethic and worldly culture. He cared, but I just wanted to be treated like a man. The situation almost drove me away from my faith until, one day, I stopped by the library and saw a green and black book entitled Soul Harvest. I couldn't put it down and, like many of the fictional people in this Christian fiction classic, thought I was a Christian. Fixated on the characters' struggles with the AntiChrist, I didn't realize it was the 3rd book in the Left Behind Series, and when I did, I read all of them.

The Left Behind Series by Dr. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins centers on those left on Earth after the Rapture. In this biblical event, Jesus takes believers to Heaven, sparing them from the worst seven years in human history. One character that left a lasting impression and scared the sin out of me was Pastor Bruce Barnes. Bruce was an associate pastor of a church who ultimately did not ascend to Heaven with the millions (and possibly billions) of believers taken by Christ. I put myself in his shoes and realized what a fraud I'd been, and if the Rapture happened at that moment, I’d be left behind. The realization that I only got saved as a license to sin almost pushed me away from Christianity indefinitely. But, praise to God that I picked up Soul Harvest, and He indeed harvested my life, career, and soul. Special thanks to Jerry B. Jenkins and the late and great Dr. Tim LaHaye.