The extra thirty pounds coupled with drinking, smoking, and the seventy-hour workweek end up under the big camera while the surgeon threads the catheter into the thigh. "Dear Christ, what if I die? Where am I going? Mother, can you hear me? Help!"

We thought we were God's pet, the golden boy who was bound to live the good life forever.

Here we are, broken, sick, addicted to alcohol, without God or our family, without the respect of our acquaintances, maybe in prison, maybe with lung cancer or AIDS.

In the newspaper we read of those who at one moment are on top of the good life and the next moment are in the pits from personal tragedy.

What a way to learn!

Maybe it has happened to you. Believe it or not, I have good news for you.

There is a way back through Jesus Christ. And not just back, but back to heights that never could have been attained had we not suffered loss and then recovered.

Through the death of the blind Hebrew the whole company of Philistines was slain.

Out from the descendants of Adam and Eve will come the wiser, battle-hardened sons of God who will judge mankind and the angels.

The Christian Church has fought its way back from the Dark Ages until the Spirit of wisdom and revelation is beginning to rest on the assemblings. Never again will the saints lose the Presence of Jesus.

When the wall is rebuilt, as in the days of Nehemiah, the locks and bars are installed. The result is not as fancy as the original construction but far more deeply appreciated. That which we gain back the hard way we are apt to appreciate and maintain.

The Christian Church will march upward, clearing the stones from the Highway of Holiness, until our Lord returns and the sun rises on the new world of righteousness.

After six thousand years of insanity, by God's help we'll never lose Paradise again! "Get thee behind me, Satan!"

How about you? Are you in the pits? That's the hard way to discover the value of what you once were given so freely.

Perhaps it's not too late. Go to God. See what He will do for you.

Perhaps what will come out of your return home will prove to be the best that ever could have been.

But don't be such a fool as to turn to the pigs in order to have the opportunity to be welcomed back home. Appreciate what you have. Make the most of it. You won't have such a glorious testimony for the Full Gospel Businessmen but you will have your self-respect, a loving wife and children, friends, your health, and your God.

And Dude, those blessings are not to be taken lightly!