Inspiration | Motivation | Storytelling

My First Experience with Grace Undeserved

And other memories from my 13th year…

When I was 13 I did just about every thing a 13 year old boy could do to get in trouble in 1971.

Just a few years earlier I had won a big trophy as The Sam Bailey Outstanding Citizen for Dade County Schools.

Then from August of ’69 to March of ’71 we moved from Miami to Kansas City to Virginia to Washington, DC, to Orlando. 4 schools in 7th grade.

So by the time October of ’71 rolled around I was ready to blow it out.

And boy did I. Smoking, drinking, shoplifting and lots of other things for which I never got caught.

What I Did Get Caught For…

But I did get caught for smoking pot.

One Monday morning, after getting high with a friend on Sunday night, my friend Chuck came up to me at school and said:

“Right now my mom is over your house telling your mom everything.”

Chuck had gotten caught the night before and gave up everything.

Walking home after school and seeing my Dad’s government car in the driveway early told me Chuck wasn’t making it up.

Even though there was a lot of punishment coming, I quit the moment my Dad asked me with tears in his eyes:

“Are you hooked, son?”

An Uncomfortable Monday Night Meeting

We had gotten it from the kid next door who had gotten it from the kid 5 doors down.

That night all four kids, our parents, and a friend-of-the-family-police-officer all gathered to discuss the situation.

We were all certain we were going to kid jail. So my “grounded for 6 weeks, can never be around Chuck again, only go to school and home, and join the Boy Scouts punishment” was happily accepted on the spot.

And Then Grace Showed Up

That was a looong 6 weeks.

A few good things came out of it though:

1) In the Boy Scouts discovered I could be a leader. Became the youngest Patrol Leader in Florida at that time.

2) Here comes the grace part:

Six weeks finally passed and I was allowed out of the house after school for something other than yard work.

I’m several houses down the street when Chuck comes riding his bike around the corner. I tell him loudly, over and over, to “go away, I can’t be around you and I don’t want to be around you!”

I said loudly, but it was not loud enough for my Dad, who had just walked out on our porch, to hear me.

So I hear:

“Jeff, get your ass down here right now!”

Great, I’m grounded for life now.

Now here’s one of the really lousy things we had done before I got caught:

One of the girls in our group babysat for a single mom down the street. Some nights after she would get the kids to sleep when she was babysitting, we would gather, play cards and get high.

Really lousy thing to do. There’d be hell to pay if a babysitter had ever done that with my kids around.

So while I’m desperately trying to convince my Dad I was telling Chuck to go away, which of course he could not hear over his own yelling, that same single mom ran down the street to tell my Dad:

“No Ken. Jeff was doing the right thing. I heard him telling Chuck over and over again to “go away, I don’t want to be around you.”

I stood there with tears in my eyes, and finally managed to stammer out a “thank you” followed by an incredulous:

“Why?”

Her Answer:

“Because I’ve forgiven you. I heard you doing the right thing, and you’re a good kid Jeff.”