Power in the Key

A true event that changed my life forever.

It was a typical day For me at North High School, Akron Ohio. Somewhere between first bell and last I’m sure that someone made fun of me, or made jokes about me. After all, It was only the “weirdos” who carried a bible to school. And dare read it during study hall.

Kids in the early 80’s just didn’t get into the bible or God period. Being a young Christian in an enviorment like that was not easy. But I didn’t let it stop me. I loved the Lord Jesus as my savior and no one would change that.

My love for the Lord was strong. God blessed me with a talent to write music. So I spent a lot of my time doing just that. I wrote many short and long poems and songs that I kept in a note book. I shared them with my friends and family but there was one that was one of my personal favorites. The title was “The Key.”

It was a song that told about the love of Christ and that he put a key in your hand. What you do with it is up to you. You can use it to open your heart to him and let him in, or you can just throw it away. The choice is always yours. Of course in the end we all will know what we should have done with it.

The summer of 1981, my bible collected a lot of dust. And my book of songs, well, I think it got lost somewhere at the bottom of my closet. I was going to be a senior in high school. My old friends became a bore to me. I was tired of being too straight. I wanted to live a little. I wanted to just have some fun without feeling guilty about it! Well, that change of heart led me into a deep dark path that took me further and further away from God. Sharing the Gospel was replaced with the latest dirty joke and the Bible studies were replaced with parties and drinking. Yes, it happened. God never left me, and nothing could ever separate Him from me, but I just walked away. I some how ended up so far from Him. I even thought once that I was so far that He couldn’t see me any where I went. Thinking that made it easy for me to fall deeper into the hands of the enemy.

As fall was fast approaching I sighed up for the cross county team. I wanted to be popular in a new way so I started to get involved with all kinds of things. I wanted to be cool, like the other guys. Well, I needed to practice a lot in my running so I started a routine. Every morning I got up really early and took my brother Bill’s car to Goodyear Metropolitan Park. It was the best place to get a good run in. It was about 8 or 9 miles from my house. It had an awesome trail stretching up and down hills, 4 miles one way on a path that was wide enough for a car to drive on. But my favorite part was that the last half mile was a huge green field. Perfect for running it in to the finish as hard as I could.

One morning, as I began to leave the house quietly to go on my run, Bill stopped me. “Pete, you can’t go today.” “What do you mean, why can’t I?” He answered saying that he had a very important meeting at work that day and that he had to be in a little earlier to get things ready. I was really in the mood to get in my run that morning so I told him that I would be back sooner then normal. He still wouldn’t let me take his car. He said that this was the most important meeting he’d had yet. All the district managers were relying on him. I wouldn’t take no for an answer so I promised him that I’d be back one hour before he had to leave. He finally agreed and off I was.

Soon as I got to Goodyear Park I warmed up a bit faster then normal and began my one way, 4 mile, run. Up hill down hill along I ran. I loved the colors in the trees, as the leaves were falling I would speed along. Still had plenty of time and feeling great. Before I knew it, just ahead was the big opening. The half mile green field. I picked up my speed and burned it in all the way across to the finish. Wow. What a run, After I caught my breath I did a few stretches and walked back to the car. That’s when I realized I lost the car keys! I began to panic. I just ran over 4 mile on a wide trail, the leaves are even now falling on and somewhere lies that key. I began to walk frantically searching, hopelessly searching, but never finding it. The farther I got down the trail the more I realized how impossible it was to find the key. I may have walked right past it and wouldn’t have even seen it with the freshly blanketed path of leaves. “Oh no, what will I do, My bothers meeting! The key, the key, where is the key!” I kept looking down, looking and looking. But nothing. The time was running out. I had to find them and get back home. I didn’t want to mess up my bothers important meeting. “The key, the key, Oh God help me.” I kept thinking about the key, then I thought I could ask God to help me find the key. But then the guilt set in. I thought, here I am in desperate need of his help and I feel too ashamed to ask God for help. I walked away from him and now I’m crawling back. But I couldn’t face him. I didn’t deserve his help. As I thought about the key my thoughts moved to that song I wrote years ago. The Key. I thought to myself, I had the Key and threw it away. I wasn’t thinking about the car key anymore. My mind was now fixed on the key that God gave me. The key that opens the door to my heart to let him in. Oh God…what have I done… All I’ve done against you, God will you ever forgive me. I couldn’t think about anything else any more. My eyes filled with tears and my heart hurting with so much shame. I fell to my knees and cried out to God. “Help me Oh God, I am so lost and I can’t go on any more. God please forgive me,” I cried with all my breath, and all of my soul. “Lead me back to you Lord, Lead me back to your Key….” Then, just as the sun began to shine through the early morning clouds, a beam of the sun’s ray shinned just 10 feet ahead of me, something was shimmering. My eyes were so filled with tears that I couldn’t make out what it was, but yet in my heart I knew. I crawled forward and as I came near, there it was right in front of me. The KEY. I was so overwhelmed with shear joy. I couldn’t Do anything for a moment except cry. Then I grabbed the key and held it tight in my hand and raised it up over head and closed my eyes and thanked Him. I then realized that God never left me, just like the key that was right in front of my eyes, so too was God. On my run back to the car, something was different, It was not just the Joy of a renewed Spirit through Him, but that while I was running, I no longer felt alone. Now I had something to run about. God is with us always, You can walk away but He will put in your path, obstacles that will lead you back to Him. That is his unfailing love. Keep on his path and run the race he has set before you. Hold tight THE KEY.

– Peter Kish

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