Recently my uncle passed away. That would have been absolutely devastating news, but God’s grace had been at work in his life. Just a few months earlier, he had come to know the Lord—all because of a simple project I started with my son, Cameron.

Cameron had just turned 14 and I wanted to figure out a way for us to spend a lot of time together in these very important years of his life.  I had this uncle who restored old cars, so I thought we could give that a try together. I figured it would take a couple of years and lots of work, so we’d have plenty of time together.  I soon realized that it would take several years and a ton of work!

When I first told Cameron what I was thinking, he wasn't very excited. Then I showed him what a finished 1967 Mustang looks like. Let’s just say he warmed up to the idea!

So far, it isn’t much of a car. We just call it “rust bucket” for now. It wasn’t long before we realized we were in way over our heads.

So I called my uncle to ask for advice and he even came out to Texas to help. This turned into a big turning point in my uncle’s life. He has never been a believer and he dealt with a lot of pain as a child that he's blamed God for his whole life.  Any time I'd bring up God he would say how angry he was at God and how he was never going to change, period.  But as we began to work together, he began to open up.

He had been teaching us the importance of getting rid of every piece of rust on our rust bucket, and how if you don't get every single ounce and speck of decay and rust off the car, it will rust over again after you’re all done and ruin all the hard work and money you put into it.

As we worked on that rust, I began to realize that this is exactly what God does in us. He goes into our lives when we’re nothing more than a “rust bucket,” and He scrapes away the rust, decay, and pain that has overtaken our lives to restore us and make us new, clean, and whole!

So I finally just told my uncle, “You know, you're just like God. You take old, nasty rusty things and you restore them and make them new again.  And that's exactly what Jesus does in our lives!”

He wasn’t really sure how to take that at first, but we kept talking, and he ended up giving his life to the Lord! It wasn’t much later when he called to say that he was diagnosed with Leukemia. Soon after that he went to be with Jesus. It was a shock for us all, but we know where he is now, and we can’t wait to see him again soon.

We were praying about next year’s Acquire the Fire theme during this time too, and that got me thinking more about the theme of restoration. Many students today—non-Christians, even Christians—don’t know what it means that God’s grace completely restores their lives. So at Acquire the Fire this year, we’re going to show them how God takes the “rust bucket” of our lives and turns it into something wonderful! I’ll be sharing this story so they can see what happens when we let God restore our lives.

The tour is called Collision, and if you haven’t already, I encourage you to learn more about it on the Acquire the Fire website.