The rising of generation xtreme - part 1 in the serialising of Carl Anderson's Changing Of The Guard

The End Of The Innocence

When I was in the tenth grade our family uprooted and moved away from the home we had been in for almost five years to a mid-size town in north-central Minnesota.

It was a new environment for me. There would be new friends to make, new teachers, new subjects. Throughout my school years, I found it difficult to make new friends, and this was no exception. For several months I didn't meet anybody to really "hang out" with. Then one day, Brian Dufour and I crossed paths. We were the same age and shared similar interests. Once I played a song on our high school radio program for him and his girlfriend, and soon we became friends. Somehow he found all my silly jokes quite humorous. He had a laugh and a smile a mile wide that none could forget. He was a great kid.

After school was out that year we had more time to hang out. He took me golfing; and oh! I was a terrible golfer! But he hung in there with me. Then there was the dreaded driver's test. My sixteenth birthday was approaching, and we would spend much time on the phone together, as he had just gotten his driver's license and he was giving me all of the tips I'd need to get mine.

Late that summer, our family had to move back to Minneapolis because our house wasn't selling. We had to live in it until it was sold, so Brian and I parted ways. Half-way through that year, I lost touch with him and most of the other students up there. One day I came home from school, and my mom announced that one of my classmates had committed suicide.

"Do you know their name?"

"No. I just heard that one of the juniors committed suicide. It was a young man."

Several weeks passed, and I still remember the moment that I heard the news. It was my friend Brian. He had committed suicide.

Apparently he and his girlfriend had been having problems, and also he and his brother. One morning, trying to patch things up, in a desperate attempt he went to her house. There was an argument, and he walked out into his car and shot himself through the skull. That was the end of Brian Dufour.

And that was the end of my innocence. Death was staring me in the face. The Bible tells us that "the last enemy to be abolished is death" (I Corinthians 15:26). It had taken away my friend Brian, never to return him again. Death is real. It is cold and hard and real. And: it doesn't play fair.

Or should I say that Satan doesn't play fair? This is the truth - and I urge you to wake up to it - the enemy is after your life - he's after you and he's after me.

Carl Anderson

This point was made real to me by an incident that happened on a recent ministry trip to Orlando, Florida. I had just finished preaching at a meeting, and was tired and hungry. The facilities were rented and had to be cleaned up before we left. I got impatient and anxious. I guess my humanity was getting the best of me.

Finally, after what seemed like an endless delay, we left the building. Just outside, we were delayed five more minutes by the pastor speaking to somebody. As we got into the van and were headed down the interstate, we had to slow down because of an accident by the side of the road. Apparently, the accident had just happened, and only one police car was there. The ambulance was on its way but hadn't yet arrived. As we slowed down, I was the only one in our van to get a real good look at the accident site. A small car stood smashed in the front, with the windshield blown apart.

It must have been a head-on collision. I'll never forget what my eyes beheld next. In front of the smashed-up vehicle lay the body of a young woman. Blood streamed on the ground, matching the color of her red-checkered dress. The top half of her was covered only by a blanket. She was dead. Killed instantly being thrown through the windshield of her car.