Return of the
Dragon
Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of
life.
Proverbs 13:12
One day toward the end of his stay at Mansion Messiah, Michael telephoned Sandra: "They're having a picnic and hot dog roast on the beach at Corona del Mar Saturday," he said.
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah. A great musical group will be there. Thought you might like to join them."
"Are you going?"
"No, I can't. Got to prepare for a Bible study. But you go. I know you'll like it."
She wasn't sure. But a cousin of Sandra's was in town, an Idaho football coach, and she talked to him about it. He offered to go with her. Saturday came, and when they arrived at the beach Sandra blinked her eyes at what she saw. The whole area was overrun with people — over two thousand of them, all young — and Love Song was filling the air with electric guitar music. To Sandra the sights and sounds coming from the beach were fascinating. She could feel the atmosphere charged with emotion and love,
Page 107
and it cut her to the heart. So this must be what Michael's always talking about, she thought. If it's real, then I have to admit he's right. This guy who had so many needs and was so broken has found an answer that works.
And now Sandra had to face her own life. She had thought she had it all together as a proper young woman and a good mother. She was trying hard and studying hard, and she had worked out what she considered a sensible and satisfying plan for her life. But it dawned on her that day that her need was as great as Michael's. She could see the emptiness inside herself, and it was terribly humiliating. Michael had always been "sick Michael," and she had always been "well Sandy." Yes, this was what Michael needed, she thought, and then it was like a brick falling on her: This is what I need, even though I have felt so complete up till now.
She was standing with her cousin, and their mouths were literally hanging open. Then a lot of people stood up and clambered over the rocks and went down into the cove of the Pacific Ocean to be baptized. Sandra started down and got into line with them.
"What are you doing?" asked her cousin as she made her move.
"I have to get baptized," she told him.
Eventually she found herself standing alongside a tall young man with long blond hair. She had no idea who he was, never having seen him before.
"I have to do this," she said to him.
"Are you born again?" he asked her.
"I don't think so."
"Well, then, let's pray."
He held her hands and they prayed, and Sandra asked the Lord into her heart. Then she went out into the water and was baptized. The man who baptized her was the same man whose message had led Michael to Christ. She
Page 108
waded back to the beach dripping wet. No towels were provided. She found her cousin standing and waiting for her. It seemed something had happened to him, too. They just fell into each other's arms. Then they got into his car and drove over to the commune where Michael was staying. It was nine o'clock at night when Michael answered the knock. There was his ex-wife, dripping wet and smiling from ear to ear with the glow of love on her. He couldn't believe it. He could barely speak he was so touched. She said to him, "You have really found the truth this time!" And they both cried.
In the two years since the divorce, both Michael and Sandra had been dating other people. Now it seemed logical that they should get married again, but it didn't happen. Sandra continued her studies at Long Beach and began worshiping at Calvary Chapel. She met new Christian friends and studied the Bible as she had never studied it before. The man she was dating went to church with her and became a Christian.
Ed Smith was just leaving Mansion Messiah for the Laundromat one day with one of the "sisters" (as the female residents were called) and a huge load of soiled laundry, when Sandra dropped by.
"Can I come along?" she asked.
"Sure."
During the trip she managed to get Smith alone. "Well, Ed," she asked, "do you think that God can put people back together?"
"Certainly," he replied.
"But do you think it would be all right if Michael and I did it?"
"It would be very much all right if God brought you both to that place of relationship. I don't put anything past Him."
Page 109
Michael's first break came in October. The owner of the defunct Community Playhouse in Glendale, just north of Los Angeles, paid a visit to Calvary Chapel and was so impressed by its ministry to youth that she spoke to Pastor Chuck. "Can't you get something going for our kids up there? They're running wild. You can have my theater if you want."
Smith investigated the place, accepted the offer, and appointed one of his trainees, Randy Morich, to head the work. By combing the town, Randy rounded up eight young fellows, including Michael, to assist him.
The Glendale Playhouse was a theater in the round that seated 140 persons. Morich turned its dressing rooms into dormitories and moved into a house on the back of the property with his wife, Patty.
For Michael it was the end of an epoch. For five months the Bible had been the only book he had held in his hands. Now boot camp was over, and he was relocating on the staging area. Ed Smith hated to see Mike move his stuff out of Mansion Messiah, but he was glad, too, because he knew the Lord was calling Michael to a new ministry.
Michael was driven to Glendale, where he unrolled a sleeping bag on the floor of one of the dressing rooms. The work started from scratch. They were out on the street, talking to people, distributing handbills, inviting folks to a Bible study. The first night five showed up. The next night eight. The praying and witnessing went on, and Calvary Chapel sent some musicians to hold a concert. Within thirty days the theater was overflowing with two hundred people. Someone knew Pat Boone, and he showed up and brought his four daughters who sang. Things were booming in Glendale. Michael and his colleagues were sharing their testimonies at the meetings and praying with inquirers. But Michael was also praying for a mattress; the wooden floor of the dressing room was
Page 110
getting harder each night. After six weeks, what should arrive on a moving van driven by Tony and Mary Laddadio of Calvary Chapel but a thick mattress, plus box spring and frame, plus sheets and a pillow! A bed! thought Michael. Wow! I'm a real person again! And God taught him how to pray for basic necessities.
Once, when he drew the assignment of cleaning the rest rooms, he wondered if it wasn't time to reevaluate his situation. As he got on his knees and scrubbed the toilet bowls, he reflected, The time is short, right? I ought to be out preaching, saving souls on their way to hell, filling stadiums like Billy Graham, right? And where was he? On his hunkers, communing with the urinal cakes. But even while he scrubbed, a familiar tune came floating into the bathroom over the intercom. It was from the new Love Song album:
Hey, have you lost the feeling?Don't you hear the music any more?
Hey, have you tried to listen
But you thought you'd heard the song before?
Jesus puts the song in our hearts....1
As Michael listened, the Holy Spirit's love began to catch up with the words to the song. In the midst of his grumbling and complaining the peace of the Lord was suddenly there in that bathroom as he was on his knees with his hand in the toilet bowl. At that instant the Lord showed him that if he could just be content with Him in whatever he did, he could have the same blessing that Billy Graham had standing in his pulpit in front of fifty thousand people. He realized as a young Christian a great
Page 111
spiritual truth: "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Tim. 6:6). He was experiencing so much of the Lord's presence at that moment that he concluded, If this is what He has called me to do, I'd better do it!
It was Thanksgiving Day 1970. Michael was scheduled to preach in the theater, and Randy and Patty Morich invited Sandra to come and hear him. She did her best, but the Santa Ana freeway was jammed, and she was four hours late. Even so, as she parked in the pastor's driveway she had a feeling of anticipation. Something was in the air. She was not planning to marry Michael; she had an understanding with her boyfriend. But she sensed the Lord telling her that she had to be open to what He was going to do, that something was about to happen.
She had brought Mindi and David, and the reunion was a happy one. They had dinner in the Morich home and afterward, as she was putting the children in the car to drive back to Tustin, Michael kept his hand on the edge of the car door and looked at her. Then he said, "I think God wants us to get married again."
"Yeah," said Sandra, "I know. I do, too." And she drove off with the children.
Michael stared after her. What did I say? Sandra had every reason to hate his guts. She had every right to be filled with bitterness. He could hardly wait until she reached home before he was on the telephone. "What did we just say? What's going on?" They agreed to pray about it. If God wanted them to get together again, He would have to do it. There was no way they could do it. Other people were now involved. What should they do, then? Whom should they talk to?
Chuck Smith.
"There's no reason why you shouldn't remarry," Chuck told Sandra. "You have two fine children, and you both
Page 112
know the Lord. You've made mistakes, but your past is gone."
The Riddets.
The answer there was no. They were completely against it. It was deja vu, the return of the dragon. After all, they had underwritten Sandra's expenses all the way through school, had provided for her and her children, and could see light at last at the end of the tunnel as their daughter was getting ready to graduate and test her wings. And now here she was calling them on the telephone and saying, "I've got to marry this man again!" and claiming the "got to" was not her idea, but God's.
And what about Michael? they asked. He had no job and no future. He was in some kind of a teaching ministry with young people in Glendale that provided only room and board. He was contributing nothing to the support of the children. What was different about the situation this time? What made him a better risk than he was in Las Vegas? She had thrown herself away once. That ought to be enough.
Every time Sandra talked on the telephone with her mother the conversation would end in tears, with her mother crying, "How can you do this?"
When she told Michael about it, his response was: "They have every right to be against it, considering everything. But tell your mother that God is in this, and that He is going to bring so much love and fruit out of this that we are all going to love each other more and we are all going to be happy together."
Sandra called back and told her mother that, and it stopped the tears. "O.K.," she said, "how can I argue with that?" But the doubts remained.
______________
1. From the song "Jesus Puts the Song in Our Hearts" by Fred Field and Chuck Girard, copyright 1970 Dunamis Music/ASCAP. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
