My Light

By:  Larry Lee Halverson

            So many signs, yet I was still lost on the road of drunk driving.  I am a poster child of continual ignorance of every sign God afforded me in life.  It took a 60-year span of both losing my life (literally) and the taking of someone’s life to find my true purpose in life. 

            What was that purpose?  To be the Lord’s blessed licensed and certified drug and alcohol counselor who specializes in Driving Under the Influence cases.

            In 1969, an auto accident almost took my life. In 1970, an auto accident did take my life as a result of a drug deal gone bad.  While evading the scene of a shoot-out, being shot, passing out, and wrecking, I floated above my vehicle watching the emergency crews trying to extract my body from my buried car.  I became aware of an intense bright light above me.  In turning toward it, I saw someone above beckoning me to them saying, “It’s time!” to which I distinctly responded, “Not yet, there is so much more that I want to do…that I am to do.”  At that moment, or so it seemed, I awoke with most of my family around my bed in a hospital room.  A few days later my baby sister told me I had died twice, once at the scene and again on the table.  The Lord allowed me back.

            One would think such an event would be enough to make a wayward lost Christian to “see the light” and return to the Lord’s ways.  Not yet!  It would take another 40 years of the roller coaster lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, and a wave of DUIs culminating in taking someone’s life.

            The prosecution’s result to this was a 20-year-to-life sentence. My initial resolve was that I would probably die in prison.  That, however, is far from what the Lord had planned.

            I instead found my life lighting up with my renewed walk with Christ, my Savior.  I got busy enrolling in self-help groups that would show the worth that God saw in me.  And His Holy Spirit, living in me, continued guiding me to counseling groups and facilitating some that led me to learning about the OMCP (Offenders Mentoring Certification Program).  Another light came on!

            Then came Proposition 57 effecting non-violent offenders to the point of reducing excessive sentences to the proper penal code prescribed terms.  Moving my mandatory earliest parole hearing date from 2036 to 2022 with even more possibilities of earning additional time credits.  Yet, another light!

            Then a Christian brother invited me to enroll in the next “Life Above Reproach” session that would be starting shortly after the end of The Truth Project session where I was a facilitator.  My path couldn’t get much brighter.

            The Lord’s Holy Spirit in me, along with a nudge and forgiveness from my victim, and a consoling touch from my mother, has all conjoined in being my base of confidence.  I am in the right light of my life.