Jimmy Paulos
He Called Me by Name: Jimmy, Come to Me!
Year Signed Covenant: 1977
Passed into Glory: 2013
While writing my testimony, I discovered my life was somewhat analogous to Thomas Cole’s painting The Journey of Man. The paintings depict a human being at infancy, in adolescence, as a young adult and finally in old age. In his infancy, man is close to God, with the angels and the Holy Spirit leading him. There is innocence and unity with God. Man is then shown as an adolescent and still close to God, but the hour-glass of life is running. The angels are still present, but there is a separation of man and God. The vision of heaven and the angels are drifting away from man. In the third painting, man is furthest from God. The world is shown as cruel and brutal. The man is losing hope in God, the vision of heaven and God’s plan. The final painting shows man coming back to God and the vision of heaven re-opens. There is hope as man reaches out to God and heaven.
I grew up in a fairly Christian home. My mother was a Sunday school teacher, and we attended church as a family every Sunday. I felt close to God and was at peace. I was content as the child in the painting by Cole. I still knew God, but I began my drift away from Him. Filled with the passions of youth, I soon found myself steeped in the world with my priorities completely out of whack. I was following the wrong crowd and was indifferent to God and His plan for my life.
As an adult I was far from God just as was the young man in the painting. I was drifting further and further into the world and more into my plan for my life. Financial success and material things were my goals. Everything else took second place, even my family. My personal life was disintegrating. I was a weekend party animal doing pot and drinking. My wife was unhappy and soon tired of the party lifestyle. She gave up drinking and smoking but didn’t expect me to. We seriously talked about separating but decided to postpone it for one year.
It was during that year, 1975, that my wife became involved in the Charismatic movement. Two of her brothers were part of the Alleluia Community, a charismatic ecumenical community. She had attended a conference where she had a spiritual turn-around. I thought the whole thing was a plot to get control of people’s minds and money. I allowed her to attend the Thursday night prayer meeting but decided to go with her and take notes. This way I could keep an eye on her and prove my point that the whole thing was a deception.
I started going to the prayer meetings yet did my own thing the rest of the week. It didn’t take long before I tired of this arrangement. One evening after a prayer meeting, I went into a rage because of the things I thought were going on with my wife Joanne. She started attending the weekly “Life in the Spirit Seminar” classes that were taking place before the prayer meeting, so naturally, I attended too. I didn’t want any opportunity to slip past me to prove my theory that the whole thing was a ruse. However, I became very upset one night when Joanne was “slain in the Spirit.” Filled with an intense anger, I grabbed Joanne and left the meeting. We headed toward the only person I knew who could answer my questions. The guy was the discussion leader of our group in the Life in the Spirit classes. Depositing my family at my brother-in-law’s house, I headed to the leader’s house. Standing in his dining room, I let loose with all the anger and confusion that was pent up inside me. Calmly, this fellow suggested that we pray. I told him that I didn’t pray. He knelt and invited me to do the same. I told him I didn’t kneel to tie my own shoes, and I wasn’t interested in kneeling down in his dining room. He knelt anyway, and soon I did too. What happened next is hard to explain.
I saw a vision of Jesus. He called my name and said, “Jimmy, come to me.” I did not see His face for it was brilliant with light, but I saw the rest of His body. In that moment I became a different person. Once again the peace and contentment that I had known as a child flooded in on me. Like the man in Thomas Cole’s paintings, I had come full circle. Again, I felt myself close to Jesus and reaching out to Him.
This all happened in December of 1975. In July of 1976, Joanne and I made a commitment to live our lives in common with all the others the Holy Spirit had called to Alleluia Community.
This July, Joanne and I will celebrate 22 years in Alleluia. We have gone through enormous changes both individually and as a family. We heard the call to adopt four children adding to the three we already had. We have stumbled and failed many times but have never wavered in our decision to follow Jesus.
In Cole’s fourth painting, the man has returned to God and there is hope. The vision of God is before him once again. I too have found Jesus, and His vision for me is before me. He has called me by name and led me to Christian community. We are all striving to do God’s will together. Life has not always been a bed of roses, but Jesus never promised me that. I am closer to my wife, my children and my God. It doesn’t get any better than that!