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CBN.com – Adventure writer Tom Morrisey has never been the type of guy who plays it safe.
Whether it’s motor sports, rock climbing or cave diving, Tom seems to have a real aversion to anything slow, level or stationary. Fortunately, he’s found a way to make money from his pastimes.
“I’m the executive editor of Sport Diver Magazine. So yes, I’m actually paid to dive and have fun.”
Tom grew up in rural Illinois, far from any water, mountains or cities. So he turned to reading and writing for adventure.
“I saw flat horizons and corn fields all the way around," Tom tells The 700 Club. "So I started filling in adventures in my head. That is a habit I never got rid of.”
As an adult, Tom became the go-to guy for several major Fortune 500 companies. He derived a lot of satisfaction from fixing other people’s problems. Tom tried to have as little to do with God or Christians as possible.
“I thought I was too smart to be a Christian to be honest. I saw a lot of intelligent people -- or people who I thought were intelligent people -- who professed to be atheist. I emulated that.”
Tom continued to run from spiritual things as hard and as fast as he could.
“I had a family tragedy -- the loss of a loved one," he confesses. "Rather than going to the funeral, I ran away to the island of Andros. I remember being on a deep dive there alongside a coral wall about 200 feet deep -- the kind of thing that you could spend all day looking at."
But it’s a big, lonely ocean out here, and for Tom, it was that loneliness that pointed him to the Lord.
“I found myself turning around and looking into the empty ocean instead, just watching the colors turn into black. I felt empty and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I’m lost.’”
But then a longtime scuba buddy began to talk to Tom about his faith and encouraged Tom to God with his life.
“I said, 'I really think that any decision I’d make right now would be a lukewarm decision because I really can’t believe. I just can’t believe in Christ.' He said, 'Well, why don’t you ask Him to help you to believe?' [It] just sounded like convoluted logic to me at the time. But I did. I said, 'Jesus, I want to know You’re real. Let me know that and come into my life.' It was as if somebody had taken all the doors and windows on a dry, dusty, dark place and let in bright sunshine and a spring breeze.”
That decision gave new purpose to Tom’s adventures and his life.
“Before I was a believer, I wanted to be the person that had all the answers," Tom explains. "It was embarrassing to me to be asked a question that I couldn’t answer. I wanted to be Mr. Fix-It. But as a Christian I found that the ultimate Mr. Fix-It is also the Mr. Made-It, the One who created the universe. I can’t do better than opening up and letting Him move through me.”
Tom continues, “Before I became a believer, I was writing for an audience. Right now I ’m writing for eternity. I think that’s the real difference.”
Tom still enjoys adventure, but now, whether it’s on his Harley or under the water, his reasons for being there have changed.
“Before, the things that I did with motorcycles, rock climbing, all that sort of stuff, was an escape. Now it’s a way of painting on the canvas that God gave me.”A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
