11. Enter—God

During this time, and quite without their awareness, the Lord was bringing both Byron and Esther to the end of themselves. Neither of them were Christians. Though raised in church-going families, they both quickly dismissed this "Sunday school" preaching as being irrelevant to their life-style. They had not as yet uncovered the secret of the richness that would be theirs in future years.
 
In her younger days Esther had fallen prey to the vice of alcoholism. She and Byron had participated in many wild parties long ago. While her husband seemed unaffected, Esther had begun to notice signs of a dependency in herself, which she promptly ignored. After a while she faced reality and decided that she needed to quit. And she did, for five years.
 
And then Bess Boston, who was now living in Ft. Lauderdale herself, came to help Esther decorate her house for Christmas. After several strenuous hours, Esther and her mother sat down to take a breather and enjoy a very little bit of wine. It was then that Esther realized that alcohol could still control her life. That evening she found herself staring at her haggard reflection in the bathroom mirror, an empty bottle in her hand. She was frightened, and decided to join Alcoholics Anonymous.  
 
Byron, too, was going through one of the hardest times of his life. He had decided that he was just a burden. He felt that he couldn't provide for his family and that they would all benefit from his death.
 
Esther began to improve, however. In later years she would write that "[God] reached right down and plucked me out of my misery." He led her to A.A. and she "floated on a pink cloud" for about a month, went to A.A. meetings, developed numerous friendships, and was permanently freed from addiction. But as she became happier and happier Byron became more and more depressed until the day he closed his shop, came home and advised her that he had decided it was better to "end it all."
 
Esther had been praying for him to come to the "end of his rope." She was overjoyed at his declaration of hopelessness because she could sense a great change was about to take place. In A.A. there are 12 Steps, and the 11th reads: "We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out."
 
Esther invited Byron to come to an 11th Step meeting in Miami, and it was there that he became desperate enough to accept one man's strange suggestion. He told Byron to repeat the word "God" three times and see what would happen. Byron did that, and was suddenly bathed and inundated with God's love. Esther had to drive on the way back, he was so overcome. When they got out at their home he said, "I don't know much, but I know one thing: God is love."  
 
After this their lives were transformed. It would be a long while before they realized exactly who "God as we understand Him" is, but for the time being they merely reveled in the fact that they had found peace. They had come empty and been filled.