The Life-Changing Testimony of David Staggers

     In late September 1971 a young college freshman made a life-changing decision. This college freshman was presented the good news of Jesus Christ through a booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws and at his desk in his dorm room, he made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. This decision was not made in a vacuum. God was at work in his life to bring him to this point of decision. This person, of course, is David Staggers and I am celebrating 50 years as child of God.

David as a freshman in the Corps of Cadets

The story of my salvation through Jesus Christ does not begin nor does it end with this life-changing decision. The story does begin with my childhood and two significant influences that impacted my life. I grew up in a home with parents that loved me and took good care of me and my siblings. We attended church on a regular basis, but we were nominal in practicing our faith. I found out later that my parents were born-again Christians, but their faith was more personal and quiet than expressed. As a result, I had to figure out what it meant to be a Christian. The first influence that impacted my life was living a “moral” life to please God.

     Growing up I don’t recall ever hearing the gospel message, therefore, I tried to figure out how I could please God and make it to heaven when I die. The conclusion I drew, which is the same conclusion every other religion except Christianity draws, is that good works is the way to make it to heaven. In other words, if I do enough good works and my good works outweigh my bad works, then God will accept me into heaven. This is what motivated me to become a “good boy.” Even my mother called me a “good boy” when I was growing up. I didn’t curse, I didn’t smoke, I didn’t drink and I regularly attended church without being coerced. My motivation for this behavior was to pile up the good works.  There were two downsides to this approach to life. The first downside was having a haughty spirit towards others. This was easy to develop since I was such a “good boy” and others didn’t meet my standards. The second downside was the uncertainty that this approach to life will really work. I remember distinctly, as a junior in high school, lying in bed one night and imagining that I was lying in a coffin. It was terrifying to my core because I had no certainty what would happen to me if I died.

     The second influence that impacted my life was the American Civil War. This may sound a bit crazy, but the Civil War was a god in my life. I define a god as anything that consumes your thinking and influences the decisions you make. This is how the Civil War impacted my life. My interest in the Civil War began when I was eight years old and this interest grew to the point that it consumed by life. My parents even encouraged my interest to the point that they would plan vacations around visiting Civil War battlefields. (This was a real thrill for my sister.) As I grew older, I was making my future plans around the Civil War. These plans included where I would go to college and entering the military after college. My interest in the military, however, was not to serve our country, but to better understand the Civil War.

     As already mentioned, my college choices were dictated by the study of the Civil War. This led to my decision to attend Virginia Tech. It made sense to attend a college in a state where a lot of the Civil War was fought. Also, Virginia Tech had a military system, structured like West Point, within the school. I would be a full-time cadet while in school and then graduate from ROTC with an officer’s commission. It seemed like a great combination even though it meant I would have to travel 3,000 miles from California to attend the school.

     In early September 1971, I arrived at Virginia Tech by myself on a bus ready to begin this new phase in my life. I had never been to the campus before and a kind Tech upperclassman happened to come by the bus station and drove me to my dorm. I arrived early to the campus with the other freshman cadets for orientation into their military system. I did not know what to expect, but I learned quickly enough after a couple days of orientation. I clearly remember my freshman buddies and I in Company C sitting in the hallway when one of the upperclassmen cadets said, “Now we are going to tear you down until you are a piece of dirt and then build you up into men.” They took us around the corner of the hallway and then they lit into us. All of the yelling and hollering at us was a bit unexpected and overwhelming. We were now initiated into the military system at Virginia Tech. The result of all of this yelling and harassment was a complete humiliation. They had succeeded in tearing me down until I was a piece of dirt. All of the pride and haughtiness in my life was destroyed. And in that state of mind, classes began at school.

     I was still a religious person and I attended church as a matter of habit. I attended a Sunday School class and had a civilian upperclassman sit next to me. His name was Wayne Robertson and he was a senior at Tech. After the class was over, he began to ask me questions about my spiritual life. All I could respond with was “hem and hah” answers since I did not have a real spiritual life. I only had a moral life. He then asked me if he could come and visit me at my dorm some time. I assented and a couple days later he came.

     I do not remember all of the details of his visit with me, but the important aspects are really clear. He shared with me a gospel tract called The Four Spiritual Laws. Wayne was a part of a Christian group on campus called Campus Crusade for Christ (called Cru now) and this was the standard tract they shared. I do not remember hearing the gospel being presented, but I do remember thinking to myself, “I want this.” Towards the end of the tract, it shows two circles representing a person’s life. One circle shows Christ outside of your life and the second with Christ in the center of your life. He asked me which circle represented my life. I said somewhere in between. Afterall, I did go to church. He then asked me which circle I wanted to represent my life. I choose the circle with Christ in the center.  He then asked me if I would like to receive Christ. I said, yes, and prayed the prayer to accept Jesus as my Savior. Did I feel any dramatic change in my life? No. Did I feel a burden lifted from me? No. Did I hear angels in heaven singing? No. But I know that I had accepted Christ and I knew He was my Savior. I am not sure of the exact date of this spiritual birthday, but I have chosen September 20 as the date. I know it is close to if not the correct day. [Later Wayne told me I threw him off when I picked between the two circles. But he figured he should go on and he asked if I wanted to accept Jesus. I’m glad he kept going.]

     Was this decision for Christ real? Yes, and God demonstrated the reality of this decision in two ways. Since I was a moral person before Christ, there was not a big transformation of my outward behavior. The transformation took place inside of me. The first way God demonstrated that my relationship with him was real was opening my eyes to the Word of God--the Bible. This was profound because I remember trying to read the Bible before I accepted Christ. In fact, I tried to read The Bible in Pictures when I was in high school. I read it for a few days and then put it away. I did not get anything out of it. As a child of God, my experience with the Bible was completely different. I could not believe how my understanding and excitement for the Bible opened up. I still remember the first time I read Ephesians 2: 8-9, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast.” As you might guess, “not as a result of works”, jumped out to me. That was my life before Christ, trying to get saved through works.

     The second way God demonstrated the reality of my relationship with Him was through my thoughts. I could have reasoned that my decision for Christ was merely psychological and would explain why God was more “real” in my life. But God operated outside of this realm and showed me in a definitive way that He was real. I distinctly remember sitting in a class and intently listening to the lecture. In the middle of the lecture my mind was flooded with thoughts about God. It really shook me positively because there was no external or internal trigger to cause this to happen. It was God communicating to me and showing me that He was real.

     I mentioned at the beginning of my testimony about the Civil War as my god. As I grew in Christ, the Civil War became less and less prominent in my life. I still studied history at Virginia Tech and graduated with a degree in history, but it was no longer a god. I now served the God of the universe. Even though the Civil War was my god before I became a follower of Christ, God still used it to work out His will for my life. God orchestrated my decision to go to Virginia Tech in order to have my pride demolished in the military system. This led to God putting Wayne in my life to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

     What an amazing God. Only God could work out a plan to send me 3,000 miles in order to meet Him in a dorm room in late September 1971. Fifty years later, I still would say, without hesitation, this was the most important decision in my life. Through these fifty years of following Christ, God has shown His love and faithfulness over and over. Unlike the terror I experienced lying in bed as a junior in high school, I now look forward with confidence to the day that He will take me home to be with Him forever. What a wonderful Heavenly Father I have.

-David Staggers                                                                                 -January 28, 2023