Meeting Terry Scroggins...

My heart was about to beat out of my chest...I KNEW he was there...I knew it! I had made a split second decision knowing that this would most likely be my once in a lifetime opportunity. As we walked in my heart pounded harder....Could it be that he was here? What if I'd made the wrong decision and he wasn't? I would regret it for a LONG time....Maybe for the rest of my life...I might not ever get this opportunity again.....

There he was....I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! Just a few feet in front of me standing there smiling...I grabbed Amy's arm so tight I almost hurt her..."IT'S HIM! IT'S HIM!!!" I couldn't believe it....less than 25 feet in front of us was Terry Scroggins...My most FAVORITE Bassmaster Angler....I had actually made the right decision....He was there! I'd anticipated this moment for over a year and a half and it all boiled down to this final moment....He was right in front of us....My heart was REALLY racing and I couldn't think of anything but the words I had wanted to say to him for about the last five years.

I walked up to him moved mostly by adrenaline and said "Terry Scroggins, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!" Those were the words that everyone who knew me, knew I was going to say, I'd played them over and over in my mind a thousand time over the last two weeks. He was awesome! He was very kind and he was very pretty!!! He took a couple of pictures with me....As we were walking away, I was shaking I was so excited...My year was complete!

I almost died trying to dial the phone to tell Dori and Chrissie...Of course neither one of them answered and I was about to DIE to tell them I had finally done it...I'd met Terry Scroggins. Finally Amy got in touch with Dori (who had chosen to go out of town rather than share one of the most exciting moments of my life with me, but I forgive her) and the first thing I could say "I was close enough to him to smell his breath!!!!" I probably talked a million miles an hour telling her how excited I was, how awesome he was and how good he smelled. She was polite and listened to all of it. It was the best day of my life.

Amy and I walked around for a long time. We saw all my fishing heroes: Gerald Swindle, Ish Monroe, Fred Roumbanis and Chris Lane....We even saw Kevin Van Dam (for those of you who don't know him, he's the Michael Jordan, Emmit Smith of Bassmasters). They were all great, but nothing compared to Terry Scroggins. Amy witnessed my reactions to all of them and she'll tell you that I was WAY excited to meet Terry.

On the way home, Amy and I talked about how cool it was to just be able to walk up to them and talk to them, take pictures with them and how much fun the event had been. After I dropped her off, I began to think....

If I get that excited over Terry Scroggins, who most of you reading this (unless you know me very well) have no clue who I am talking about....How much more excited will I be when I meet Jesus face to face....Talk about shaking with excitement. All I've talked about for almost two weeks is the Bassmaster Classic, what I probably should have been talking about is how awesome it will be to meet Jesus...While there is nothing wrong about meeting someone and being excited about it, I think we all tend to forget one thing...Although meeting Terry Scroggins wasn't a guarantee when I left home this afternoon, meeting Jesus is guarantee for ALL of us. Will you run up and say "Jesus, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!" Or will you hide in shame because you never took the time to meet Him?