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10th March 2010 by Julia Hosking

Fulton Hawk's story

Fulton Hawk spent his junior year of high school either high on drugs or drunk. He passed just one class the entire year.

Before then, he had never touched drugs or alcohol. He was a Salvation Army officer's kid. He went to church. He knew all the Sunday school answers. And he regularly encountered God: he would pray daily - in the morning or in the evening, sometimes both.

"But I wasn't really engaged with [God]," Fulton admits. "He wasn't the Lord of my life. I wasn't clinging to him."

The turning point for Fulton - when he admitted defeat and turned his life completely over to Jesus Christ - was Mother's Day, 1994. Fulton had overdosed on drugs, and needed his stomach pumped. His mum rode with him in the ambulance.

From that point, he started to have a real relationship with Jesus.

"I was depending on him. I was clinging to him. I was like: 'I give up. My way is nothing. It's led me to nothing but destruction. I'll go where you lead me'."

"One of the things I love about Jesus is the fact that he's an all-knowing God - he knows how many hairs we have on our head. Except when it comes to our sin, when we ask for forgiveness, he's forgetful. He's like: 'Your sin is as far as the east is from the west, let's worry about your potential'. And potential is always what you have in front of you."

A before B

Fulton lives in California and works for The Salvation Army's USA Western Territory. For the last nine years, he has been a Communications Specialist for the territorial youth department. That means he designs t-shirts and posters, creates videos for the youth website, and speaks at youth events.

Living this life was God's Plan A for Fulton. Sixteen years ago, when Fulton was using drugs, he was settling for Plan B.

"And Plan B is never as good as Plan A, in any scenario," he says. "It's when the scenario that you want, your best case scenario, isn't working out."

The youth of the Sydney East and Illawarra Division and the Greater West Division received the challenge to live Plan A and not settle for Plan B at the combined Youth Councils in February.

Fulton said choosing not to follow the path God has laid out is settling for Plan B. Whether we're using drugs, not obeying a call from God, or not deepening our relationship with Jesus, we're settling for Plan B.

"We're saying, God, I know you're the Creator and you know how to get the most out of me, and you have a plan for me, but I'm going to settle for Plan B."

Self-inflicted pain

Some people have told Fulton that hitting rock-bottom was part of God's plan to bring him to where he is now.

"I don't buy that," he says. "I didn't have to hurt my family; I don't think my friend Tim [who also started using drugs] had to die. I don't think all those things had to happen. In fact, they shouldn't have happened.

"I'm 32-years-old and I look back to that time, and I think, 'What a waste of time'. I don't look at it as a great point for me to grow. That was self-inflicted pain. That was never God's plan for my life."

I want to die finished

"My hope ... for people anywhere is that they'd just know how exciting following the Lord is. It's not always easy. It's not always fun. But it's more rewarding than anything you'll ever do; and more fulfilling and exciting, not knowing where God is going to place you next."

After his week in February in Australia, Fulton returned to his wife of nine years, Chrissy, and his seven-month-old daughter, Isabella. Once home, he prepared for a move out of his long-held territorial position in southern California to a divisional position in northern California.

This was a hard decision to make. Fulton loved his job at territorial headquarters. But God called Fulton, and Fulton is following because he knows it is God's Plan A - the only plan that will fulfil him.

"When I die, I don't want to die old, I want to die finished. Complete. Have nothing else that God wanted me to do. And I think that's the best way we can live."

By Julia Hosking

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