Have you ever had an experience that was so profound that it changed your life forever? An experience that you have thought of every day since it happened? Something that has brought you the closest to God than you have ever been in your life? I have, and I would like to share it with you. I used to tell people about my experience from memory. The unfortunate thing that happens when you do that is that the emotions of the event come along with it. This made it very hard to tell because I would have to stop to compose myself which would cause me to lose my train of thought and forget key parts of the story. So in August of 2023, I decided to write it down and this is the result. Hi, I’m Shane Dockter. I’m an ordinary person living an ordinary life. But then one day, something extraordinary happened. This is my testimony . It’s the fall of 2016 and I am 56 years old living in Colorado with my lovely wife Sandra. It’s around 9:30 on a Wednesday morning and I have just completed the 7th consecutive 10-hour long graveyard shift. I am thoroughly exhausted I am lying in bed reading the news on my tablet, unwinding so that I can go to sleep, when my phone rings. It’s my brother in Minnesota. This takes me by surprise as we usually don’t call each other except for birthdays and holidays. The first thing I think is, is there something wrong with Dad? So I answered the phone. After some small talk he gets straight to the point. Our father is visiting him from North Dakota and he was wondering if it would be okay if dad came to visit me. After a moment of silence I hesitantly said sure. My brother told me that Dad would probably be getting there on Friday. We then ended the call and I started to cry. I’m assuming you’re thinking, why is he crying? His dad is coming to visit. The answer is complicated. My father and I have been estranged for some time. In the past I used to say it was because he was a little heavy-handed, but in actuality it was a bit more than that. I was terrified of him. When my father would get angry with my brother and I he would slap us about our heads. His favorite way of doing it was by slapping the back of our head so we wouldn’t see it coming. He would slap us so hard that we would actually see stars. There are other things he would do when he was angry or upset. One time we were at a fast food restaurant when I was approximately 6 years old. He had said something to me and my reply upset him. I don’t remember what the conversation was about but I do remember the consequences. He asked me if I could cover my face with my hand, I gave him a puzzled look and he said ” just cover your face with your hand “. So I brought my hand up to my face to see if I could cover it and he smacked the back of my hand bloodying my nose. Another time when I was about 9 years old, my brother and I were having a snowball fight in the front yard. I was yelling at my brother because he was compressing the snowball so hard that they were turning to ice and really hurt when they hit me. Our father opened the front door and yelled at us to stop if we couldn’t play without arguing. But I didn’t listen because I was still upset with my brother. I had broken my arm about a month prior but we waited a while before we went to the doctor, and instead of a cast he just put it in an elastic bandage. I couldn’t compress the snow very hard because it hurt my arm if I tried to push too hard. So I braced my broken arm against my leg and packed the snowball as hard as I could and threw it at my brother. Unfortunately he ducked and my hardened snowball hit the front door with a loud bang. My father whipped open the door and yelled ” get in the house “. When we got in he asked who threw it and I confessed. He then proceeded to pick me up by my throat and throw me across the living room. I landed on the floor so hard that it knocked the wind out of me. My father came running over to me with fear on his face asking if I had hurt my arm. When I said no, that I just got the wind knocked out of me, he slammed me back down to the floor. When I was 12, I had done something to upset my mother. She said the one thing that would put fear into me. She said ” you wait until your father gets home “. For the next few hours I wandered around the neighborhood wondering what my punishment would be. I was heading home with my head down, walking on the sidewalk that ran by the front of our house. I looked up and stopped, there in the driveway was my dad’s station wagon. I slowly started shuffling down the sidewalk trying to delay the inevitable. As soon as I got directly in front of the front door, the door burst open and my father came charging out of the house with a look of fury on his face. I immediately collapsed crying uncontrollably. When he reached me on the sidewalk, he picked me up, carried me into the house, shut the door, and amazingly didn’t do anything. I told you these three events so that you could hopefully see how terrified I truly was of my own father. After the last event things did get better because I think my father finally saw how terrified I was of him. Don’t get me wrong though, it wasn’t always like this. As long as you didn’t get him angry or upset things were pretty good. But when he did get angry or upset things got dark. Here comes the extraordinary part. So there I am, sitting on my bed. Phone in hand, crying uncontrollably like I did when I was 12. Asking myself over and over again, ” why did I say sure “. Now I started saying ” what am I going to do ” over and over again, tears still streaming down my face. And finally the answer popped into my head, I started saying the Lord’s prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil….. I got stuck on deliver us from evil, I kept saying it over and over. Then it changed to deliver ME from evil. I said that quite a few times also. Then it changed again and I said PROTECT me from evil and I kept saying that one. Tears still streaming down my face. This is the closest thing that I could find on the internet as to what I heard next. https://youtu.be/JLiKk6u9Qfs?si=I79urPI-hl2OMjtd Like I said, this isn’t exactly what I heard but it’s very close. What I heard was crystal clear and it would fade in and out, being quiet one moment and very loud the next. It sounded like it was coming mostly from directly in front of me but also all around me. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. I sat there in total silence. No more tears. Not moving a muscle. I might even have been holding my breath. I have no idea how long it lasted, but as quickly as it started it stopped. Almost as soon as it stopped a thought popped into my head that said ” you didn’t hear that “. This thought felt like it was not my own. I jumped out of bed and proceeded to run around the house checking every room that had a TV, a radio, a stereo, anything that would make sound, looking for the source. I checked the whole house and ended up back in the bedroom where this all started. I was almost convinced that I hadn’t heard it but as soon as I entered the room I said out loud ” I know what I heard “. And in my head I said ” and you can’t convince me otherwise “. I think you can guess who I thought I was talking to. What I used to tell people after telling them my story is that ” I went from believing in God to knowing God “. I think what I truly meant to say is ” I went from believing in God to knowing there is a God “. I have no doubt in my mind that God is real, that Jesus died for me and everyone else to cleanse us of our sins. And the holy Spirit can work through you if you accept Jesus as your personal savior. And that there is life after our death here on earth. I think it was very presumptuous of me to say that I know God. I feel that I am just now learning who God is. So, what do I feel is the meaning of all of this? You are never alone. God is with you every step of the way. God hears your prayers and answers them the way he feels best. It may not be exactly what you were praying for or the method you wanted it to come. But God has your best interests at heart. Thank you for taking the time to read this. My hope is that someone who has read it finds comfort in knowing that you are not on life’s journey alone. That there is a loving God there to help. All you need to do is believe and ask for help when you are in need.
Shared by Shane
Jan 2025
