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Gone The Golden Dream
Discover how the touch of God upon one desperate life has been used to touch the lives of millions in this remarkable true story, Gone the Golden Dream, condensed for your enjoyment.
Journey to Freedom
Golda clutched little Yusef close, enveloping him with a thin blanket and
motherly love. The droning of the ship’s engine next to where they lay was
deafening. Golda kept thinking of her husband, Eliezer, waiting anxiously for
them somewhere in New York, the gateway to a world without the terror and
persecution they and fellow Jews had known in their native Russia.
After the first few days, many of the Jews crammed into the ship’s steerage compartment were suffering from seasickness, hunger, cold, and despair.
Once, as the ship was battling a violent storm, a crewman shouted, "Everyone on deck! The ship has sprung a leak!"
Even the strong struggled up the winding stairs as the ship rolled in the huge swells. The wind, rain, and waves were relentless. Golda encouraged those around her to ask God for mercy. The prayers soon spread among the Jews. Nearly a hundred of them pleaded with God to save them. The wind quickly became a breeze, the torrential rain a mere drizzle, With the danger over, crew members managed to fix the leak and bail the water out of the steerage compartment.
But the celebration was short-lived for Golda. Her son developed what appeared to be pneumonia after the ordeal on the deck. He had a fever, was breathing heavily, and was often attacked with nasty coughing spells. Once again, Golda put her trust in God. He wouldn’t let Yusef die.
A week later, Golda stood nervously in the last immigration line at Ellis Island. She watched anxiously as immigration officials frowned at Yusef coughing in her arms. Because America wanted only healthy immigrants, many Jews faced the threat of being sent back to Russia. Golda couldn’t bear the thought of another three weeks like those she had just survived.
She answered questions from the last official who had the power to give them their freedom or send them away. He took a serious look at Yusef, hardly two years old.
But the official had compassion. He asked a nearby immigration worker to help Golda find her husband and assist them in taking their son to a local hospital. Surely God was with them!
Life in America
Eleizer had settled in New York’s Lower East Side after leaving his
pregnant wife and embarking on the same journey Golda and Yusef had just made.
Though their life was difficult, it was free of the fear generated by the
ruthless Cossack attacks in Russia, which they remembered all too well.
Many things that Joseph (Yusef’s American name) either saw or experienced during his childhood caused him to question his purpose on earth. At seven years of age, he began helping his father with his fruit-peddling business and soon grew to hate it. Often he had to climb many flights of stairs with a heavy load of potatoes, only to face verbal and physical beatings from the Gentile boys waiting for him.
One day, when Joseph was eleven, he watched in horror as a man leaped from the roof of a building and landed with a bloody thud only ten feet away from his father’s peddling cart. When Joseph was a teenager, he and his father were nearly killed when their horse-drawn cart was broad-sided by a streetcar. Somehow, they escaped serious injury.
The closer he got to adulthood, the more he feared death and the unknown. Was there life after death? Would he go to heaven? Joseph had to know the answers. But his father would only shrug and say he couldn’t know for sure.
Joseph’s uncle encouraged him to study to become a rabbi to answer his questions about God and death. However, Hebrew school and Jewish teachings provided more questions than answers. No one could directly answer the question that haunted him most: Could man really find favor with God, pleasing Him enough to earn a way into heaven? The death of his two sisters from horrible diseases only increased his fear of death and his uncertainty of a just and loving God.
As a young adult, Joe sought happiness by starting a small paper and twine supply business and searching for the perfect wife. He found Sarah, a beautiful country girl, unspoiled by the dirty life of the big city. His marriage to Sarah made him happy for a while, but Joe soon found himself overburdened with the responsibility of caring for his growing family, including his two sons, Donald and Roy. Joe had to take an all-night cashier job while struggling to maintain his business during the day. He rarely slept.
After work one cold morning, Joe boarded the bus. Suddenly a sharp pain shot through his chest and his breathing became forced. A heart attack! It was impossible. He was barely thirty years old! Somehow, he managed to conceal his ordeal from the passengers near him. He finally cried out to God in desperation. "If You’re there, help me," he muttered. Somehow, he managed to make it home. Was it God or luck that had saved him? He wasn’t sure.
A Weekend in Vegas
Joe soon moved his family to southern California where the climate would be
easier on his health. His misery with life had returned and deepened to utter
despair. Joe’s friend Sam sensed this and encouraged Joe to relax and live a
little.
"Let’s go to Las Vegas this weekend, Joe!" Sam urged. Joe hesitated. What good would Las Vegas do?
"OK," Joe replied, deciding that when he returned from Vegas, he would murder Sarah and his two sons before killing himself. Death seemed to be the only way out.
Joe fingered the dice in Vegas. "Joe, get away from that table," a voice urged. Who said that? It obviously wasn’t Sam. Joe laid down the dice and walked back to the hotel room. Once inside, he searched for some stationery and found a Gideon Bible stuck in the back of the only drawer he hadn’t checked.
Never before had he read the Bible, and it intrigued him. He started in Proverbs and was amazed at the wisdom he found. He couldn’t put it down. He read all night, much to Sam’s frustration.
Six months later, Joe was still reading the Bible, but he read little of the New Testament because it revealed the teachings and life of Jesus Christ. After all, he was convinced that Jesus was a simple man, wrongfully exalted as God by the Gentiles.
Yet his quest for truth led him to several long discussions with a Christian Jewish friend. It took some time, but Joe finally realized that Jesus truly was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Jesus had fulfilled each prophesy to perfection! When he realized Jesus could forgive his sins and reconcile him to God, Joe knelt before Him and repented, giving his life completely to Jesus, the Savior of all mankind.
A New Life
Joy filled Joe’s soul. He no longer felt the hopelessness he had known for
so many years. He had found favor with God. He gained a new love for his wife
and sons, but breaking the news of his conversion to them proved difficult. When
he told his wife, she said she would tolerate him as long as he left Jesus out
of the house. This was asking too much!
After Joe told his parents, his mother cried tears of remorse and bitterness. His father angrily kicked Joe out of the house shouting, "You are no longer our son!" Becoming a child of God had meant losing his earthly parents and his wife, who soon filed for divorce.
Joe shared the love of God with Don and Roy at every opportunity, but as they grew up, they became more and more resentful of their religious father. "You’re a Gentile now!" they scoffed.
To shut out life’s problems, Don depended on the temporary relief alcohol provided. Roy followed in his older brother’s footsteps. They went to parties and got drunk as often as they could. Don constantly sent his mother crying to her room with his abusive language. He felt no love for her or anyone else.
In a gesture toward responsibility, Don joined the Army Reserves, determined to break as many codes and rules as he dared. One weekend, he returned home and rounded up some buddies. As they drove home after a night of heavy drinking, the car went out of control and smashed head-on into another. Amazingly, Don escaped the wreck with only a minor cut on his head. Joe told him God’s hand had spared him. Don only shrugged.
While praying for his sons one night, Joe felt the Lord lead him to Isaiah 60. The passage "Your sons will come from afar…" leaped out at him. His sons would seek him out!
Roy had a simple plan that made him feel better about life. As long as he kept more commandments than he broke, he figured God would let him into heaven. Following Don, Roy joined the Army Reserves. Late one night while lying on his bunk, he pulled out a Bible his dad had given him and began to read Revelation. Though he didn’t understand much, when he read the judgments that would come to sinful man, he wondered if he could escape them. His concern turned to panic when he realized his custom-made plan of salvation had fallen apart. He had broken more commandments than he had kept!
Soon after this realization, Roy initiated a visit to his father’s apartment for the first time. Before leaving, Roy finally shared his fear of judgment with his father. Joe told Roy all he could about Jesus. Roy hesitated but knew he had heard the truth. He knelt and accepted Jesus as his Messiah right there in his father’s apartment.
When Roy finally admitted to Don what he had done, Don was furious. But he had seen the change in Roy; he no longer drank, smoked, or swore. And he seemed happy! Don wrestled with the truth of Roy’s experience.
Finally in desperation, Don went to a Sunday evening service at the church where his father attended. Joe saw him sitting in the back, and his heart filled with joy and hope. Don returned to the church two more times.
Finally, alone in his apartment, Don asked God to show him if Jesus was the Messiah and to give him the peace Jesus could bring. Slowly, peace came as he lay in the darkness. A voice clearly spoke, "Now you belong to me, Don." For the first time, Don felt love.
After nearly ten years of prayer and trust in God’s faithfulness, Joe Lessin’s sons had come home.
Epilogue
Joe pastored, taught, and counseled in the ministry for nearly fifty
years. He is now home with the Lord.
Don became a missionary to Mexico in 1964 and has been there ever since. He now pastors a church in central Mexico.
In 1971, Roy, along with three other Christian men, founded what is now DaySpring Cards. He has been the senior writer for the past thirty years. Roy has written several books for children, two books on child training, several devotional books, and thousands of Christian greeting cards. His writings have literally touched millions of lives throughout the world.
Adapted with permission from Gone The Golden Dream by Jan Markell. Published
by Bethany House Publishers.
© 1979. All rights reserved.
