I lived so much of my life serving my own selfish desires. I hurt many people along the way, but God pursued me, and put people in my path to show me what a life lived for Him could be like!
When I was 13 I said the prayer with my mouth, but I never lived up to it in my heart. My freshman year at college, I began to party and drink every night. I ended up dropping out of college after my freshman year. I made such destructive choices. It lead to two unplanned pregnancies and an abortion. I was extremely lost.
Finally, I met my wife and after three years we got married. Through different things happening, God was trying to get my attention, but I kept shutting him out. My life was continuing on a downward spiral.
Through a series of job changes and promotions, we wound up moving to New York, which was good for my relationship with my wife. Still there was a void in my life.
We moved back to Lynchburg two years ago and I fell back into the same old crowd I had hung out with before I moved away. I started to take my wife and kids for granted. I knew I didn’t want this to happen all over again, so we started coming to Blue Ridge about a year ago. As we sat in the services, I knew that what I was missing was a real relationship with Jesus, and God started to draw me in.
In the past year God has been working inside of me and putting certain people in my life. People like the guys at Engage. God also changed several things inside of me. Like after 20 years of smoking, out of nowhere I just stopped. I wasn’t even trying to quit — God just took the desire away.
I am proud to say that on my birthday August 21, 2011, I got down on one knee and I put my stake in the ground and was born again. I no longer consider myself just a Christian; I am now a follower of Christ.