This Is My Testimony

The contents contained herein reveal my testimony. It may be lengthy, but I truly feel that the more detail I reveal the more likely it will touch the heart of another and get them on the road to knowing and accepting Jesus Christ.



When I was younger I believed in ‘God’ or ‘a God’ and starting to ask my parents about religion and Christianity (probably around 12-15 years old), my parents not being practicing Christians since a very young age could not answer the questions I was asking. Instead of asking others and the influence of those around me at school, I shunned religion altogether. I shunned it because of the surface level answers to my deep questions or did not receive answers at all. Instead of being lead to the Bible for answers to my questions, I decided to shun religion and the notion of God altogether.

Growing up in my mid to late teenage years, like most teenagers I was more concerned with how I looked, who I was going to impress that day, who was going to make fun of me, whether or not I would be bullied that day, etc; God was non-existent in my daily life. I was your average student when I wasn’t applying myself and above average when I was, but I couldn’t care less about high school which forced me to attend an average school of technology in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I ended up failing out of school my second semester because I was getting drunk nearly every single day and not going to class. When I came home and moved back in with my parents, things did not change all that much. I tried attending community college after that and ended up failing out of classes and dropping the rest. I was getting drunk on the weekends, stealing booze out of people’s garages, not treating people well, walking around with a chip on my shoulder (I was very prideful) all the while feeling like I would amount to nothing because I was an awful student who would never earn a degree so I could make a decent living for myself.

Godless, hopeless and lost, my best friend from childhood got me a job working at Blockbuster. I didn’t know it then, but this would be the start of my journey toward Jesus Christ. At Blockbuster I was making decent money at the time. I worked myself up from customer service representative, to shift leader and eventually assistant store manager; I thought I was big time then (haha); I was gaining much needed confidence in myself and although I was oblivious to it at the time, God was showing me that he was not/would never give up on me, even though I shunned him. When I was promoted to assistant store manager, my best friend (Mike) had since moved on to a different job working as a financial aid advisor for a for-profit college.

Mike would come into Blockbuster every time he got paid and slam his paycheck in front of me, saying “look, look at what I’m making of myself. What are you still doing here?! I know you’re better than this so I’m going to get you an interview for our open spot and put in a good word.” Again, oblivious to God and his works, he was moving again. I received a call to interview for the open financial aid position and ended up getting it. From there I would move to a different department that better utilized my talents and became a team leader. Yet again, God was about to push me. Since going back to school at the one I worked for was basically free, I gave it another shot. I graduated from that school with my associates, bachelors and eventually master’s degrees. Throughout that process I met my wonderful wife and ended up getting married two and a half years later. My wife was looking for a graduate school to obtain her doctorate in psychology. We were living in Illinois at the time and she finally found a school…in Phoenix, Arizona; this was the turning point for me, there had to be a higher power at work.

Shortly after moving to Phoenix, I was doing some research on Christianity and wanted to become a Christian real bad. It took me about a year because I could not get over the fact or comprehend that God would forgive me for all of my wrongdoings if I became born again. It wasn’t until I came across Joyce Meyer on a local Christian radio station and started listening to her conference titled “God is not Mad at You”. At first I was like “are you nuts, how can God not be mad at me? Why would he want anything to do with me? Am I not the epitome of evil? God can never forgive what I’ve done”. This was very disheartening to me because I wanted and needed God so bad, but I truly believed that I was not worth it. I kept listening to Joyce and her message about God not being mad at me every morning on my way to work. I would think about her message throughout the day and remember all the trials I went through and the good that came from them. I started reading the Bible and any and all pieces of literature on the Bible and coming to Jesus. Broken and humbled, I was ready to submit myself fully to Christ.

It was on Easter of 2013 that I stepped into a local non-denominational church and formally accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and I could not be happier. I had finally been lead to a greatness that could not be comprehended by our feeble human minds; it was breathtaking to say the least. My relationship with God grows every day and could not be better. Although I may struggle with temptation and giving into temptation sometimes, I am now dead to sin. Life could not be better as I have given the reins to God to be my guide.

I am currently in the dissertation phase of my doctoral degree (in education) and am awaiting another possible (and positive) life altering even that may take my wife and I back to Illinois. God truly does work in mysterious ways! I am so excited to see what he has in store for my wife and I.



May God continue to bless you all!
 
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