Well, I'm not sure where to begin. I've got a long testimony and will try to make it short. I was raised by two non christian parents. I started going to church to be able to see my friends on the weekends at about age 5. My best friend's (and he still is that at age 38) mother was very active in getting his friends to attend church with him. I went, listened (when I wasn't being class clown) and some of it soaked in. Not a lot, but enough to give me somewhat of a foundation and know who Jesus is. Once I hit high school, I quit going to church. I still stayed fairly clean even though I got in a lot of fights. I was the one in school that people went to when someone was picking on them or giving them problems and I would go beat on that person. I was also the one in school that had the status as "the person to beat" so I had people picking fights with me all the time. I didn't do any drugs other than alcohol, I never smoked at all, and was a straight A student in advanced placement classes. Took Calc, Physics, and all advanced classes in high school. This is fairly common now but wasn't in the 1980's. I graduated 3rd out of almost 400. I scored a 32 on the ACT and had scholarship offers all over the place, so what did I do...? I joined the Marines. I had ran into family problems at home, couldn't get along with my mother and had moved in with my grandmother. My mother was having problems with menopause and wouldn't take the hormones her dr. wanted her to and I was a teenager. The two didn't go together well. My best friend who was a B/C student had no scholarships waiting so we went into the Marines together. Once I got in the Marines, I was aircrew on KC-130's and my friend was Motor Transport so we ended up stationed in the same state but not together. I flew all over the world and went wild. Much of that foundation that had kept me fairly clean in high school was out the window. I was drinking every night, different women every night, and the stereotypical Marine. I loved fighting and did some amateur boxing and body building while in the Corps. Cut through a couple years of the same thing and my 6 years in the Corps were up. My plan was to get out, go to college and go back as an officer in the KC-130 pilot program. I had been the Airborn Radio Operator, Loadmaster, and in flight refueling observer in my 6 years in.
Once I got out, I did the "grown up" thing. Moved back home, married my high school girlfriend (in a relationship solely physically based) and got into school. I had completed some part time classes while I was in the Marines so I didn't have to start as a Freshman. In November (I had gotten out in March, started school in August, and married in Sept.) I was on the way to school for an evening class and was hit head on by a drunk driver passing cars coming around a long curve. I was going 65, he was going faster and we collided head on with almost no warning. I flipped my truck end over end a couple times, then it rolled sideways a couple times. It started skidding upside down with sparks flying all over and I was trying to crawl out. I felt a calming pressure on my back which pinned me down and could feel and hear the words "not yet". When the truck stopped, it was upside down and I was able to crawl out - barely. I was almost dead, ended up having to have 250 stitches and staples, had internal injuries, broken bones, and was just a mess. I survived and have had to have bones cut out of my foot, many operations, and am not very physically fit anymore.
2 months later I had gone back to work on light duty at nights. I had a great job that allowed me to just sit there pretty much and collect a check. One morning I got off work a couple hours early and came home to find my wife in bed with a mutual friend.
I was on crutches and ended up breaking one over his head before he could even get up. Needless to say that marriage ended horribly and quickly.
My friend had been bugging me to go to church with him and I put him off every time. "I have to work". "I'm going to my parent's" "I have this or that to do". Finally, I was talking to him one night and he just asked what I was doing the next day. Without thinking I said nothing. He told me good that he'd be by at 9:30 to pick me up for church. I was stuck. I went with him and saw a woman singing a song by Clay Cross. The woman was an amazing singer and I just felt drawn to her. I asked her out, she wouldn't date me because I wasn't christian. I ended up going back again and again. I finally realized that I was going because I wanted to. I was starting to feel the presence of God even if I didn't know what it was. Several months later I got baptised and was drawn into God's Kingdom. I ended up marrying the woman that was singing and having my daughter with her. Unfortunately that marriage ended also. It was part my fault, part her fault but I ended up with custody of our daughter because her mother is bi-polar. I am now married to the most wonderful caring christian woman I can imagine. She too is an awesome singer (I see a pattern emerging) and has a degree in music from Cincinnati Bible College. My 2nd ex and I are best friends, share our daughter very well, and she has a husband who is one of those guys that is just too perfect. If he was not married to my ex, we'd probably be great friends. We still are friends and he never oversteps his boundaries with my daughter.
I've had a rough road and most of it was because I tried to make my own path and not stay on God's path. Some of it was because an idiot went for more alcohol when he ran out. I was never able to go back into the Corps because of all the physical problems but am now a professional photographer, very active in my church, and considering going back to college to get a degree in counseling, teaching, or several other things.
Oh, yes, my mother and I did patch up our relationship in the last 10 years or so and became wonderful friends before she passed away just a couple months ago (the week before Christmas). I still don't know why God let what happen, happen. I do know that He has a plan for me because I never felt anything so real as His hand on me in my wreck. I wouldn't still be here if He didn't have something in store for me.
I'm Healsalot on WoW on Stonemaul and my daughter is Unchained on the same server if anyone wants to stop by and talk.
Once I got out, I did the "grown up" thing. Moved back home, married my high school girlfriend (in a relationship solely physically based) and got into school. I had completed some part time classes while I was in the Marines so I didn't have to start as a Freshman. In November (I had gotten out in March, started school in August, and married in Sept.) I was on the way to school for an evening class and was hit head on by a drunk driver passing cars coming around a long curve. I was going 65, he was going faster and we collided head on with almost no warning. I flipped my truck end over end a couple times, then it rolled sideways a couple times. It started skidding upside down with sparks flying all over and I was trying to crawl out. I felt a calming pressure on my back which pinned me down and could feel and hear the words "not yet". When the truck stopped, it was upside down and I was able to crawl out - barely. I was almost dead, ended up having to have 250 stitches and staples, had internal injuries, broken bones, and was just a mess. I survived and have had to have bones cut out of my foot, many operations, and am not very physically fit anymore.
2 months later I had gone back to work on light duty at nights. I had a great job that allowed me to just sit there pretty much and collect a check. One morning I got off work a couple hours early and came home to find my wife in bed with a mutual friend.
I was on crutches and ended up breaking one over his head before he could even get up. Needless to say that marriage ended horribly and quickly.
My friend had been bugging me to go to church with him and I put him off every time. "I have to work". "I'm going to my parent's" "I have this or that to do". Finally, I was talking to him one night and he just asked what I was doing the next day. Without thinking I said nothing. He told me good that he'd be by at 9:30 to pick me up for church. I was stuck. I went with him and saw a woman singing a song by Clay Cross. The woman was an amazing singer and I just felt drawn to her. I asked her out, she wouldn't date me because I wasn't christian. I ended up going back again and again. I finally realized that I was going because I wanted to. I was starting to feel the presence of God even if I didn't know what it was. Several months later I got baptised and was drawn into God's Kingdom. I ended up marrying the woman that was singing and having my daughter with her. Unfortunately that marriage ended also. It was part my fault, part her fault but I ended up with custody of our daughter because her mother is bi-polar. I am now married to the most wonderful caring christian woman I can imagine. She too is an awesome singer (I see a pattern emerging) and has a degree in music from Cincinnati Bible College. My 2nd ex and I are best friends, share our daughter very well, and she has a husband who is one of those guys that is just too perfect. If he was not married to my ex, we'd probably be great friends. We still are friends and he never oversteps his boundaries with my daughter.
I've had a rough road and most of it was because I tried to make my own path and not stay on God's path. Some of it was because an idiot went for more alcohol when he ran out. I was never able to go back into the Corps because of all the physical problems but am now a professional photographer, very active in my church, and considering going back to college to get a degree in counseling, teaching, or several other things.
Oh, yes, my mother and I did patch up our relationship in the last 10 years or so and became wonderful friends before she passed away just a couple months ago (the week before Christmas). I still don't know why God let what happen, happen. I do know that He has a plan for me because I never felt anything so real as His hand on me in my wreck. I wouldn't still be here if He didn't have something in store for me.
I'm Healsalot on WoW on Stonemaul and my daughter is Unchained on the same server if anyone wants to stop by and talk.
