Personal Stories

I want to share my story, but I don’t want to focus on the battle so much as the victory and the hope it instilled in me to this day.

I suffered from severe depression from age 15 to 19, at a time when you are taking on the world and preparing for a future, career, and thinking about marriage and family, I was stuck with no ambition, no drive, no desire or hope for a future. It all seemed so distant that there was no hope in reaching for it. On top of the depression, I had serious medical problems that eventually culminated into a brain tumor which nearly took my life.

Doctors were dumbfounded how I survived, but I did after 3 1/2 years of therapy, physical and psychological (and soul) healing, I am back on the right track. I got help, and (aside from renewing my relationship with God, to whom I give all the credit for healing me after being given no hope for recovery and a life with crippling handicaps) it got me to where I am now, enjoying life to the fullest, the abundant life Jesus promised in John 10:10. I am living that promise. Despite the comments from others who said I’d never amount to anything, or have no future, I got a bachelors degree with honors, got married going on 4 years, and am a step dad.

My testimony is one of hope that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how distant it might seem, or how dark the tunnel is, it’s there, and the light is Jesus reaching out to you. Don’t give up. Ever. Yes, giving up is easy, but it’s so true, that you aren’t in this struggle alone. I owe my success to the outside help I got from the Lord and my friends, counselors, pastors, and family. Yes, you have to work at it, through the uphill slogs through deep mud, rainy stormy days and nights, but you have others who will bear with you, carry you when you can’t go any farther, offer a shoulder to cry on, and be there for you. Keep pressing forward. There can’t be a great victory unless you fight a great battle, and no testimony unless there’s a great triumph.