I’m no different. I grew up quite dysfunctional. I’m a kid from the projects. Everything that I knew, almost every experience that I had, was negative and further seeded my dysfunction. I was headed down a very destructive path. Drugs, alcohol, gangs and bad examples of relationships were all my teachers. I also had to deal with the demons in my own mind. I was emphatically steeped in the culture. It was who I was and who I was expected and scheduled to be. But things are so very different now.

As I look back over my life, the only thing that I can reference this great metamorphosis to is my encounter with God’s power through His Son Jesus Christ. My change happened specifically because of this. People say that Jesus is just a fairy tale – but not for me. They say that He was just a prolific teacher or a mere man but that’s not my reality. I’m like the man Jesus healed of blindness in St. John 9. The Pharisees and scholars had a heated debate over the nature of his healing. Finally, when they asked the man, who was not a scholar, about his healing, he said (to paraphrase), “I don’t know about the depths of your dialogue and debate, but one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:25)

I feel the same way. There is no way to explain away real change. Jesus is the experience that has produced a powerful transformation in my life. He is the Son of the Living God. I won’t enter into a theological debate or philosophical argument about this.

If you don’t agree with how I believe, at least respect what I believe. Without my belief in Jesus Christ, my life would be a lot different. Today, I really could be selling drugs to your children…