So tonight at around 8pm tonight will mark the 8 year anniversary of when I said yes to Jesus. 

Wow….

What an incredible trip its been so far. Through trial and triumph its been so amazing to see what faithfulness in the Lord will do. No matter how far or how close I have been its been such a blessing to see what kinds of things that have taken place in my life. Im so excited about this right now and rightfully so I suppose. So if you’re wondering, the story goes like this. 

I was 17 and my friend Lonnie Broussard had asked me to play some worship songs at a mens retreat the coming weekend. (That time I was going to youth group with my friend Calie, Lonnie’s daughter, at the time so I knew the songs and respected the whole crew at church). So I said, sure why not. So the weekend came and I was scared crapless. I was like “I dont know these songs I dont know nothing about God I really dont want to do this.” So i was like, whatever and I went down to Camp Hope Haven where they were having the retreat. On the way there it started raining and I knew it was just going to be rough. 

So I got to the camp and at first I didn’t see anyone. I checked every building and didn’t see any cars or anything. So, I went home. I called Calie and was like “well, no one is there, guess I can’t do it. Want to do something else?” She said “no, I’ll show you where to go.” So she drove me back there and I was like “dangit” 

So she leads me back to the back where the actual camp area was and I said to myself “Lets just do this” I got out of my car and found Lonnie. So he introduced me to a bunch of the guys at the church and fed me some pretty good food. So I thought “this wont be to bad” 

The time to lead worship came and Lonnie came to me and said “If you play guitar, I’ll sing them for you” and I thought “great, this will be cake” Then after he said, why dont you play one of your original songs after we are done. I was shook. In my head i was like, I dont have one song that will fit here. All my songs are depressing and about pain. But I had one song called “A Way Back Home” It was about finding a way to back to something for hope somewhere. But I did have a lyric in the song that said “well God damn the day that I die” and I knew that wouldn’t fly. So without thinking I thought in my head “I’ll just  change it to - God SAVE ME before I die, not knowing that thought and decision to do that would change my life forever. 

So after the song there was a message and something just clicked. In my head I was thinking “I want to know Jesus more. What’s he all about?” after the message, Lonnie and I have a LONG talk about the meaning of salvation and the fall of man and everything and I was really connecting with it. We prayed for a really long time after that around the camp fire with all the guys and I just felt renewed. On the way home that night It was dark and peaceful and I had this Creed song ( I know. Go on with your hateraid with the whole Creed thing) called Faceless Man. And there is this lyric in the song that says

“Next time I see His face
I’ll say
I choose to live for always
so won’t you come inside 
and never go away

So I made that my prayer and I felt that God just took grip of my life and I have felt changed and renewed ever since. The next day I official prayed that the Lord would just consume my life. And here I am now. 

What an awesome trip it has been. 

So happy spiritual birthday to me! Thank you Lord for pulling me out of the dark. I love you and worship you today and forever.