John has packed a lot of living into his 38 years. As a child, he was in and out of foster care. Adopted at age 10, he continued to struggle. As an adolescent, he turned to drugs. He fought anxiety and depression and fell deeper and deeper into addiction. A long list of poor choices and bad decisions landed him in prison.

When he got out of jail, John tried to make better choices, although drugs were still a part of his life. One night, he was the passenger in a car that flew into the second floor of a building and left him with a yearlong recovery and permanent damage to his leg.

“I lost everything,” he said. “I lost my house, my business, my relationships. Everything went down the drain.”

Last year, something changed. “I’ve been doing this back-and-forth thing with drugs all my life,” he acknowledged. “I’ve seen the consequences, but when you’re ready to change, you’re ready to change.”

He lived temporarily in a sober-living house. As he started to make his way back into the community, he found a place to live and returned to his construction business. He decided to take another step. “I started watching sermons online and made a personal decision to get my life together, to get right with God, to live right,” John said.

Several months ago, he hired a man named Tony. One night after work, they started talking about God. Tony began to pray.

“I was sitting in a recliner across the room,” John recalled. “My [injured] leg started to tingle. The next thing I knew, I could feel my leg lifting up off the chair. It started to shake. I could feel the devil tugging on my leg.”

Tony kept praying. John believes it was a moment of spiritual warfare. “Suddenly,” he said, “I felt this pulling. This strong sense that God was pulling me toward him. He saved me. I’ve always believed that Jesus Christ died for our sins. But now, I feel it.”

John continued to read his Bible and study Scripture. Over the next several months, John decided to return to a church he had attended as a child. At Ginghamsburg Church, a United Methodist congregation in Tipp City, he started attending a men’s Bible study. He immediately felt welcome and at home.

“Ten years ago, if someone told me that I’d be back at church, reading the Bible and trying to live right, I would’ve never believed them,” John said. “When you find a relationship with God, it’s like no other. He transformed my life.”

Sober for more than a year, John decided to make a public commitment of his faith in God through baptism. As he waited his turn in line, John began to pray. He thanked God for the journey, and for his Ginghamsburg Church friends, Monty and Hitch, who continue to be part of his faith story.

“I knew what was going to happen,” John said. “But when I came up out of that water, I felt it. God cleansed me right there. I felt it. I believe it. I love it.”

John admits that life still presents its challenges. He begins each day with the Serenity Prayer, sometimes praying it more than once a day. He finds comfort in the Scriptures especially James 8:18 (KJV), “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” It is this verse that reminds John of how far he has traveled and steadies him for the journey ahead.

“When times get tough,” John said, “I remind myself, God’s got me. God’s got me.”

By Kay Panovec, Director of Communications