Ten years and still running…

I know it’s been over a week but, I’ve been busy… with tests and midterms to boot. This is it though; my last day then I will be on vacation. I have to tell you though faithful readers and blogging elite; it’s been a wild week. Before I go any further though, I want to tell you something, something very important. On Sunday, the 13th of March, I was healed. Now you ask me of what?! Well…for those who don’t know me well, know me but, don’t know here’s the story. Over ten years ago, I was a junkie, a drug addict. I used inhalants such as: glue, paint, cleaner, gas, DDT (in the late 80’s it was in pesticides) and a myriad of other products. I used them everyday, several times a day, for three years straight. From when I got on the bus in the morning, till I went to bed at home. How old was I do you ask? I was nine years old. How did I start? Seniors on the bus asked me if I wanted to get “stoned”, I didn’t know what it meant, till I did it and oh man! Did I find out it was wonderful, marvelous (Anyone who has used inhalants can tell you the high is something between LSD and Heroin. You see things, you fly, and you also are calmed and sleep like you just shot up heroin.) (www.inhalants.org) Till you come down to the“glue hangover” it’s similar to the worst hangover you’ve had in your life and add 5-7 hours in length to it. Why did I not stop? It’s an addiction mental as well as physical.
Nine years old, getting stoned out of my mind, to escape the world even as a kid I knew it wasn’t a very nice place. As it goes my blogging brethren, time moved on but, so did my addiction. I had already O.D. (Over Dosed) quite a few times (shortness of breath, passing out, shaking, blood coming out of your nose, pain…) and even though now, I was only twelve years old that I was going to die if I continued the path I was going down. I just couldn’t stop. Now, I had always been forced to go to church by my parents, I really never wanted to go. Call me rebellious, I guess. One night thought they were holding an Evangelistic meetings with Tiff Shuttlesworth. Now the only reason, I went was because, at the time I thought Tiff was one of the best lead guitarists I had ever seen (Remember I was young) so I went to see him play. Man was he good, I watched and then he had a message. Blood and Fire, hell and brimstone but, that’s not what caught my attention so much. It was the Holy Spirit talking to me during his altar call forward saying things such as “Brian, Don’t you know I’ve always been here for you. I’ve never left you; you’ll never have to face anything alone again. I love you.” I got up faster than the Tiff could call people forward. I asked Jesus Christ into my heart. The most important and crucial thing I have ever done in my life. Or ever will do and I have never regretted it a day in my life. Someone who is always there for you and will never leave you, where can you get that on this earth? Nowhere. Oh yes, I WAS HEALED! The moment they prayed for me my addiction was gone! I never even had the desire to do it again; my drug addiction that lasted three years was completely and utterly vanished. God is good. That’s not the end of the story my friends. All actions have consequences. From the years of drug abuse, I have had inherited many health problems. Brain damage, I can’t think past 9:45pm my ability to function, to talk, to walk, and to understand just falls. Physical damage: My muscles in my body shake all the time, my muscles in my body convulse, violently. I have difficulty walking, my knees give way and I fall all the time. The pain, the pain is indescribable. Constant is the only word I can give you to understand it. Until this last Sunday, March 13th 2005. I had, had enough. God never gives us anything we can’t handle and last week, I could handle no longer. There was too much pain. I went to church (in Horseheads, NY) and got prayed for, for healing. From that moment, I have shaken no more. No more pain and the mental clarity, its more than tongue can tell. I am freed. I owe it all to Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior for saving me from drugs and pain not, to mention my soul. I just wanted to get that down on paper so to speak and to let everyone who reads (or new readers) my friends, and the like. To know that God is still in the healing business. This year will make it just over ten years now that I have been a Christian. Some people ask me, or ridicule me about my faith; telling me that God doesn’t exist, or prove that He does. Isn’t me living proof? From the day I was saved I made this promise to God. That since I would have died when I was young, if I didn’t stop the drugs (I had O.D. to the point of death several times by 12). Since I was going to die, to myself, I was dead. Hence, everyday that God has allows me to live on this earth is a day, that I don’t deserve. So He’s keeping me alive for some reason and I promised God that because of this I would go wherever He told me to go and do whatever He asks of me. So in the end, I guess I just want to say: If you are alone, and if you need help. Just call on him whether it is to stop a drug addiction or help pay your college loans. God is there and always will be.