With alcohol and drugs, I was funnier, more clever, more fearless...and, most importantly, the weight of life simply floated away.

The all-American, “apple-pie-ness” of my life was a constant theme throughout my childhood and teenage years. My family lived in a middle class home in a middle class town and went to a middle class church. Everything about my life was very unremarkable, yet extremely blessed; God always provided and took care of me. As I discussed last week, my relationship with the Lord was tight-knit as a child.

However, in high school, a seed of doubt was planted. I began to notice that I didn’t think like other people thought, and in the process, I began to believe that maybe I was not just unremarkable, I was weird—and not in a good way. In college, that seed festered and I began to notice that when I drank, I received more attention. When I was sober, the enemy turned the vision for my life into a burden that consisted of complete doubt in my abilities to do anything worthwhile that didn’t involve being a really fun guy to party with. [Read more...]