“You encourage us with love and discipline. I’ve never stopped to listen to hear every word anyone says but with you…I do. There is something special about your presence. We know that nothing is perfect but when you are around…we feel safe. Thank you for sacrificing for us. Its nice to know someone cares.”

Wow, words of affirmation that left me pretty much speechless. All I could say was that its all God and not me. This particular guy in the house replied “Yes, you always give the credit to God and its true. However you listen to what He places on your heart. Somewhere deep in your soul you believe the wisdom that you’ve learned from reading the BIble and share it with us freely.”

Recently the term transformation has been thrown around a lot concerning who I am today. From those who knew me when I was in the nightclub scene or workout crew who witnessed that at one point I could barely do 2 pullups. The ones who have seen the biggest transformation is my circle in the recovery community who have been on the journey when I was house manager, started my own ministry, running a sober living to teaching on a regular basis at a church.

How is it possible to go from drunk drug addict to where I am today? Jesus Christ. No ifs ands or buts about it. Every single action, thought, etc. is modeled after the best teacher ever….my Lord and Savior. What makes it even more awesome is that if I ever need a template on how to handle things, all I got to do is open my Bible.

There was an issue in the house yesterday where one of my guys wanted to manipulate and take shortcuts to resolve a problem. Considering he was right in wanting to quickly address the problem, how he wanted it to go about things was wrong. All I said is “I don’t take short-cuts, work an honest program and will be patient.” Considering we are close I understood when he pushed back and continued to argue his point. I listened but didn’t budge. Offered all my answers in love. Accepted his apology a few hours later when he realized that his plan wasn’t correct.

Years ago…… I would have had the same mentality, do whatever it takes to get what I thought was best. Arguing when I know that my point of view is rock solid would equate to me blowing up and trying to force my views. Today…I try to the best of my abilities to follow Christ. The end result? A transformation that is truly a miracle.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old is gone and the new is here (2 Corinthians 5:17)