When I was a child, there was a lot of turbulence in my life for several reasons which I’m not going to discuss.. what I will say is that now as an adult I’m hopefully less judgmental of other people especially people who society might label as “losers” or are at the lower end of the social strata.

After working indirectly in the medical health industry for several years, I’ve been exposed to situations that were out of control and volatile. Families can appear normal from the outside but are highly dysfunctional on the inside – a sort of clockwork orange. Broken families often create broken people. 😔

We make choices in life and have to live with them, but I’ve seen a lot of people make choices that were born out of suffering, and we (society) in general – write off these people as homeless bums or rejects. All these people were made in God’s image just as much as we were and deserve our respect and kindness, its not easy to give that out when seeing people at their worst.

A person asked me once if I was happy with my choice(s) – after a lot of thought, I’d have to say yes; absolutely! Its safe to say that I’ve made a lot of dumb decisions but the best decisions in my life is what changed my destiny.

The first most important choice I made was becoming a Christian, I haven’t always walked the path well, but we are a work in progress – what matters is that we keep moving toward God. Another decision I made was to volunteer my personal time at church, and that I’ve been faithful to that end for over 20 years.

I went from being what was seen as a complete loser with no prospects to being that guy that people go to for help, I remember once my daughter without hesitation told her friend that was in real serious trouble to “ask my dad, he will help you.”. I’ve also had the opportunity to help other people in difficult situations that God put in my path, and those stories will never see the light of day, they are not mine to tell. Lets be clear, that has nothing to do with me per se, this is about what God has done… I’m talking about the difference that Jesus has made in my life, he has changed me into a man that I couldn’t have dreamed of when I was 18 years old. If you would take a time machine and bring that version of me and see who I am now – his mind would be blown *boom*…lol. I would say that this life I have now must be for someone else, I’m not smart enough, or even worthy at all of the life I’m living now; that is the amount of change Jesus has made in my life.

I’ve talked to people who never got to live their dreams or who’s lives never got off the runway and they talk about successful people like they are a different bred or living a life that is impossible for them to achieve – they view it as a life for more fortunate people, they don’t see themselves thru that lens.

I’d say “success” (not talking about the health & wealth prosperity bullshit) is defined by imagination. I define success as how much a person has positively impacted other people’s lives. My young self couldn’t imagine the life I have now. Sometimes you push hard in life and seemingly nothing comes of it, but maybe you’re trying things your way too much. That’s why we need to let God drive our lives, he has the best plan, specific just to you.

The best advice I can give anyone is give your life to God, instead of focusing on your life, focus on how you can help other people with the gifts he has given you and be patient. Pray and ask him on how to proceed and if you don’t get an answer – keep trusting in him.

The truth is that God is always faithful, when you say “hey, I’m here – use me”, he can take your choices and turn them into something beautiful. That is what he has done for me.

Jason