THOUGHTS FROM OUR STUDENTS & ALUMNI

“All the way to my childhood, I was a very troubled person.   In my family, there was a tremendous amount of fighting.  My brother and I got into some pretty bad fistfights when we were teenagers.  The neighbors would call the police because we would be out in the front yard beating each other up.  When there was any kind of tension or problems my way of solving it was anger, and that was all I knew.  I had some martial arts training; I was in Golden Gloves in high school. I knew how to fight and I got in many fights.  As I got older I found that my behavior as a child carried over into my adult life.  It only got worse when I enlisted in the U.S. Army.  I was always fighting in bars and regrettable, I hurt a lot of people, but most of all I harmed myself.  It landed me in jail.  I managed to alienate everyone who loved me in a very short time.  I felt alone most of my life and very much lost.

When I reflect on what has been a rough go in life, Gary and Cyndi Hall [HOLLYWOOD IMPACT STUDIOS] reminded me that things in life would break apart and come together many times.  I remember  a video shown by Cyndi that was about the amazing transformation of butterflies and all the astounding things God did when he created them.   When I found Christ, my psyche was like being in the chrysalis.  I am finding that transforming into a new creation does not just happen once, but continually throughout life.   Galatians 6:2 tells us to bear each other’s burdens.   Gary shared with me that it is in the the difficulties of life that we find the chief work of love; essentially he said to comfort each other, again and again.   In that, I learned my trials of life have made me more humble, more contrite and more open to the guidance that I rejected before.   The fire I go through becomes my purifying agent.   What was chaotic at the time, ultimately had a healing effect, and sometimeS, when I am really fortunately, I look up in the sky and see a rainbow.  Then I remember that it could not have happened without the rain.”

Thank you Aaron.