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Hi - Matt here... Did you know that the leading cause of death in people under 25 is suicide? Depression destroys millions of lives, but there is an answer. My life is a miracle - there's no other way to explain it. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you the amazing story of how my life was spared and how I found the victory over depression... |
| Growing up, things were not perfect for me. However, with a wonderful family, close friends, financial stability, and many well-defined and established goals, it could be argued that my life was very close to perfect. Unfortunately, with successes and achievements around nearly every corner, I had a tendency to take the life I had for granted--especially my "professed relationship" with Jesus and knowledge of the Gospel. This began to reveal itself in me by a rather presumptuous view of Christianity. Ultimately, my hunger to continually achieve higher and higher goals, as well as my dissatisfaction with life, finally caused me to break. Soon I fell into a horrible depression and began to lose everything I held close, and the worst was yet to come. |
| In my third year of college, everything seemed to vanish all at once. It eventually got so bad that I was forced to leave school and return home. There I tried to find work, but I was not successful. I ended up spending my days alone, trying to make sense out of my life, but finding nothing to satisfy the loneliness, fear, and depression that haunted me day after day. I began accusing God and blaming Him for all of the misfortunes. I would often find myself screaming at God, asking Him why my life was such a failure. One night, in a moment of weakness, panic, and anger, I finally snapped and made the tragic choice to end my life once and for all. I consumed over two hundred pills, saying in my heart, "God could no longer care about someone as foolish and useless as me." |
| Later that night, I was on a hospital bed watching my heartbeat race to over two hundred beats per minute. I thought about his life and all of the opportunities that I had chosen to throw away. Finally realizing that I was a sinner, I begged God for just one more chance and opportunity to do what God had chosen me to do. God answered my prayer, and although I deserved to die that night, I was rescued from my foolish decision and delivered from the valley of the shadow of death. |
| One week later, I experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit unlike anything words could ever describe. Looking back, I remember it something like a giant tsunami, a fiery adrenaline rush, and a warm embrace of peace, all mixed into a powerful realization of the presence of God. Then God spoke to me, and in that moment I realized that He still loved me. God impressed me to begin a music ministry, saying "go, because very few people will right now." That night I truly had a personal encounter with God that I cannot forget, and it has become the backbone of this ministry. |
| Since that night, my life has never been the same. I returned to school for a while, but then I realized that I was still not using my talent in music, and decided to follow the call from God in music full time. That summer, on a family trip to Canada, I felt inspired to write my first songs. Near the end of the year, on a Thanksgiving weekend at my mother's home church, I gave my very first concert. Tears filled the eyes of many of the listeners when they heard my testimony, contemplating how the Lord had worked in their own lives, what He had brought them through, and understanding how His hand of love and mercy had always been leading them. |
| Life here on earth is not easy. Problems just seem to pour around every bend. However, in the midst of all the chaos, fear, and uncertainty, I want people to realize that even though life may take us to the breaking point, Jesus is still alive and active in each of our lives! Although everything may seem completely hopeless, our lives are worth living because of Christ. I want people to understand why I am a Christian. I believe that my experience is a living example of what grace really means. Deserving to die from sin, Jesus offered forgiveness and died in my place. |
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