Patrick Dickens

I still remember my first discipleship relationship. I was in Junior High. Like every red-blooded adolescent, driven by raging hormones, I had only one thing on my mind most of the time. I knew that the sexual thoughts I was having were not pleasing to God. I felt so guilty and overcome that I began to think that I would never be able to live the Christian life. I wanted to talk to someone, but I didn’t know whom to turn to. AT that point in my life, going to my dad was very difficult. I didn’t want to be so embarrassed and I didn’t know what he would say. So I lived a guilty, fearfilled life.

Until Patrick came along. Now Patrick wasn’t the best guy in the world, to be honest. He was pretty rough around the edges, but he really loved the Lord and he believed in absolute honesty. He took an interest in me and, though I still don’t know what gave me the courage to tell him about my “problem,” I did. It was amazing: He didn’t scold me. He didn’t tell me what a bad person I was. Neither did he minimize my sin. He showed me the love and compassion of Christ, reassured me that I was not alone, reinforced the forgiveness of God, and made me believe that victory was actually possible. I cannot even describe to you how strategic he was in giving me hope and lifting the burden of guilt I was carrying around. He literally removed the walls that were imprisoning me.

Here’s the point. That freedom came because of a connection. I would have never gotten there by myself. Who knows? I might not even be here today had it not been for that spiritual connection that came along at just the right time