More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story

How Hope Changed Everything with John Boyle

• Lily • Season 1 • Episode 52

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God tends to show up in the most unexpected places - including the bar! Join us as we sit down with John Boyle, an engineer, businessman, and Amazon best-selling author of the book "Appalachian Kid: How Hope Changed Everything," who shares his compelling journey from a turbulent childhood in West Virginia to discovering the transformative power of faith. John's story is one of resilience and redemption, as he recounts how his embrace of Christianity became the catalyst for sobriety and a renewed sense of purpose. His reflections offer a poignant testament to the guiding presence of Jesus Christ, even in life's darkest moments.

In our candid conversation, John discusses overcoming addiction by embracing faith and making conscious lifestyle changes. He shares the hurdles he faced, from resisting temptations to battling spiritual struggles while writing his memoir. Through John’s insights, listeners are given a roadmap to navigate their own challenges with addiction through faith and hope. We delve into the profound connections between faith, hope, and charity, drawing from the teachings of the Book of Mormon and Bible. John's narrative illustrates how these virtues interweave to deepen our relationship with Christ and inspire acts of charity and service to others.

Check out John's website here!
https://www.appalachiankid.com/

Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)

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Email: morethancoincidence.rememberhim@gmail.com

**Transcripts available on website!

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome to. More Than Coincidence, remembering Jesus Christ in your Story as the author and finisher of our faith, our Savior writes personal experiences into each of our lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace upon reflection. This podcast is dedicated to sharing these anchoring memories from everyone's unique stories in order to collectively remember and testify of the reality of Jesus Christ and his presence in our lives. I'm your host, lily, and I'm very excited to share these experiences together. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the podcast. Today, I'm really honored to have John Boyle on with us. How are you doing?

Speaker 2:

Doing great. Lily, Thank you for having me today. It's an honor.

Speaker 1:

I'm so grateful that you're here. Would you mind introducing yourself to everybody?

Speaker 2:

I've done a myriad of things in my career. I am an engineer, I am a businessman. I am also an author. A little over a year ago, I wrote a book. It's a memoir about my life. It's called Appalachian Kid. That's the reason we're here today on the podcast.

Speaker 1:

I love it. I read your book and it was really inspiring. I'm super grateful and just ready to just have you share what you've learned and your testimony of our Savior today. I think it's going to be really amazing. So I'll just ask you the question, John what memories do you have in your life that you reflect on, that prick your heart in remembrance of Jesus Christ and anchor you to him?

Speaker 2:

Well, that's an excellent question and you know, sitting here today, I would tell you that there are numerous remembrances that I have of Jesus in my life. However, you know it's important to explain a little bit about my story to be able to answer that question. So, if I may, I grew up in a small town in West Virginia. It was a mining community, and I grew up in a large family and I grew up in a violent home. And growing up in a violent home was difficult in that it's not meant to be an environment where a kid is successful in navigating those nuances of difficulty that really reside in the adult world.

Speaker 2:

And when you're a kid, you think it's your fault, right? So when I was a kid, I grew up Catholic. We went to church every Sunday, and I'm not picking on my parents here, I'm just telling my story. I grew up Catholic. I knew who God and Jesus were from my earliest memories on knew who God and Jesus were from my earliest memories on but really I wasn't a practicing Christian.

Speaker 2:

I really bifurcated from the Catholic Church in around late college or after college. But you know, christianity in my early childhood it was there, it was a part of my environment was there, it was a part of my environment. I believed and I still do believe. But I had a tainted view on Christianity and I had difficulty. I wasn't necessarily mad, but I had difficulty in understanding why God would put me in this position or why he would allow it to continue.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and it's I say that because it's quite common for young people and adults who experience that as a child to feel that way. So to answer your question, really the first, it was a bit more than an aha moment. It was a lifeline, a result of my childhood. I was very successful in business as an adult but I suffered greatly in my personal life from a disorder that I did not know I had. I had all these symptoms and really didn't equate them, that they were all related.

Speaker 2:

And so when I sought help and couldn't find it and tried medication and it didn't work, I used alcohol to cover up my symptoms. And so my liver bared the brunt of that decision and by 37, I was in a bar one night and my doctor had told me that I was malnourished and my liver was going into failure and if I continued to drink I'll be dead. And I was trying to quit on my own and I couldn't. And I walked into a bar on a Saturday night and it was around midnight and I was sitting there listening to music and you know, I was a few cocktails deep and a friend of mine could tell that something was amiss with me and he asked me how I was doing and I answered him truthfully, not you know what my doctor had said, that I wasn't doing well. And so he just looked at me and he said well, why don't you come to church with me tomorrow?

Speaker 1:

And that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't just that, it was the feeling that came afterwards. Right, I still get it Like hair standing up on the back of my head, my neck, my arms, my back. It was more than him at work.

Speaker 1:

It was.

Speaker 2:

inspired arms, my back. It was more than him at work. It was inspired Right and my first thought was well, you go to church. And my second thought was that God is infiltrating my drinking buddies to get to me because I had been running and he was not going to let me go.

Speaker 2:

And so that moment was one that was a catalyst for change in my life, and so I went to church. I answered my friend, yes, I will go with you. What time? And, after seeking help, I eventually made the decision to go to rehab and get better, and I became not only sober, but I became a practicing Christian. And that decision, that moment, changed my life and eventually, lily I'm wrapping this up here I promise oh, you're good.

Speaker 2:

As time went on and I had been sober for some time, I was really led to write a book. And in writing that book, in the process of it, it wasn't just that Jesus Christ showed up at a bar on Saturday night in Morgantown, west Virginia, when I was 37 years old. He had worked in my life the entire time, and that's the part that no. So, no, no, no pun intended. It wasn't a sobering moment. It was a when I discovered that it was a moment of gratitude and almost felt unworthy of it. Right, because I hadn't been seeking him. He was there for me when I wasn't there for him, and I could go on and on about this, but the fingerprints of Jesus Christ in my life have been there. I'm 47. They've been there for 47 years. And I'm not thinking that, I'm not guessing that, I'm telling you. It's fact.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, and that's one thing I loved in the foreword of your book. That was one thing that was brought up. I think you also brought it up at the very end when you talked a lot about hope. It was that God orchestrates everything and things that we think are coincidences just really aren't. You know, and that's kind of the whole point of this podcast, right, is, until we really sit down and think and reflect on our lives, we really aren't able to kind of see Christ in our life. You know, and I think some people can call it, you know, having gratitude for their blessings or something. It kind of takes different forms, but but truly it's only upon reflection, when you look at even at the highs and the lows of your life, that you're able to truly see his fingerprints, like you said, right, like this is where he is and this is where he's showing up in the big and the small things. Right, well said.

Speaker 2:

Well said.

Speaker 1:

So well, thank you, I did. I did have some questions for you, though that I was just as I was reading your book, and just even right before our interview, and while you were talking, I was trying to, like frantically, write some things down.

Speaker 1:

But, but the first thing yeah, the first thing that kind of pricked. You know my thoughts was from personal experience and as I've been talking to a lot of other people and friends, I've noticed that as we are starting to try and become better and become more Christ-like and forge that relationship with him, we often face great opposition. And I'm sure, especially you as a recovering alcoholic, you see alcohols everywhere. Your buddies want to go to the bar like there's temptation everywhere. So how do you, when you were trying to get sober and even just really turn your life around, how were you able to overcome that opposition? Did you? Were you able to just focus on Christ? Or was it really just like a physically, like I'm, I'm not going anywhere because I'm really tempted, like how, how did how did you really? How'd you do that?

Speaker 2:

You know, Well, uh, it could easily be said that I tried all those things and they all worked right. There are quite a few things that I did. First, I really started leaning in to Christianity and my own faith before I attempted to quit drinking. So I don't know that that was purposeful. I would tell you what probably wasn't. Those I believe. As a believer, I do not believe in coincidences.

Speaker 2:

I do not believe they exist Maybe they don't, maybe they do for non-believers, but they don't exist for us and I believe that everything holds purpose and that our lives and our paths and our interactions with men and women, family and friends in our lives, it's all orchestrated and it's a more complicated calculus problem than you could ever put into an equation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's only God math. We're just working with basic mortal numbers down here.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and so the mantra that I followed, beyond having a lens of faith, is to apply effort, apply effort, no matter what, no matter where I was, if I was down, if you know, I I fortunately I didn't. After, after I stopped drinking, I didn't. I wasn't tempted to try it again and I I've never picked up a drink, I've never, uh, bought alcohol with the intention of drinking it myself.

Speaker 1:

Right, which is a miracle etc.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely in and of itself. If there were nothing more to my life, that is a miracle because I quit. I tried to quit several times and I could not. So you know other things that I did besides going to church and reading the Bible and and trying to better myself every day. I I would not put myself in a place where I drank before I stopped going to football games and tailgating.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

You know, I really I stopped going to bars and I stopped going out later at night, and I replaced that time with things that helped me accomplish a new goal, and one of them was I wanted to better myself, not only my health, but my education, and so I started reading. Every night, I would go to the bookstore, and I would. I would buy hundreds of dollars worth of books, and it was still cheaper than what my bar bills were. So it was way better off right.

Speaker 1:

But I just read.

Speaker 2:

I just read with my time and I read anything I wanted to learn. If a book was bad, I sat it down and I picked up another book. I tried to put myself in areas that I didn't want to be around the wrong people anymore. If it was even questionable, it was like, no, I'm not going to do that today, or Right, no, I don't want to do business with that person, et cetera. But I tried to stay away from temptation. Now you know, one part of your question I will address is we're fought hard as Christians, even when we intend not to be tempted or fought it's.

Speaker 2:

I mean it finds you.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2:

The devil's sneaky right thought it's, I mean it finds you exactly exactly. The devil is exceedingly efficient at his job and we have to too, right? Yes, that's a message that you know, if you're, if you're an early believer and you don't understand why certain things are happening, you know, you got to understand that the devil's very good at his job, very good, good at his job, right. And so it's important to acknowledge that and understand that it's not a myth, right? He wants you to think it's a myth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

When I went through the process of writing a book and incorporating the faith elements from my history into my memoir. That is when I've been fought the hardest in my life and it was not only me just being attacked by any number of ways and they were unsuccessful. But when those were unsuccessful, then the devil found ways to attack my family. Right, we're not going to give John peace. He's writing a book that essentially says that God's real and look what God's done in my life.

Speaker 1:

He doesn't want that.

Speaker 2:

So, anyway, I don't like to give the devil credit, but to your listeners who may be finding faith and in the early stages, or maybe they've had a difficult path, like mine, of having PTSD or struggling with alcohol addiction or some other type of addiction, or um just, you know this is a tough world, you know, and those who have difficulty, they need to know what works and what doesn't, so that's why I share it.

Speaker 1:

Right. Well, when I was reading your book and as I was kind of pondering a lot before we were going to meet, I kept having these scriptures come to my mind. And now I'm so. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so we have we have the Book of Mormon as well, which is also another testament of Jesus Christ, and I'm grateful that we have this book, because all the prophets, all the people within the book we hear their testimonies of how Christ has shown up in their lives too, and it's been a powerful testimony builder to me.

Speaker 1:

And one chapter specifically kept coming to my mind, and it's Moroni, chapter 7. Now, moroni, he was the one who actually compiled all of these ancient records from the Nephite and the Lamanite people that we read about in the Book of Mormon, and it was his job to go through it all and abridge things and kind of compile it all together. That's the task that God gave to him before he passed away. And so in the very end of the Book of Mormon we have kind of a little, we have a few chapters that are just his musings and him reflecting kind of on his life, and one thing that he brings up is this relationship between faith, hope and charity and how these three attributes specifically tie us to Christ and how cultivating these three attributes will bring us closer to Christ. And the scriptures I specifically that made me think of this was how, at the end, you dedicate like a whole chapter to just to hope, and how it's through your faith that you were able to find hope, and it was this hope in Jesus Christ that allowed you to reach out of yourself and grow and help and serve others, which is that you know the faith, hope, charity that we read from Moroni. So I just wanted to read these scriptures really fast because I felt that they were really pertinent.

Speaker 1:

And it says this is Moroni speaking. He says and again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that you can attain unto faith? Save ye shall have hope, and what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold, I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him, according to the promise, wherefore, if a man have faith, he must needs have hope, for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold, I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope save he shall be meek and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God save the meek and lowly in heart. And if a man be meek and lowly in heart and confess, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity, for if he hath not charity he is nothing, wherefore he must needs have charity.

Speaker 1:

And then he kind of goes on and just kind of describes too what charity is and how we can cultivate charity. And so, as I was reading your book, I just thought how has your faith, as you've started to come to Christ and you started to have that relationship with Christ, how have you, as Moroni has said, allowed your faith in Christ to inform your hope, which allowed you to hope that you know things could work out or whatever it is in Christ, and how you were able to then project that forward in writing your book, being more charitable to people and and reaching out to others? How, how have you seen this triad of faith, hope and charity within your life? Is the question.

Speaker 2:

That's a good question. I'm not familiar with the Book of Mormon. I am familiar with the Old Testament and the New Testament that Christians follow and it says in Hebrews 11, 1, that faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. You do not see, and I've heard from several pastors that hope is merely an outward forward-looking expression of faith, right, that they're interconnected and that they really don't have bifurcation.

Speaker 2:

So, when I look at hope, I look at it as it's a confident expectation that God's promises come to pass right, whether it's through his son, jesus Christ, whether it's through all kinds of stories throughout the Bible right, and it's history, history. And when you look at charity, that is an expression in our society that has some tangible elements of money, right. And so, when you look at charity, when you look at kindness, as far as Jesus Christ, it's not a function of currency, it's a function of his sacrifice for us and giving his life, um, you know, so that we can meet our maker, right.

Speaker 2:

Right, Exactly so um, you know it's when you talk about sacrifice and charity, you know, in in respect to Jesus. Those things coincide each other, those elements coincide each other. I guess I should say Exactly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's how I look at it, Right, and I think that that's the right way to look at it. You know, I love that we have these examples in the Bible as well. We, you know, as LDS members of the LDS church, we read the Bible too and we believe it to be the word of God as well, and we're grateful that we have all of these wonderful examples that other people have been able to share within the scriptures, that they can testify, of these things so that we can learn as well. Yeah, I think my next question that I did have for you was you mentioned how you grew up Catholic and you were kind of.

Speaker 1:

You used the word tainted. You know, religion was kind of tainted in your eyes. You were kind of. You used the word tainted. You know, religion was kind of tainted in your eyes. How were you then able to overcome that? Because I think that would be one of the hardest obstacles to overcome, Even if you have good examples of Christians as well. How would you, growing up in a family environment that was not very Christ-like, to put it nicely like? How do you do that?

Speaker 2:

to put it nicely like how do you do that? Yeah, it was a challenge and it that dynamic, I believe played a large part of me not going to church and practicing from age 21 or 22 until I was in my later 30s.

Speaker 1:

That's totally understandable.

Speaker 2:

Right and you know, I don't know whether it was just selfish in nature or that I had a premeditated disposition. I can't tell you exactly what it was, but the um, the catalyst that changed. That was when I agreed to go with my friend to church and I walked into church. I was welcomed. I was not judged, I was welcomed. Uh, I was not struck by lightning. I was welcomed. I was not judged, I was welcomed. I was not struck by lightning. I was struck by the peace that existed in the building and the internal.

Speaker 2:

I don't know whether I don't want to use the word peace again, but kind of the internal shift that I had towards anxiousness, to feeling like I could be in park and just listen to what I'm hearing. I was further encouraged by the outreach that this church had, not only at evangelical in nature but a charitable in nature, right To those. When you're from the poorest state in the country, outreach means something Right and it's a place that the government just doesn't step in and they do not help people to the degree that they need it and depend heavily upon churches and faith communities to have an impact, to fix, you know, foster kids not having homes, to fix the fact that you know that people don't have heat and that people don't have meals, whether that be for a holiday or just everyday life Right.

Speaker 2:

I mean, there are so many things that are overlooked in this country that a place that I went to just because my friend invited me and I could see the inner workings of the community, that went to this church. It's called Chestnut Ridge. It's in Morgantown, west Virginiaia. It was a place that I wanted to to stay yeah, it was a place I wanted to go back to the next sunday and to be more in community with those who went there and were members and parishioners right uh, it motivated me to want to do more.

Speaker 2:

I I could go on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I would argue that when you walked in, you probably felt the Holy Spirit, because it's His Spirit that brings peace to our souls and peace to our hearts, right, and I think it's wonderful that when you experience that and then you look at these people who are living, they are living as disciples of Christ. Their faith is informing their hope, which is then broadcast outwards as their charity, right as they are showing the love of god towards their fellow men, because it's the, at the end of the day, it's not, like you said, the government that's going to come in and take care of people. What it should be is brother watching after brother, sister watching after sister, community within the community, because that's how christ that's. That's exactly what his ministry was. His ministry was to the people of galilee, to the people in jerusalem.

Speaker 1:

It was, it was his community that he ministered to, and if we want to be disciples of christ as well, like you saw at your church, it's you see a need, you fill a need in your community, and and that brings light, and then light gives more light, and I think that's what you've probably felt that day, which I think is amazing because it's sometimes, especially when you're in a new environment and you're worried. You're like what's going to go on? It's hard to feel the spirit and it's hard to be open to that.

Speaker 2:

And so.

Speaker 1:

I think it's amazing that he was able to pierce your heart and you felt that, and that you were brave enough to say I want more and not and not discount it and say, okay, well, maybe I'm just, maybe this is just weird, right, or maybe I'm just here with my buddy and it's fun, or maybe they are giving me food, and so I like that. You know, you were able to tune in and I think they that is something that I want more of. Where can I find that piece? Where can I find that? Because it's impossible to find in days now.

Speaker 2:

So I just want to say that was amazing that you were able to find that too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it felt a lot like love and just comfort, right? What advice would you give to other people who are wanting to turn their life around and maybe find Christ, or you know what would you? What would you tell them or have them? Where should they start, I guess?

Speaker 2:

Well, okay, so I don't, I don't, I don't think this is in the Bible, but I'm an engineer by trade right. Anytime you have a problem, whether that problem is personal in nature, whether it's a bridge or a road or some type of a business obstacle or a relationship, what have you? The first thing you need to do when you try to solve a problem is you need to define it right.

Speaker 2:

Correct and what gave me the greatest difficulty in my earlier years of adulthood was that I did not have a good definition of what was wrong, and I spent a lot of time chasing my tail with solutions that did not work, and so I would start here. Whatever your problem is and it could be a myriad of things the first thing I would recommend is a connection with Jesus, and even if you don't have any idea what that means, all you have to do is bow your head and ask means All you have to do is bow your head and ask. And it says in scripture I forget exactly where, but knock and he will answer.

Speaker 2:

And I think that's always the first step. And if you have an idea of what's wrong and you don't know how to fix it, or you don't know the full breadth of the problem, that is where I would start and past that, no matter what you do, you got to get back up, right and I can give you a boxing analogy, where you don't lose.

Speaker 2:

in boxing If you get knocked down, you lose a few. Stay down and no matter what, you just have to get up and you have to keep fighting. And if you're given today, then get up and fight and do something that's going to help you have a better tomorrow. And it's hard to see when you're grinding it out and the problems seem enormous and the solutions minuscule. But yeah, you've got to start climbing the mountain. And if you don't, you're probably not going to stand a chance of solving it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, and I love that, because it's through the atonement of Christ that you are able to change right, it's these small, minuscule, tiny things that even all he wants is just you. Whether you're 100% today might not be your 100% tomorrow, but he sees your heart right, he, the man, what I'm sure I think there's. There's a scripture in the Bible that says he looketh on the heart and he knows your heart, and if you truly are like God, please, I need help. I just want to change. Just help me to see you or help me to feel you. He will be there and I and I've experienced that in my own life and I and so I love that you give that as advice, because that that is the best place to start.

Speaker 2:

That's what I did.

Speaker 1:

I tried everything but that first.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

So the other thing that I was kind of thinking of, that I was wondering if you wouldn't, for people who haven't read your book, would you? When I was reading through it, I think you said that the experience that kind of really was the catalyst aside from going to rehab that kind of started you on this, on your big change journey, where you really kind of reflected back and you were like, oh my gosh, christ was really. There was the really cool story where you had the impression to go home and then ended up in a high-speed chase but then at the same time at your business you're trying to figure out someone to hire but you had to miss the meeting because you're on a high-speed chase the night before. And how, when you looked back on that you were like how can this insane experience be orchestrated by God? Would you mind just sharing that story with us? And then kind of how?

Speaker 2:

that.

Speaker 1:

I remember in the book you had said that that was also definitely a memory, that kind of pricked your heart to remember him and where you started looking for the fingerprints.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. The uh my book is is bookended with a story from my hometown high school. I grew up in a very uh small and now poverty stricken area of West Virginia and I always took the approach through my career, that I gave back anytime I could Christian or not Christian, that's what I did, and so there were many instances where I went up to my hometown high school and volunteered a career day and et cetera. So one of my friends has a charity called Building Hope and he put on a one day event at my hometown high school that had a moderator from Ohio and that moderator was used to working with children and the intent of the program and the charity really is to replace bullying with empathy. It's teaching freshman age high school students why bullying and being mean to your fellow student is not an approach that you want to take, and here's why, and here's what you should be doing and why you should do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so it's. It's done with these moderators way better, because they're used to working with children than I am. But I volunteered as a basically a small group moderator. So I'm in my small group and three of the four students in my small group were victims of violence and, as a result, one of the four was completely shut down. She really didn't say much at all the entire time.

Speaker 2:

Two boys, two girls and both boys had experienced violence in their home physical violence and shared it, and we're we're having difficulty with it. And the other little girl I can say this now but I didn't in my book because they're now in college the other little girl was a Baptist preacher's daughter, and so God at least gave me a wingman in that right or wing woman. And so I'm doing this small group breakout and from eight o'clock until like noon I just felt like I was drowning in difficulty and I really wasn't getting anywhere. But hey, we were having effective conversations and it's not my job to fix things, it's just my job to try and do what this charity wants to achieve for the day and I believed in it.

Speaker 2:

So I got an opportunity after lunch to answer a question from one of the four and maybe it was more of a comment than a question, but he made a question that he said well, god isn't real. And if he is, he doesn't love everyone the same. And you know, it really equated to feelings that I had, maybe I didn't express, as a young person or a young adult. And this kid told me a story, so I understand where he's coming from. And so I'm sitting in there and it's about 1230 in the afternoon and I just look up into the rafters of this gymnasium and there was a banner from my family's company hanging and it reminded me of this story, of how I know God's real. And so I just looked at him and you know, after about a minute and I knew exactly what to say and how to say it. So I I told a story of how I knew and I'll tell it in a nutshell.

Speaker 2:

But you know, essentially I was in my early 30s, I was not. I was a believer, but I was not a practicing Christian, and I was basically at my office and we were trying to hire a certain slot in our office for someone who estimates work right that construction companies execute, and so you know I had this call come in and one of my vice presidents walks in and says we need to interview this last minute candidate and I said we didn't, it was by invitation only, we didn't advertise it.

Speaker 2:

How did this person find us?

Speaker 1:

Right, no idea Right.

Speaker 2:

Coincidence, I'm sure was something that was thrown out there, right and so I shared this story that I didn't want to interview the guy, and my vice president basically talked me into it. So I said, whatever, if you've got time to do it, go ahead. I'm going home. And so I went home and I picked my girlfriend up and we went out to eat. And after we went out to eat, my girlfriend wanted to watch a movie. So we went back to her place and we started watching a movie and I kept having this feeling come over me, you need to leave right now.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

You need to leave right now. And it became more acute Leave now, leave now, leave now. So I speak up to my girlfriend at the time and I said you know I'm getting this message. I don't even think.

Speaker 1:

I said it that way.

Speaker 2:

I need to go Right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and she's like why? And I just I need to go, something's not right, yeah, and so I. I, my house was 10 minutes away. I pull into my garage and my house had been broken into and about three seconds after I pulled in there was a huge bang above my garage and it was three guys trying to take my TV out of my living room and they dropped it. They were startled and anyway I threw it in reverse. When I heard that called 911 and shot around to the front of the house to see if they were exiting. And the 9-1-1 dispatch dispatcher was very displeased with me and wanted no part of me chasing or apprehending or trying to do anything with the people in my home.

Speaker 2:

Her answer was you need to let the authorities do it. And I my approach was well, I'm here and I want my TV back. Kick myself. They have the TV, I have everything in it.

Speaker 1:

But you kicked the wrong house right, that was for sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So anyway, I got into a brief altercation with one of them and I, shortly around that time, found out there were four people in my home not three and two of the four people ran into a vehicle and sped off. And so after the altercation, I jumped in my vehicle and I followed them. And I continued to follow them at a very high rate of speed through a residential area for miles and miles, and miles and I got up to a boulevard that had several traffic lights and at the third traffic light I heard a voice, and it was not an audible voice, but it was a voice that just bellowed through my being that said stop, turn around now. And it startled and scared me so much that that 911 operator was squalling at me for 10 minutes, shooting and shooting up the road, trying to follow these guys.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, I did stop and I turned around and came home and when I got home my house was destroyed. There were all kinds of cops there and essentially I called my vice president and said I wouldn't be there for the interview the next day. And so he was there for the interview. I was dealing with the sheriff and being broke into and everything else. And, to make a long story short. I found out later that my vice president wanted to hire the guy that I didn't want to interview, and he told me, on top of that, that he was a pastor on the weekends.

Speaker 2:

And I'm just like do you, do you hear what our guys say on the construction sites, Like? This is not going to work very well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I was wrong. You know we hired him and the sheer volume of work that this guy brought in I've never seen anyone else in my career do that in the state of West Virginia. Yeah, just a testament that I was just. I hate to use the word pawn, but that is when I realized there absolutely is a force in the universe His name is Jesus who made these things happen. And I was just, I had no control over it and it was all used for good, and so I shared that with these young folks at building hope event in my hometown high school and uh it ended up being a wonderful afternoon and I I hope they're doing well.

Speaker 2:

I did not keep a touch with them we're not permitted to write. They were freshmen in high school, so I don't know how they're doing, but uh, you know, they, they, they've sculpted my life forever and that they're memorialized in my memoir as as being catalysts who changed the outlook on how I viewed my own life.

Speaker 1:

Right, and I think it's amazing that it was through the Holy Spirit that he inspired the story. That was that not only helped you, but I'm sure it helped the other kids, cause I remember in your book they, they, they wanted to keep talking to you after that like they, they really wanted, they, they felt something just like you. Whatever you felt at that church, you were able to bring it to them and that's the whole, that's the whole point of christ, right. He inspired you and you both were edified and you both were able to feel his peace and and your relationship was able to grow with him, and so I, I. That was one of my favorite parts in your book because I was like he's got to talk about that so thank you for sharing that um yes I think I've gone through all of my questions.

Speaker 1:

So was there any other things, any other thoughts that you might want to share, or any other stories that that just kind of come to your mind that you might want to share, or any other?

Speaker 2:

stories that just kind of come to your mind that you would like to share, not off the top of my head. I normally say a little thing about where my book can be found if someone wants it, or where I can be found, but the thing I normally say exiting I've already said, and that is if you know, if you're, if you're someone who's struggling or if you're just mired in difficulty right now, you know, here's where you can find the answer. But we've talked about that part, so I feel like we've covered sufficiently.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well then, I really appreciate your time, do you, would you mind bearing a testimony or a witness to Christ really fast, before we close.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So let me say this I am someone who has tried pretty much everything out there to find internal peace with a disorder, that piece, with a disorder that has plagued me my entire life. So I have a complex version of post-traumatic stress disorder and the nature of this, the disorder and the symptoms are such that there are any number of symptoms that just it kind of sees you and cause a lot of internal difficulties, from a broken fight or flight, response to nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks, chronic muscle tenseness. I could go on and on and on right. And my search for all of adulthood has been how do I find peace? All of adulthood has been how do I find peace? How do I find something that will move the needle and help me heal, help me feel better, help me not feel this way right? And so I really I haven't tried every drug out there, but I've tried every type of alcohol you could find and I drank sincerely every day for over a decade, right and just trying to put this stuff at bay.

Speaker 2:

It was that difficult to deal with and after walking in the doors of Chestnut Ridge Church in Morgantown, west Virginia, and after reaching out in prayer to Jesus Christ and asking him to take the urges away, that I was done with alcohol to to please help me I was just trying to quit drinking but a Testament to Jesus Christ, and his character is that he gave me what I needed, not only from a addiction standpoint, but I got a whole new chance on life. My life lived before I invited him into my world and after. Our night and day to experience peace, joy, happiness, to experience sharing my story with others and helping them out of a quagmire or addiction or to help them overcome a violent childhood, has been an experience that it's almost unworldly. It has changed every fiber of my being. Who I was before Jesus and who I am after Jesus. It's not the same person. I mean there's the same name at the bottom of my checks when I sign them but that's about it.

Speaker 1:

The heart's different completely, my heart's different.

Speaker 2:

The way I think is different, the way I parent is different, the way I lead and my company is different. I am not the same person and my book just speaks to who he is and how he changed my life. And if you want to find it, it's on Amazon and you've already said the name it's Appalachian Kid, or you can go to AppalachianKidcom and you can get a link to buy my book there.

Speaker 1:

I listened to the Audible version and it was very good, so I highly recommend Audible.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thank you so much, John, for your time, and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks again for tuning into More Than Coincidence Remembering Jesus Christ in your Story. Please follow us on social media or share us with a friend. If you have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to reach out to morethancoincidencerememberhim at gmailcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our Savior. See you next time.