I believe my story is the biggest success story but I think everyone should think this way. So here is my story a summarized version for the full length version ask me and I do not mind sharing it. 

Testimony of Jason LaLonde

I grew up in a family where love is not completely understood or experienced so my desires in life were not fulfilled although I have to say that we are discovering what love looks like as a family. This was not my parents’ fault as they did not have a love completely understood or experienced in their childhood but for me it was devastating and I longed for such love. I blamed my parents for years, mainly my mom but I have forgiven them and myself for blaming them for not showing me love, for this lack of what I desired as I have finally figured out, that they not knowing love themselves could not give what they did not have. I tried to find pleasure in many things in life as I equated pleasure with love, so I got involved in drugs and many other areas of sin, which brought me temporary pleasures but no real fulfillment in the area of love that I desired. This drug usage and areas of sin overtook my life in a dramatic way and I was consumed by these sins. I became a slave to the very sins in my life and they became very painful and not pleasurable at all. It took more and more drugs/sins to try and find pleasure but pleasure was never achieved again just moments of numbness and seriously long periods of pain. Although I never really knew what I was doing to myself but it was devastating to say the least. I had some clue that I was causing more pain to myself than pleasure but I really never knew that until I got to a certain point in life and that certain point is not defined as a day or an hour but a time of understanding that I was living life to just breathe as I had not enjoyment in it anymore. Being addicted to drugs for years now and finally one day I was getting so high and I heard voices and they were telling me they wanted to kill me. I immediately got into my truck and drove to Lafayette, Louisiana and called a friend who I knew and he started going to church. See I heard about a God when I was growing up who could save you from sin and death and most certainly I was sinning and on a path to death. My friend, Carlos asked me  “Do you want to be forgiven of what you have done and live as a new man?” and I most certainly said yes. On July 15, 1992 was the day I gave my life to Jesus and I would like to say it has always been easy and my life was never the same after that but the truth is I have struggled all my life trying to let go of me and grab hold of Him (Jesus).  I am sure you want me to tell you that I have completely let go of me and I have grab hold of Him but as I am honest I can not say that but I am further along in the process than I have ever been before. My life is not the same although I do see me inside of all the newness I am developing so it feels like I have not changed much but the reality is I have and I am learning everyday about how much I have changed. Even writing this testimony brought some light to the changes in my life.

Romans 12:2 (N.K.J.V.) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

This transformation I am finding out is a long slow process to me as I see it but for some who see me it has been a little faster process in me but either way I am just glad we are in the process of transformation. As I desire to be transformed in the image of Jesus and to become more and more like Him everyday.