Stories of Faith ::: Bobby Minor

This post is from my buddy Bobby Minor. Thanks for your story Bobby. I know this will be real talk for a lot of people.
I know this one is longer but please read it all...such a powerful story of Grace and Mercy.

"I am 42-years old and have live my entire life in Fort Worth. My life started out pretty much in Leave it to Beaver fashion. Me, my mom and dad, sister and brother lived in a two-story house on a tree-lined street near TCU in South Fort Worth. Life was good. That is until I was six-years old and found out one day when I came home from school that my dad no longer lived with us but one of his buddies from work did. He would become my mother's second husband. I also found out later that even at this time my mother was already selling drugs and had been arrested in a big drug sting that was written about in the FW Star-Telegram. We would soon be lose the house to foreclosure and would be forced to move to a place we could afford, right in the middle of the hood. Here's a summary of the next six years or so...mom arrested again for selling drugs, being evicted and having everything we own thrown out on the curb and coming home and seeing everything after it had been picked through, having our utilities cut off numerous times, going without food, our house was like a commune with hitchhikers being invited to stay at our house as long as they would like. I remember a time watching cartoons in the living room with a group of my mom's friends and while they are getting high someone passed the joint to me. I just passed it to the person sitting next to me and when they realized what they had done they all just started laughing. I was 11 years old at the time. Another that stands out around this time is not having any gas or water for two months and running a water hose from our next door neighbors backyard to our backyard where we would bathe in our swimsuits. There's a lot more but for the sake of time I'll save it for later. Here are bullets that can summarize my life up to now:
Ultimately my mother would marry and divorce four times before passing away at the age of 48 (14 years ago) after years of drug and alcohol abuse...
I came home from school in the 6th grade to be greeted by my mother's third husband (still a family friend to this day) who told me that she had moved out of state with the man that would later become her fourth husband...
I started running the streets, selling drugs, hustling and having sex frequently by the age of 13....
Had a felony arrest on my record by the age of 19...
Would be arrested twice more over the next couple of years...
Committed many felonies that I never got caught doing....
Always had some sort of hustle going on...
Got married at the age of 24 and had my first son later that year...
Still continued selling and using drugs, keeping it from my wife. All she knew was that I always had a lot of extra money...
Committed adultery numerous time throughout our 12 year (10 years together, 2 separated) marriage...
Up to this point in my life I had always made it about me. On the surface I seemed like a nice guy but I can look back and see all of the lives I destroyed along the way...
The ironic thing is that while I lived a lifestyle that was a complete 180* from that of a Christ-follower if you would have asked me if I thought I was going to heaven I would have said yes and actually believed it. I wasn't that bad of a person, besides, I never robbed a bank or killed anyone...
I pretty much lived my life for today and if anything good was happening in my life I didn't think it would last and it didn't, usually through self-sabotage...
I figured if I didn't let myself get close to anybody I couldn't get hurt (like I was hurt by my mother)...
While I was separated from my wife I ran into a childhood friend that had been a partner in crime on many occasions that wanted to share with me his newfound joy and peace...
I avoided him at all costs because I thought I had it all figured out and didn't need what he had "found"...
He tried to minister to me for two full years without giving up...
Finally, on September 11th, 2001 something happened that would change all of our lives....
As I saw mothers, children, wives, crying wondering if they would ever see their loved one again it made me think of all the people that also thought "they had it all figured out" that got up that Tuesday like it was any other day and got dressed for work, only never to return...
It made me think that maybe I didn't know everything that I thought I did, that I didn't have it all figured out, that it wasn't all about me...
I called my friend and asked him what time church started that Sunday and on September 16th 2001 I walked through the doors of Waves of Faith for the first time...
I was blown away by everything, the presence of God, the people, the music, everything...
I didn't change right way though, for several months I had one foot in and one foot out...
I would go to the club on Saturday night and be in church on Sunday morning (with a stamp on my hand)...
Got tired of playing the church game and on April 15th 2002 I pulled my car over in downtown Fort Worth and made a commitment to put God in the drivers seat and stop playing games...
Got baptized in July of 2002..."

More to come...stay tuned...
Blessings!
ZS