Matt Desmond's Testimony
The lowest point in my
entire life came on March 20th, 2003. That was the day that the Lord
spared my father from a massive heart attack. We didn't really know
what was going on for several days after he had his scare, and nobody
was telling me anything.
I was in college at the time and
spring break was just ending. I was 19 years old...my so called friends
told me to come over and have some hard drinks and forget about it.
Why I did is beyond me, but I knew one thing, I LOVED the taste of
alcohol. It was just the most amazing taste in the entire world, and
the feeling, well, that was even better. We drank, and we drank, and we
drank and we drank some more. For almost an entire year I lived my
life in a state of between being completely drunk and almost sober. It
wouldn't be an uncommon thing for me to put away almost an entire fifth
of Captain Morgan every single night. The saying in the dorms was:
"Matt and the Cap'n Make It Happen."
I also really enjoyed
the friendships I had made too. I felt important, everyone was
impressed by my ability to drink everyone else under the table. I could
be so severely intoxicated that I was on the border of getting alcohol
poisoning. In fact, one night, if the fire alarm in the dorm hadn't
randomly gone off, I probably would have died. Because immediately
after going back up to my room, I emptied the contents of my stomach
into a trash can. I swore no more drinking after that. Except that was
pretty short lived. I think I sobered up for about a week, maybe two.
But I was back to drinking again, and man, I swear if it weren't worse
than before. Instead of saving my paychecks from my student job, I
would take the money I had made and put it towards alcohol purchases.
My alcohol budget at the time was probably $100 a week, and it was all
hard liquor.
I realized at that point that I had become
exactly what my father, my grandfather, my great grandfather had
been...alcoholics. I tried to push all of the thoughts out of my mind
about my grandfather. My first experience with the negative effects of
alcoholism came when I was just a little duffer, maybe three or four
years old. We were visiting my grandparents and my grandfather had
poured himself a glass of scotch, took a few sips and went to the
bathroom. My Dad took the glass of scotch and poured it down the sink.
When my grandfather got back, he asked where his drink was, and Dad
said: "You drank it, remember Dad?" "Oh, yeah, that's right, I did."
Well that scenario went on for several hours, he would pour a drink for
himself, get quickly distracted and my Dad would throw it down the sink.
He died about two years later at the age of 63. It was November 11th,
1989. His liver was all shot from all of the alcohol he would drink.
Flash forward to January of 2005, I met this girl through some friends
named Jessica. She sure was an amazing woman. I thought she was the
one that I was going to marry. It turns out that God used her to turn
my life around. By the time I got to my 21st birthday, April 16th,
2005, I had my final hurrah with drinking. April 17th, I woke up
extremely hung over and in a cold sweat. I knew that this was the last
day in my life that I would ever be hung over from alcohol. I quit cold
turkey just like that. Let me be the first to tell you, not an easy
task. It definitely sucked. There were times when I would see all of
my friends go out to get wasted, and I wanted to go. But I didn't.
There have been times even since I have been in church where I have
CRAVED a drink of hard liquor. I have absolutely CRAVED it. But I have
not given in to the temptation.
Anyway, some other stuff
happened along the way that I don't feel comfortable airing out in
public, but a few people on here know all of the details, and no they
won't share under penalty of death! And I ended up getting a job at a
bank where a bunch of people from my church worked and they witnessed to
me. After several months, on December 4th, 2005, I walked in to the
First Apostolic Church of Brewer for the first time. I thought the
entire place was going to cave in with all of my sin. We had a lady
preach a message called "Seven Days to Repent", I sure chewed on that
message for a while, and I thought about it, and I kept coming back
desiring more.
On January 1st, 2006, I was baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins, and exactly 4 weeks
later when Elder Cavaness from Indiana preached a revival, I got the
Holy Ghost on Sunday night. It was amazing. Of course there was a
naysayer there going around saying I didn't get the Holy Ghost, but on
the drive back to my house I got refilled!
Has life been easy
since I came to God? Uhm, nope! It sure hasn't! But I know what God
has called for me to do, and I know the plan He has for my life. I
wouldn't trade that for all of the Captain Morgan Silver Spiced Rum in
the entire world!