Casey Cease’s entire life changed after just one car ride. It was July 5th, 1995, and 17-year-old Casey was throwing a party at his parents’ house. He was hoping to feel better but instead, he felt horrible.
After years of anxiety and depression, a recent breakup, and growing discontent with life, I coped in the way I had done many times before and turned to alcohol. I was fed up with my friends, my family, and myself. This particular night I became more upset with each passing hour.
Sadly, Casey decided to deal with his discontent by driving around drunk; a drive that ended with him crashing into his friend John, who died on impact. At this, the lowest point in his life, Casey thought about his relationship with God and the faith he had been taught growing up.
I questioned whether the faith was true. The Christians I knew either went to church but then abused drugs and alcohol the way I did, or went to church and didn’t talk to people like me. Either way, if their faith made any difference at all, it was too small a difference to interest me.
Despite the hypocrisy around him, Casey started to seek truth by reading the Bible.
I began reading about Jesus every night. When I did, I bounced back and forth between self-condemnation and false hope in my good behavior. It was exhausting, to say the least. The more I tried to be a Christian, the emptier I felt. The more I tried to figure faith out, the more confused I became. There were many times that I wanted to wash my hands of the whole thing, but there was a gnawing in my heart drawing me back to the Jesus I was reading about. I could not get him out of my mind.
One night Casey was at a revival meeting and prayed for healing.
I didn’t pray a special prayer or speak in tongues or fill out a card or even cry. But I did ask Jesus to make me well. It was a quiet moment between the Lord and me, but that day he began to open my eyes, open my ears, and soften my heart. He made me his own.
Over the next few years, God changed Casey’s life. Today he is the pastor of Christ Community Church in Magnolia, Texas. Does Casey’s story “prove” that Christianity is true? No. But it does show that the God who changed people’s lives in “Bible times,” is still changing lives today. Check out his full story in the link below.
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Reference
Casey Cease, “My Crash Course on Jesus,” ChristianityToday.com, August 1, 2013, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/july-august/crash-course-on-jesus.html.