December 2, 2024 • 43 mins
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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Website: https://morethancoincidencerememberingjesuschristinyourstory.buzzsprout.com
Email: morethancoincidence.rememberhim@gmail.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello everyone and welcome to.
More Than Coincidence,remembering Jesus Christ in your
Story as the author andfinisher of our faith, our
Savior writes personalexperiences into each of our
lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace
upon reflection.
This podcast is dedicated tosharing these anchoring memories
(00:26):
from everyone's unique storiesin order to collectively
remember and testify of thereality of Jesus Christ and his
presence in our lives.
I'm your host, lily, and I'mvery excited to share these
experiences together.
Good evening, everybody, andwelcome to the podcast.
Today, I'm really honored tohave John Boyle on with us.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Doing great.
Lily, Thank you for having metoday.
It's an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm so grateful that you're here.
Would you mind introducingyourself to everybody?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I've done a myriad of things in my career.
I am an engineer, I am abusinessman.
I am also an author.
A little over a year ago, Iwrote a book.
It's a memoir about my life.
It's called Appalachian Kid.
That's the reason we're heretoday on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I love it.
I read your book and it wasreally inspiring.
I'm super grateful and justready to just have you share
what you've learned and yourtestimony of our Savior today.
I think it's going to be reallyamazing.
So I'll just ask you thequestion, John what memories do
you have in your life that youreflect on, that prick your
heart in remembrance of JesusChrist and anchor you to him?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, that's an excellent question and you know,
sitting here today, I wouldtell you that there are numerous
remembrances that I have ofJesus in my life.
However, you know it'simportant to explain a little
bit about my story to be able toanswer that question.
So, if I may, I grew up in asmall town in West Virginia.
(02:02):
It was a mining community, andI grew up in a large family and
I grew up in a violent home.
And growing up in a violenthome was difficult in that it's
not meant to be an environmentwhere a kid is successful in
navigating those nuances ofdifficulty that really reside in
(02:25):
the adult world.
And when you're a kid, you thinkit's your fault, right?
So when I was a kid, I grew upCatholic.
We went to church every Sunday,and I'm not picking on my
parents here, I'm just tellingmy story.
I grew up Catholic.
I knew who God and Jesus werefrom my earliest memories on
(02:47):
knew who God and Jesus were frommy earliest memories on but
really I wasn't a practicingChristian.
I really bifurcated from theCatholic Church in around late
college or after college.
But you know, christianity inmy early childhood it was there,
it was a part of my environmentwas there, it was a part of my
environment.
I believed and I still dobelieve.
(03:07):
But I had a tainted view onChristianity and I had
difficulty.
I wasn't necessarily mad, but Ihad difficulty in understanding
why God would put me in thisposition or why he would allow
it to continue.
Exactly, and it's I say thatbecause it's quite common for
young people and adults whoexperience that as a child to
feel that way.
So to answer your question,really the first, it was a bit
(03:32):
more than an aha moment.
It was a lifeline, a result ofmy childhood.
I was very successful inbusiness as an adult but I
suffered greatly in my personallife from a disorder that I did
not know I had.
I had all these symptoms andreally didn't equate them, that
they were all related.
(03:52):
And so when I sought help andcouldn't find it and tried
medication and it didn't work, Iused alcohol to cover up my
symptoms.
And so my liver bared the bruntof that decision and by 37, I
was in a bar one night and mydoctor had told me that I was
malnourished and my liver wasgoing into failure and if I
(04:14):
continued to drink I'll be dead.
And I was trying to quit on myown and I couldn't.
And I walked into a bar on aSaturday night and it was around
midnight and I was sittingthere listening to music and you
know, I was a few cocktailsdeep and a friend of mine could
tell that something was amisswith me and he asked me how I
(04:37):
was doing and I answered himtruthfully, not you know what my
doctor had said, that I wasn'tdoing well.
And so he just looked at me andhe said well, why don't you
come to church with me tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
And that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It wasn't just that, it was the feeling that came
afterwards.
Right, I still get it Like hairstanding up on the back of my
head, my neck, my arms, my back.
It was more than him at work.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It was.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
inspired arms, my back.
It was more than him at work.
It was inspired Right and myfirst thought was well, you go
to church.
And my second thought was thatGod is infiltrating my drinking
buddies to get to me because Ihad been running and he was not
going to let me go.
And so that moment was one thatwas a catalyst for change in my
(05:29):
life, and so I went to church.
I answered my friend, yes, Iwill go with you.
What time?
And, after seeking help, Ieventually made the decision to
go to rehab and get better, andI became not only sober, but I
became a practicing Christian.
And that decision, that moment,changed my life and eventually,
(05:52):
lily I'm wrapping this up hereI promise oh, you're good.
As time went on and I had beensober for some time, I was
really led to write a book.
And in writing that book, inthe process of it, it wasn't
just that Jesus Christ showed upat a bar on Saturday night in
Morgantown, west Virginia, whenI was 37 years old.
(06:14):
He had worked in my life theentire 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 thatit was a moment of gratitude
and almost felt unworthy of it.
Right, because I hadn't beenseeking him.
(06:35):
He was there for me when Iwasn't there for him, and I
could go on and on about this,but the fingerprints of Jesus
Christ in my life have beenthere.
I'm 47.
They've been there for 47 years.
And I'm not thinking that, I'mnot guessing that, I'm telling
you.
It's fact.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, well, and that's one thing I loved in the
foreword of your book.
That was one thing that wasbrought up.
I think you also brought it upat the very end when you talked
a lot about hope.
It was that God orchestrateseverything and things that we
think are coincidences justreally aren't.
You know, and that's kind ofthe whole point of this podcast,
right, is, until we really sitdown and think and reflect on
(07:14):
our lives, we really aren't ableto kind of see Christ in our
life.
You know, and I think somepeople can call it, you know,
having gratitude for theirblessings or something.
It kind of takes differentforms, but but truly it's only
upon reflection, when you lookat even at the highs and the
lows of your life, that you'reable to truly see his
fingerprints, like you said,right, like this is where he is
(07:34):
and this is where he's showingup in the big and the small
things.
Right, well said.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well said.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So well, thank you, I did.
I did have some questions foryou, though that I was just as I
was reading your book, and justeven right before our interview
, and while you were talking, Iwas trying to, like frantically,
write some things down.
But, but the first thing yeah,the first thing that kind of
pricked.
You know my thoughts was frompersonal experience and as I've
been talking to a lot of otherpeople and friends, I've noticed
(08:04):
that as we are starting to tryand become better and become
more Christ-like and forge thatrelationship with him, we often
face great opposition.
And I'm sure, especially you asa recovering alcoholic, you see
alcohols everywhere.
Your buddies want to go to thebar like there's temptation
(08:27):
everywhere.
So how do you, when you weretrying to get sober and even
just really turn your lifearound, how were you able to
overcome that opposition?
Did you?
Were you able to just focus onChrist?
Or was it really just like aphysically, like I'm, I'm not
going anywhere because I'mreally tempted, like how, how
did how did you really?
How'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know, Well, uh, it could easily be said that I
tried all those things and theyall worked right.
There are quite a few thingsthat I did.
First, I really started leaningin to Christianity and my own
faith before I attempted to quitdrinking.
(09:06):
So I don't know that that waspurposeful.
I would tell you what probablywasn't.
Those I believe.
As a believer, I do not believein coincidences.
I do not believe they existMaybe they don't, maybe they do
for non-believers, but theydon't exist for us and I believe
(09:32):
that everything holds purposeand that our lives and our paths
and our interactions with menand women, family and friends in
our lives, it's allorchestrated and it's a more
complicated calculus problemthan you could ever put into an
equation.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, that's only God math.
We're just working with basicmortal numbers down here.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yes, and so the mantra that I followed, beyond
having a lens of faith, is toapply effort, apply effort, no
matter what, no matter where Iwas, if I was down, if you know,
I I fortunately I didn't.
After, after I stopped drinking, I didn't.
(10:11):
I wasn't tempted to try itagain and I I've never picked up
a drink, I've never, uh, boughtalcohol with the intention of
drinking it myself.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Right, which is a miracle etc.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Absolutely in and of itself.
If there were nothing more tomy life, that is a miracle
because I quit.
I tried to quit several timesand I could not.
So you know other things that Idid besides going to church and
reading the Bible and andtrying to better myself every
day.
I I would not put myself in aplace where I drank before I
(10:47):
stopped going to football gamesand tailgating.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
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 accomplisha new goal, and one of them was
I wanted to better myself, notonly my health, but my education
, and so I started reading.
Every night, I would go to thebookstore, and I would.
(11:15):
I would buy hundreds of dollarsworth of books, and it was
still cheaper than what my barbills were.
So it was way better off right.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
But I just read.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I just read with my time and I read anything I
wanted to learn.
If a book was bad, I sat itdown and I picked up another
book.
I tried to put myself in areasthat I didn't want to be around
the wrong people anymore.
If it was even questionable, itwas like, no, I'm not going to
do that today, or Right, no, Idon't want to do business with
(11:46):
that person, et cetera.
But I tried to stay away fromtemptation.
Now you know, one part of yourquestion I will address is we're
fought hard as Christians, evenwhen we intend not to be
tempted or fought it's.
I mean it finds you.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
The devil's sneaky right thought it's, I mean it
finds you exactly exactly.
The devil is exceedinglyefficient at his job and we have
to too, right?
Yes, that's a message that youknow, if you're, if you're an
early believer and you don'tunderstand why certain things
are happening, you know, you gotto understand that the devil's
very good at his job, very good,good at his job, right.
And so it's important toacknowledge that and understand
that it's not a myth, right?
He wants you to think it's amyth.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
When I went through the process of writing a book
and incorporating the faithelements from my history into my
memoir.
That is when I've been foughtthe hardest in my life and it
was not only me just beingattacked by any number of ways
(12:54):
and they were unsuccessful.
But when those wereunsuccessful, then the devil
found ways to attack my family.
Right, we're not going to giveJohn peace.
He's writing a book thatessentially says that God's real
and look what God's done in mylife.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
He doesn't want that.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So, anyway, I don't like to give the devil credit,
but to your listeners who may befinding faith and in the early
stages, or maybe they've had adifficult path, like mine, of
having PTSD or struggling withalcohol addiction or some other
type of addiction, or um just,you know this is a tough world,
(13:33):
you know, and those who havedifficulty, they need to know
what works and what doesn't, sothat's why I share it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Right.
Well, when I was reading yourbook and as I was kind of
pondering a lot before we weregoing to meet, I kept having
these scriptures come to my mind.
And now I'm so.
I'm a member of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, so we have we have theBook of Mormon as well, which is
also another testament of JesusChrist, and I'm grateful that
we have this book, because allthe prophets, all the people
(14:02):
within the book we hear theirtestimonies of how Christ has
shown up in their lives too, andit's been a powerful testimony
builder to me.
And one chapter specificallykept coming to my mind, and it's
Moroni, chapter 7.
Now, moroni, he was the one whoactually compiled all of these
ancient records from the Nephiteand the Lamanite people that we
(14:23):
read about in the Book ofMormon, and it was his job to go
through it all and abridgethings and kind of compile it
all together.
That's the task that God gaveto him before he passed away.
And so in the very end of theBook of Mormon we have kind of a
little, we have a few chaptersthat are just his musings and
him reflecting kind of on hislife, and one thing that he
(14:45):
brings up is this relationshipbetween faith, hope and charity
and how these three attributesspecifically tie us to Christ
and how cultivating these threeattributes will bring us closer
to Christ.
And the scriptures Ispecifically that made me think
of this was how, at the end, youdedicate like a whole chapter
(15:06):
to just to hope, and how it'sthrough your faith that you were
able to find hope, and it wasthis hope in Jesus Christ that
allowed you to reach out ofyourself and grow and help and
serve others, which is that youknow the faith, hope, charity
that we read from Moroni.
So I just wanted to read thesescriptures really fast because I
felt that they were reallypertinent.
(15:26):
And it says this is Moronispeaking.
He says and again, my belovedbrethren, I would speak unto you
concerning hope.
How is it that you can attainunto faith?
Save ye shall have hope, andwhat is it that ye shall hope
for?
Behold, I say unto you that yeshall have hope through the
atonement of Christ and thepower of his resurrection to be
raised unto life eternal, andthis because of your faith in
(15:47):
him, according to the promise,wherefore, if a man have faith,
he must needs have hope, forwithout faith there cannot be
any hope.
And again, behold, I say untoyou that he cannot have faith
and hope save he shall be meekand lowly of heart.
If so, his faith and hope isvain, for none is acceptable
before God save the meek andlowly in heart.
And if a man be meek and lowlyin heart and confess, by the
(16:10):
power of the Holy Ghost, thatJesus is the Christ, he must
needs have charity, for if hehath not charity he is nothing,
wherefore he must needs havecharity.
And then he kind of goes on andjust kind of describes too what
charity is and how we cancultivate charity.
And so, as I was reading yourbook, I just thought how has
your faith, as you've started tocome to Christ and you started
(16:33):
to have that relationship withChrist, how have you, as Moroni
has said, allowed your faith inChrist to inform your hope,
which allowed you to hope thatyou know things could work out
or whatever it is in Christ, andhow you were able to then
project that forward in writingyour book, being more charitable
(16:54):
to people and and reaching outto others?
How, how have you seen thistriad of faith, hope and charity
within your life?
Is the question.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
That's a good question.
I'm not familiar with the Bookof Mormon.
I am familiar with the OldTestament and the New Testament
that Christians follow and itsays in Hebrews 11, 1, that
faith is being sure of what youhope for and certain of what you
do not see.
(17:23):
You do not see, and I've heardfrom several pastors that hope
is merely an outwardforward-looking expression of
faith, right, that they'reinterconnected and that they
really don't have bifurcation.
(17:44):
So, when I look at hope, I lookat it as it's a confident
expectation that God's promisescome to pass right, whether it's
through his son, jesus Christ,whether it's through all kinds
of stories throughout the Bibleright, and it's history, history
(18:13):
.
And when you look at charity,that is an expression in our
society that has some tangibleelements of money, right.
And so, when you look atcharity, when you look at
kindness, as far as Jesus Christ, it's not a function of
currency, it's a function of hissacrifice for us and giving his
life, um, you know, so that wecan meet our maker, right.
(18:34):
Right, Exactly so um, you knowit's when you talk about
sacrifice and charity, you know,in in respect to Jesus.
Those things coincide eachother, those elements coincide
each other.
I guess I should say Exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, that's how I look at it, Right, and I think
that that's the right way tolook at it.
You know, I love that we havethese examples in the Bible as
well.
We, you know, as LDS members ofthe LDS church, we read the
Bible too and we believe it tobe the word of God as well, and
(19:12):
we're grateful that we have allof these wonderful examples that
other people have been able toshare within the scriptures,
that they can testify, of thesethings so that we can learn as
well.
Yeah, I think my next questionthat I did have for you was you
mentioned how you grew upCatholic and you were kind of.
You used the word tainted.
You know, religion was kind oftainted in your eyes.
You were kind of.
You used the word tainted.
You know, religion was kind oftainted in your eyes.
How were you then able toovercome that?
(19:34):
Because I think that would beone of the hardest obstacles to
overcome, Even if you have goodexamples of Christians as well.
How would you, growing up in afamily environment that was not
very Christ-like, to put itnicely like?
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
to put it nicely like how do you do that?
Yeah, it was a challenge and itthat dynamic, I believe played
a large part of me not going tochurch and practicing from age
21 or 22 until I was in my later30s.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
That's totally understandable.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Right and you know, I don't know whether it was just
selfish in nature or that I hada premeditated disposition.
I can't tell you exactly whatit was, but the um, the catalyst
that changed.
That was when I agreed to gowith my friend to church and I
walked into church.
I was welcomed.
(20:23):
I was not judged, I waswelcomed.
Uh, I was not struck bylightning.
I was welcomed.
I was not judged, I waswelcomed.
I was not struck by lightning.
I was struck by the peace thatexisted in the building and the
internal.
I don't know whether I don'twant to use the word peace again
, but kind of the internal shiftthat I had towards anxiousness,
(20:44):
to feeling like I could be inpark and just listen to what I'm
hearing.
I was further encouraged by theoutreach that this church had,
not only at evangelical innature but a charitable in
nature, right To those.
When you're from the pooreststate in the country, outreach
(21:09):
means something Right and it's aplace that the government just
doesn't step in and they do nothelp people to the degree that
they need it and depend heavilyupon churches and faith
communities to have an impact,to fix, you know, foster kids
(21:32):
not having homes, to fix thefact that you know that people
don't have heat and that peopledon't have meals, whether that
be for a holiday or justeveryday life Right.
I mean, there are so many thingsthat are overlooked in this
(21:52):
country that a place that I wentto just because my friend
invited me and I could see theinner workings of the community,
that went to this church.
It's called Chestnut Ridge.
It's in Morgantown, westVirginiaia.
It was a place that I wanted toto stay yeah, it was a place I
(22:14):
wanted to go back to the nextsunday and to be more in
community with those who wentthere and were members and
parishioners right uh, itmotivated me to want to do more.
I I could go on.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, well, I would argue that when you walked in,
you probably felt the HolySpirit, because it's His Spirit
that brings peace to our soulsand peace to our hearts, right,
and I think it's wonderful thatwhen you experience that and
then you look at these peoplewho are living, they are living
as disciples of Christ.
Their faith is informing theirhope, which is then broadcast
(22:48):
outwards as their charity, rightas 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 brotherwatching after brother, sister
watching after sister, communitywithin the community, because
that's how christ that's.
That's exactly what hisministry was.
His ministry was to the peopleof galilee, to the people in
(23:10):
jerusalem.
It was, it was his communitythat he ministered to, and if we
want to be disciples of christas well, like you saw at your
church, it's you see a need, youfill a need in your community,
and and that brings light, andthen light gives more light, and
I think that's what you'veprobably felt that day, which I
think is amazing because it'ssometimes, especially when
(23:32):
you're in a new environment andyou're worried.
You're like what's going to goon?
It's hard to feel the spiritand it's hard to be open to that
.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And so.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I think it's amazing that he was able to pierce your
heart and you felt that, andthat you were brave enough to
say I want more and not and notdiscount it and say, okay, well,
maybe I'm just, maybe this isjust weird, right, or maybe I'm
just here with my buddy and it'sfun, or maybe they are giving
me food, and so I like that.
You know, you were able to tunein and I think they that is
(23:59):
something that I want more of.
Where can I find that piece?
Where can I find that?
Because it's impossible to findin days now.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So I just want to say that was amazing that you were
able to find that too.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, it felt a lot like love and just comfort,
right?
What advice would you give toother people who are wanting to
turn their life around and maybefind Christ, or you know what
would you?
What would you tell them orhave them?
Where should they start, Iguess?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Well, okay, so I don't, I don't, I don't think
this is in the Bible, but I'm anengineer by trade right.
Anytime you have a problem,whether that problem is personal
in nature, whether it's abridge or a road or some type of
a business obstacle or arelationship, what have you?
(25:00):
The first thing you need to dowhen you try to solve a problem
is you need to define it right.
Correct and what gave me thegreatest difficulty in my
earlier years of adulthood wasthat I did not have a good
definition of what was wrong,and I spent a lot of time
chasing my tail with solutionsthat did not work, and so I
(25:25):
would start here.
Whatever your problem is and itcould be a myriad of things the
first thing I would recommendis a connection with Jesus, and
even if you don't have any ideawhat that means, all you have to
do is bow your head and askmeans All you have to do is bow
(25:52):
your head and ask.
And it says in scripture Iforget exactly where, but knock
and he will answer.
And I think that's always thefirst step.
And if you have an idea ofwhat's wrong and you don't know
how to fix it, or you don't knowthe full breadth of the problem
, that is where I would startand past that, no matter what
you do, you got to get back up,right and I can give you a
(26:16):
boxing analogy, where you don'tlose.
in boxing If you get knockeddown, 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, thenget up and fight and do
something that's going to helpyou have a better tomorrow.
And it's hard to see whenyou're grinding it out and the
(26:40):
problems seem enormous and thesolutions minuscule.
But yeah, you've got to startclimbing the mountain.
And if you don't, you'reprobably not going to stand a
chance of solving it.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, well, and I love that, because it's through
the atonement of Christ that youare able to change right, it's
these small, minuscule, tinythings that even all he wants is
just you.
Whether you're 100% today mightnot be your 100% tomorrow, but
he sees your heart right, he,the man, what I'm sure I think
(27:16):
there's.
There's a scripture in theBible that says he looketh on
the heart and he knows yourheart, and if you truly are like
God, please, I need help.
I just want to change.
Just help me to see you or helpme to feel you.
He will be there and I and I'veexperienced that in my own life
and I and so I love that yougive that as advice, because
(27:41):
that that is the best place tostart.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
That's what I did.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I tried everything but that first.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So the other thing that I was kind of thinking of,
that I was wondering if youwouldn'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 reallywas the catalyst aside from
going to rehab that kind ofstarted you on this, on your big
(28:08):
change journey, where youreally kind of reflected back
and you were like, oh my gosh,christ was really.
There was the really cool storywhere you had the impression to
go home and then ended up in ahigh-speed chase but then at the
same time at your businessyou're trying to figure out
someone to hire but you had tomiss the meeting because you're
on a high-speed chase the nightbefore.
And how, when you looked backon that you were like how can
(28:30):
this insane experience beorchestrated by God?
Would you mind just sharingthat story with us?
And then kind of how?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
that.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I remember in the book you had said that that was
also definitely a memory, thatkind of pricked your heart to
remember him and where youstarted looking for the
fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Absolutely so.
The uh my book is is bookendedwith a story from my hometown
high school.
I grew up in a very uh smalland now poverty stricken area of
West Virginia and I always tookthe approach through my career,
(29:12):
that I gave back anytime Icould Christian or not Christian
, that's what I did, and sothere were many instances where
I went up to my hometown highschool and volunteered a career
day and et cetera.
So one of my friends has acharity called Building Hope and
he put on a one day event at myhometown high school that had a
(29:34):
moderator from Ohio and thatmoderator was used to working
with children and the intent ofthe program and the charity
really is to replace bullyingwith empathy.
It's teaching freshman age highschool students why bullying
and being mean to your fellowstudent is not an approach that
(29:57):
you want to take, and here's why, and here's what you should be
doing and why you should do it.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
And so it's.
It's done with these moderatorsway better, because they're
used to working with childrenthan I am.
But I volunteered as abasically a small group
moderator.
So I'm in my small group andthree of the four students in my
small group were victims ofviolence and, as a result, one
(30:23):
of the four was completely shutdown.
She really didn't say much atall the entire time.
Two boys, two girls and bothboys had experienced violence in
their home physical violenceand shared it, and we're we're
having difficulty with it.
And the other little girl I cansay this now but I didn't in my
(30:44):
book because they're now incollege the other little girl
was a Baptist preacher'sdaughter, and so God at least
gave me a wingman in that rightor wing woman.
And so I'm doing this smallgroup breakout and from eight
o'clock until like noon I justfelt like I was drowning in
difficulty and I really wasn'tgetting anywhere.
(31:06):
But hey, we were havingeffective conversations and it's
not my job to fix things, it'sjust my job to try and do what
this charity wants to achievefor the day and I believed in it
.
So I got an opportunity afterlunch to answer a question from
one of the four and maybe it wasmore of a comment than a
(31:29):
question, but he made a questionthat he said well, god isn't
real.
And if he is, he doesn't loveeveryone the same.
And you know, it really equatedto feelings that I had, maybe I
didn't express, as a youngperson or a young adult.
And this kid told me a story,so I understand where he's
(31:53):
coming from.
And so I'm sitting in there andit's about 1230 in the
afternoon and I just look upinto the rafters of this
gymnasium and there was a bannerfrom my family's company
hanging and it reminded me ofthis story, of how I know God's
real.
And so I just looked at him andyou know, after about a minute
(32:15):
and I knew exactly what to sayand how to say it.
So I I told a story of how Iknew and I'll tell it in a
nutshell.
But you know, essentially I wasin my early 30s, I was not.
I was a believer, but I was nota practicing Christian, and I
(32:35):
was basically at my office andwe were trying to hire a certain
slot in our office for someonewho estimates work right that
construction companies execute,and so you know I had this call
(32:56):
come in and one of my vicepresidents walks in and says we
need to interview this lastminute candidate and I said we
didn't, it was by invitationonly, we didn't advertise it.
How did this person find us?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Right, no idea Right.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Coincidence, I'm sure was something that was thrown
out there, right and so I sharedthis story that I didn't want
to interview the guy, and myvice president basically talked
me into it.
So I said, whatever, if you'vegot time to do it, go ahead.
I'm going home.
And so I went home and I pickedmy girlfriend up and we went
(33:30):
out to eat.
And after we went out to eat,my girlfriend wanted to watch a
movie.
So we went back to her placeand we started watching a movie
and I kept having this feelingcome over me, you need to leave
right now.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
You need to leave right now.
And it became more acute Leavenow, leave now, leave now.
So I speak up to my girlfriendat the time and I said you know
I'm getting this message.
I don't even think.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I said it that way.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I need to go Right.
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 myhouse had been broken into and
about three seconds after Ipulled in there was a huge bang
above my garage and it was threeguys trying to take my TV out
(34:20):
of my living room and theydropped it.
They were startled and anyway Ithrew it in reverse.
When I heard that called 911and shot around to the front of
the house to see if they wereexiting.
And the 9-1-1 dispatchdispatcher was very displeased
with me and wanted no part of mechasing or apprehending or
(34:42):
trying to do anything with thepeople in my home.
Her answer was you need to letthe authorities do it.
And I my approach was well, I'mhere and I want my TV back.
Kick myself.
They have the TV, I haveeverything in it.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
But you kicked the wrong house right, that was for
sure.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah.
So anyway, I got into a briefaltercation with one of them and
I, shortly around that time,found out there were four people
in my home not three and two ofthe four people ran into a
vehicle and sped off.
And so after the altercation, Ijumped in my vehicle and I
followed them.
And I continued to follow themat a very high rate of speed
(35:26):
through a residential area formiles and miles, and miles and I
got up to a boulevard that hadseveral traffic lights and at
the third traffic light I hearda voice, and it was not an
audible voice, but it was avoice that just bellowed through
my being that said stop, turnaround now.
(35:50):
And it startled and scared meso much that that 911 operator
was squalling at me for 10minutes, shooting and shooting
up the road, trying to followthese guys.
Anyway, I did stop and I turnedaround and came home and when I
got home my house was destroyed.
(36:12):
There were all kinds of copsthere and essentially I called
my vice president and said Iwouldn't be there for the
interview the next day.
And so he was there for theinterview.
I was dealing with the sheriffand being broke into and
everything else.
And, to make a long story short.
I found out later that my vicepresident wanted to hire the guy
(36:34):
that I didn't want to interview, and he told me, on top of that
, that he was a pastor on theweekends.
And I'm just like do you, do youhear what our guys say on the
construction sites, Like?
This is not going to work verywell.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
And I was wrong.
You know we hired him and thesheer volume of work that this
guy brought in I've never seenanyone else in my career do that
in the state of West Virginia.
Yeah, just a testament that Iwas just.
(37:14):
I hate to use the word pawn,but that is when I realized
there absolutely is a force inthe universe His name is Jesus
who made these things happen.
And I was just, I had nocontrol over it and it was all
used for good, and so I sharedthat with these young folks at
building hope event in myhometown high school and uh it
(37:36):
ended up being a wonderfulafternoon and I I hope they're
doing well.
I did not keep a touch with themwe're not permitted to write.
They were freshmen in highschool, so I don't know how
they're doing, but uh, you know,they, they, they've sculpted my
life forever and that they'rememorialized in my memoir as as
(37:56):
being catalysts who changed theoutlook on how I viewed my own
life.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Right, and I think it's amazing that it was through
the Holy Spirit that heinspired the story.
That was that not only helpedyou, but I'm sure it helped the
other kids, cause I remember inyour book they, they, they
wanted to keep talking to youafter that like they, they
really wanted, they, they feltsomething just like you.
Whatever you felt at thatchurch, you were able to bring
it to them and that's the whole,that's the whole point of
(38:23):
christ, right.
He inspired you and you bothwere edified and you both were
able to feel his peace and andyour relationship was able to
grow with him, and so I, I.
That was one of my favoriteparts in your book because I was
like he's got to talk aboutthat so thank you for sharing
that um yes I think I've gonethrough all of my questions.
(38:44):
So was there any other things,any other thoughts that you
might want to share, or anyother stories that that just
kind of come to your mind thatyou might want to share, or any
other?
Speaker 2 (38:54):
stories that just kind of come to your mind that
you would like to share, not offthe top of my head.
I normally say a little thingabout where my book can be found
if someone wants it, or where Ican be found, but the thing I
normally say exiting I'vealready said, and that is if you
know, if you're, if you'resomeone who's struggling or if
you're just mired in difficultyright now, you know, here's
(39:16):
where you can find the answer.
But we've talked about thatpart, so I feel like we've
covered sufficiently.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Well then, I really appreciate your time, do you,
would you mind bearing atestimony or a witness to Christ
really fast, before we close.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah.
So let me say this I am someonewho has tried pretty much
everything out there to findinternal peace with a disorder,
that piece, with a disorder thathas plagued me my entire life.
(39:58):
So I have a complex version ofpost-traumatic stress disorder
and the nature of this, thedisorder and the symptoms are
such that there are any numberof symptoms that just it kind of
sees you and cause a lot ofinternal difficulties, from a
broken fight or flight, responseto nightmares, insomnia,
flashbacks, chronic muscletenseness.
(40:21):
I could go on and on and onright.
And my search for all ofadulthood has been how do I find
peace?
All of adulthood has been howdo I find peace?
How do I find something thatwill move the needle and help me
heal, help me feel better, helpme not feel this way right?
(40:41):
And so I really I haven't triedevery drug out there, but I've
tried every type of alcohol youcould find and I drank sincerely
every day for over a decade,right and just trying to put
this stuff at bay.
It was that difficult to dealwith and after walking in the
(41:03):
doors of Chestnut Ridge Churchin Morgantown, west Virginia,
and after reaching out in prayerto Jesus Christ and asking him
to take the urges away, that Iwas done with alcohol to to
please help me I was just tryingto quit drinking but a
Testament to Jesus Christ, andhis character is that he gave me
(41:27):
what I needed, not only from aaddiction standpoint, but I got
a whole new chance on life.
My life lived before I invitedhim into my world and after.
Our night and day to experiencepeace, joy, happiness, to
(41:53):
experience sharing my story withothers and helping them out of
a quagmire or addiction or tohelp them overcome a violent
childhood, has been anexperience that it's almost
unworldly.
It has changed every fiber ofmy being.
(42:16):
Who I was before Jesus and whoI am after Jesus.
It's not the same person.
I mean there's the same name atthe bottom of my checks when I
sign them but that's about it.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
The heart's different completely, my heart's
different.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
The way I think is different, the way I parent is
different, the way I lead and mycompany is different.
I am not the same person and mybook 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'sAppalachian Kid, or you can go
(42:56):
to AppalachianKidcom and you canget a link to buy my book there
.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
I listened to the Audible version and it was very
good, so I highly recommendAudible.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Thank you.
Thank you, I'm glad you likedit.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, thank you so much, John, for your time, and I
really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Thanks again for tuning into More Than
Coincidence Remembering JesusChrist in your Story.
Please follow us on socialmedia or share us with a friend.
If you have an experience you'dlike to share, feel free to
reach out tomorethancoincidencerememberhim
at gmailcom.
I can't wait to hear all of theamazing memories you all have
of our Savior.
(43:38):
See you next time.
Hello everyone and welcome to.
More Than Coincidence,remembering Jesus Christ in your
Story as the author andfinisher of our faith, our
Savior writes personalexperiences into each of our
lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace
upon reflection.
This podcast is dedicated tosharing these anchoring memories
(00:26):
from everyone's unique storiesin order to collectively
remember and testify of thereality of Jesus Christ and his
presence in our lives.
I'm your host, lily, and I'mvery excited to share these
experiences together.
Good evening, everybody, andwelcome to the podcast.
Today, I'm really honored tohave John Boyle on with us.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Doing great.
Lily, Thank you for having metoday.
It's an honor.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I'm so grateful that you're here.
Would you mind introducingyourself to everybody?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I've done a myriad of things in my career.
I am an engineer, I am abusinessman.
I am also an author.
A little over a year ago, Iwrote a book.
It's a memoir about my life.
It's called Appalachian Kid.
That's the reason we're heretoday on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I love it.
I read your book and it wasreally inspiring.
I'm super grateful and justready to just have you share
what you've learned and yourtestimony of our Savior today.
I think it's going to be reallyamazing.
So I'll just ask you thequestion, John what memories do
you have in your life that youreflect on, that prick your
heart in remembrance of JesusChrist and anchor you to him?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, that's an excellent question and you know,
sitting here today, I wouldtell you that there are numerous
remembrances that I have ofJesus in my life.
However, you know it'simportant to explain a little
bit about my story to be able toanswer that question.
So, if I may, I grew up in asmall town in West Virginia.
(02:02):
It was a mining community, andI grew up in a large family and
I grew up in a violent home.
And growing up in a violenthome was difficult in that it's
not meant to be an environmentwhere a kid is successful in
navigating those nuances ofdifficulty that really reside in
(02:25):
the adult world.
And when you're a kid, you thinkit's your fault, right?
So when I was a kid, I grew upCatholic.
We went to church every Sunday,and I'm not picking on my
parents here, I'm just tellingmy story.
I grew up Catholic.
I knew who God and Jesus werefrom my earliest memories on
(02:47):
knew who God and Jesus were frommy earliest memories on but
really I wasn't a practicingChristian.
I really bifurcated from theCatholic Church in around late
college or after college.
But you know, christianity inmy early childhood it was there,
it was a part of my environmentwas there, it was a part of my
environment.
I believed and I still dobelieve.
(03:07):
But I had a tainted view onChristianity and I had
difficulty.
I wasn't necessarily mad, but Ihad difficulty in understanding
why God would put me in thisposition or why he would allow
it to continue.
Exactly, and it's I say thatbecause it's quite common for
young people and adults whoexperience that as a child to
feel that way.
So to answer your question,really the first, it was a bit
(03:32):
more than an aha moment.
It was a lifeline, a result ofmy childhood.
I was very successful inbusiness as an adult but I
suffered greatly in my personallife from a disorder that I did
not know I had.
I had all these symptoms andreally didn't equate them, that
they were all related.
(03:52):
And so when I sought help andcouldn't find it and tried
medication and it didn't work, Iused alcohol to cover up my
symptoms.
And so my liver bared the bruntof that decision and by 37, I
was in a bar one night and mydoctor had told me that I was
malnourished and my liver wasgoing into failure and if I
(04:14):
continued to drink I'll be dead.
And I was trying to quit on myown and I couldn't.
And I walked into a bar on aSaturday night and it was around
midnight and I was sittingthere listening to music and you
know, I was a few cocktailsdeep and a friend of mine could
tell that something was amisswith me and he asked me how I
(04:37):
was doing and I answered himtruthfully, not you know what my
doctor had said, that I wasn'tdoing well.
And so he just looked at me andhe said well, why don't you
come to church with me tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
And that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It wasn't just that, it was the feeling that came
afterwards.
Right, I still get it Like hairstanding up on the back of my
head, my neck, my arms, my back.
It was more than him at work.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It was.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
inspired arms, my back.
It was more than him at work.
It was inspired Right and myfirst thought was well, you go
to church.
And my second thought was thatGod is infiltrating my drinking
buddies to get to me because Ihad been running and he was not
going to let me go.
And so that moment was one thatwas a catalyst for change in my
(05:29):
life, and so I went to church.
I answered my friend, yes, Iwill go with you.
What time?
And, after seeking help, Ieventually made the decision to
go to rehab and get better, andI became not only sober, but I
became a practicing Christian.
And that decision, that moment,changed my life and eventually,
(05:52):
lily I'm wrapping this up hereI promise oh, you're good.
As time went on and I had beensober for some time, I was
really led to write a book.
And in writing that book, inthe process of it, it wasn't
just that Jesus Christ showed upat a bar on Saturday night in
Morgantown, west Virginia, whenI was 37 years old.
(06:14):
He had worked in my life theentire 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 thatit was a moment of gratitude
and almost felt unworthy of it.
Right, because I hadn't beenseeking him.
(06:35):
He was there for me when Iwasn't there for him, and I
could go on and on about this,but the fingerprints of Jesus
Christ in my life have beenthere.
I'm 47.
They've been there for 47 years.
And I'm not thinking that, I'mnot guessing that, I'm telling
you.
It's fact.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, well, and that's one thing I loved in the
foreword of your book.
That was one thing that wasbrought up.
I think you also brought it upat the very end when you talked
a lot about hope.
It was that God orchestrateseverything and things that we
think are coincidences justreally aren't.
You know, and that's kind ofthe whole point of this podcast,
right, is, until we really sitdown and think and reflect on
(07:14):
our lives, we really aren't ableto kind of see Christ in our
life.
You know, and I think somepeople can call it, you know,
having gratitude for theirblessings or something.
It kind of takes differentforms, but but truly it's only
upon reflection, when you lookat even at the highs and the
lows of your life, that you'reable to truly see his
fingerprints, like you said,right, like this is where he is
(07:34):
and this is where he's showingup in the big and the small
things.
Right, well said.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Well said.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So well, thank you, I did.
I did have some questions foryou, though that I was just as I
was reading your book, and justeven right before our interview
, and while you were talking, Iwas trying to, like frantically,
write some things down.
But, but the first thing yeah,the first thing that kind of
pricked.
You know my thoughts was frompersonal experience and as I've
been talking to a lot of otherpeople and friends, I've noticed
(08:04):
that as we are starting to tryand become better and become
more Christ-like and forge thatrelationship with him, we often
face great opposition.
And I'm sure, especially you asa recovering alcoholic, you see
alcohols everywhere.
Your buddies want to go to thebar like there's temptation
(08:27):
everywhere.
So how do you, when you weretrying to get sober and even
just really turn your lifearound, how were you able to
overcome that opposition?
Did you?
Were you able to just focus onChrist?
Or was it really just like aphysically, like I'm, I'm not
going anywhere because I'mreally tempted, like how, how
did how did you really?
How'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
You know, Well, uh, it could easily be said that I
tried all those things and theyall worked right.
There are quite a few thingsthat I did.
First, I really started leaningin to Christianity and my own
faith before I attempted to quitdrinking.
(09:06):
So I don't know that that waspurposeful.
I would tell you what probablywasn't.
Those I believe.
As a believer, I do not believein coincidences.
I do not believe they existMaybe they don't, maybe they do
for non-believers, but theydon't exist for us and I believe
(09:32):
that everything holds purposeand that our lives and our paths
and our interactions with menand women, family and friends in
our lives, it's allorchestrated and it's a more
complicated calculus problemthan you could ever put into an
equation.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, that's only God math.
We're just working with basicmortal numbers down here.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yes, and so the mantra that I followed, beyond
having a lens of faith, is toapply effort, apply effort, no
matter what, no matter where Iwas, if I was down, if you know,
I I fortunately I didn't.
After, after I stopped drinking, I didn't.
(10:11):
I wasn't tempted to try itagain and I I've never picked up
a drink, I've never, uh, boughtalcohol with the intention of
drinking it myself.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Right, which is a miracle etc.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Absolutely in and of itself.
If there were nothing more tomy life, that is a miracle
because I quit.
I tried to quit several timesand I could not.
So you know other things that Idid besides going to church and
reading the Bible and andtrying to better myself every
day.
I I would not put myself in aplace where I drank before I
(10:47):
stopped going to football gamesand tailgating.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
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 accomplisha new goal, and one of them was
I wanted to better myself, notonly my health, but my education
, and so I started reading.
Every night, I would go to thebookstore, and I would.
(11:15):
I would buy hundreds of dollarsworth of books, and it was
still cheaper than what my barbills were.
So it was way better off right.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
But I just read.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I just read with my time and I read anything I
wanted to learn.
If a book was bad, I sat itdown and I picked up another
book.
I tried to put myself in areasthat I didn't want to be around
the wrong people anymore.
If it was even questionable, itwas like, no, I'm not going to
do that today, or Right, no, Idon't want to do business with
(11:46):
that person, et cetera.
But I tried to stay away fromtemptation.
Now you know, one part of yourquestion I will address is we're
fought hard as Christians, evenwhen we intend not to be
tempted or fought it's.
I mean it finds you.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
The devil's sneaky right thought it's, I mean it
finds you exactly exactly.
The devil is exceedinglyefficient at his job and we have
to too, right?
Yes, that's a message that youknow, if you're, if you're an
early believer and you don'tunderstand why certain things
are happening, you know, you gotto understand that the devil's
very good at his job, very good,good at his job, right.
And so it's important toacknowledge that and understand
that it's not a myth, right?
He wants you to think it's amyth.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
When I went through the process of writing a book
and incorporating the faithelements from my history into my
memoir.
That is when I've been foughtthe hardest in my life and it
was not only me just beingattacked by any number of ways
(12:54):
and they were unsuccessful.
But when those wereunsuccessful, then the devil
found ways to attack my family.
Right, we're not going to giveJohn peace.
He's writing a book thatessentially says that God's real
and look what God's done in mylife.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
He doesn't want that.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So, anyway, I don't like to give the devil credit,
but to your listeners who may befinding faith and in the early
stages, or maybe they've had adifficult path, like mine, of
having PTSD or struggling withalcohol addiction or some other
type of addiction, or um just,you know this is a tough world,
(13:33):
you know, and those who havedifficulty, they need to know
what works and what doesn't, sothat's why I share it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Right.
Well, when I was reading yourbook and as I was kind of
pondering a lot before we weregoing to meet, I kept having
these scriptures come to my mind.
And now I'm so.
I'm a member of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, so we have we have theBook of Mormon as well, which is
also another testament of JesusChrist, and I'm grateful that
we have this book, because allthe prophets, all the people
(14:02):
within the book we hear theirtestimonies of how Christ has
shown up in their lives too, andit's been a powerful testimony
builder to me.
And one chapter specificallykept coming to my mind, and it's
Moroni, chapter 7.
Now, moroni, he was the one whoactually compiled all of these
ancient records from the Nephiteand the Lamanite people that we
(14:23):
read about in the Book ofMormon, and it was his job to go
through it all and abridgethings and kind of compile it
all together.
That's the task that God gaveto him before he passed away.
And so in the very end of theBook of Mormon we have kind of a
little, we have a few chaptersthat are just his musings and
him reflecting kind of on hislife, and one thing that he
(14:45):
brings up is this relationshipbetween faith, hope and charity
and how these three attributesspecifically tie us to Christ
and how cultivating these threeattributes will bring us closer
to Christ.
And the scriptures Ispecifically that made me think
of this was how, at the end, youdedicate like a whole chapter
(15:06):
to just to hope, and how it'sthrough your faith that you were
able to find hope, and it wasthis hope in Jesus Christ that
allowed you to reach out ofyourself and grow and help and
serve others, which is that youknow the faith, hope, charity
that we read from Moroni.
So I just wanted to read thesescriptures really fast because I
felt that they were reallypertinent.
(15:26):
And it says this is Moronispeaking.
He says and again, my belovedbrethren, I would speak unto you
concerning hope.
How is it that you can attainunto faith?
Save ye shall have hope, andwhat is it that ye shall hope
for?
Behold, I say unto you that yeshall have hope through the
atonement of Christ and thepower of his resurrection to be
raised unto life eternal, andthis because of your faith in
(15:47):
him, according to the promise,wherefore, if a man have faith,
he must needs have hope, forwithout faith there cannot be
any hope.
And again, behold, I say untoyou that he cannot have faith
and hope save he shall be meekand lowly of heart.
If so, his faith and hope isvain, for none is acceptable
before God save the meek andlowly in heart.
And if a man be meek and lowlyin heart and confess, by the
(16:10):
power of the Holy Ghost, thatJesus is the Christ, he must
needs have charity, for if hehath not charity he is nothing,
wherefore he must needs havecharity.
And then he kind of goes on andjust kind of describes too what
charity is and how we cancultivate charity.
And so, as I was reading yourbook, I just thought how has
your faith, as you've started tocome to Christ and you started
(16:33):
to have that relationship withChrist, how have you, as Moroni
has said, allowed your faith inChrist to inform your hope,
which allowed you to hope thatyou know things could work out
or whatever it is in Christ, andhow you were able to then
project that forward in writingyour book, being more charitable
(16:54):
to people and and reaching outto others?
How, how have you seen thistriad of faith, hope and charity
within your life?
Is the question.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
That's a good question.
I'm not familiar with the Bookof Mormon.
I am familiar with the OldTestament and the New Testament
that Christians follow and itsays in Hebrews 11, 1, that
faith is being sure of what youhope for and certain of what you
do not see.
(17:23):
You do not see, and I've heardfrom several pastors that hope
is merely an outwardforward-looking expression of
faith, right, that they'reinterconnected and that they
really don't have bifurcation.
(17:44):
So, when I look at hope, I lookat it as it's a confident
expectation that God's promisescome to pass right, whether it's
through his son, jesus Christ,whether it's through all kinds
of stories throughout the Bibleright, and it's history, history
(18:13):
.
And when you look at charity,that is an expression in our
society that has some tangibleelements of money, right.
And so, when you look atcharity, when you look at
kindness, as far as Jesus Christ, it's not a function of
currency, it's a function of hissacrifice for us and giving his
life, um, you know, so that wecan meet our maker, right.
(18:34):
Right, Exactly so um, you knowit's when you talk about
sacrifice and charity, you know,in in respect to Jesus.
Those things coincide eachother, those elements coincide
each other.
I guess I should say Exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, that's how I look at it, Right, and I think
that that's the right way tolook at it.
You know, I love that we havethese examples in the Bible as
well.
We, you know, as LDS members ofthe LDS church, we read the
Bible too and we believe it tobe the word of God as well, and
(19:12):
we're grateful that we have allof these wonderful examples that
other people have been able toshare within the scriptures,
that they can testify, of thesethings so that we can learn as
well.
Yeah, I think my next questionthat I did have for you was you
mentioned how you grew upCatholic and you were kind of.
You used the word tainted.
You know, religion was kind oftainted in your eyes.
You were kind of.
You used the word tainted.
You know, religion was kind oftainted in your eyes.
How were you then able toovercome that?
(19:34):
Because I think that would beone of the hardest obstacles to
overcome, Even if you have goodexamples of Christians as well.
How would you, growing up in afamily environment that was not
very Christ-like, to put itnicely like?
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
to put it nicely like how do you do that?
Yeah, it was a challenge and itthat dynamic, I believe played
a large part of me not going tochurch and practicing from age
21 or 22 until I was in my later30s.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
That's totally understandable.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Right and you know, I don't know whether it was just
selfish in nature or that I hada premeditated disposition.
I can't tell you exactly whatit was, but the um, the catalyst
that changed.
That was when I agreed to gowith my friend to church and I
walked into church.
I was welcomed.
(20:23):
I was not judged, I waswelcomed.
Uh, I was not struck bylightning.
I was welcomed.
I was not judged, I waswelcomed.
I was not struck by lightning.
I was struck by the peace thatexisted in the building and the
internal.
I don't know whether I don'twant to use the word peace again
, but kind of the internal shiftthat I had towards anxiousness,
(20:44):
to feeling like I could be inpark and just listen to what I'm
hearing.
I was further encouraged by theoutreach that this church had,
not only at evangelical innature but a charitable in
nature, right To those.
When you're from the pooreststate in the country, outreach
(21:09):
means something Right and it's aplace that the government just
doesn't step in and they do nothelp people to the degree that
they need it and depend heavilyupon churches and faith
communities to have an impact,to fix, you know, foster kids
(21:32):
not having homes, to fix thefact that you know that people
don't have heat and that peopledon't have meals, whether that
be for a holiday or justeveryday life Right.
I mean, there are so many thingsthat are overlooked in this
(21:52):
country that a place that I wentto just because my friend
invited me and I could see theinner workings of the community,
that went to this church.
It's called Chestnut Ridge.
It's in Morgantown, westVirginiaia.
It was a place that I wanted toto stay yeah, it was a place I
(22:14):
wanted to go back to the nextsunday and to be more in
community with those who wentthere and were members and
parishioners right uh, itmotivated me to want to do more.
I I could go on.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, well, I would argue that when you walked in,
you probably felt the HolySpirit, because it's His Spirit
that brings peace to our soulsand peace to our hearts, right,
and I think it's wonderful thatwhen you experience that and
then you look at these peoplewho are living, they are living
as disciples of Christ.
Their faith is informing theirhope, which is then broadcast
(22:48):
outwards as their charity, rightas 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 brotherwatching after brother, sister
watching after sister, communitywithin the community, because
that's how christ that's.
That's exactly what hisministry was.
His ministry was to the peopleof galilee, to the people in
(23:10):
jerusalem.
It was, it was his communitythat he ministered to, and if we
want to be disciples of christas well, like you saw at your
church, it's you see a need, youfill a need in your community,
and and that brings light, andthen light gives more light, and
I think that's what you'veprobably felt that day, which I
think is amazing because it'ssometimes, especially when
(23:32):
you're in a new environment andyou're worried.
You're like what's going to goon?
It's hard to feel the spiritand it's hard to be open to that
.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
And so.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
I think it's amazing that he was able to pierce your
heart and you felt that, andthat you were brave enough to
say I want more and not and notdiscount it and say, okay, well,
maybe I'm just, maybe this isjust weird, right, or maybe I'm
just here with my buddy and it'sfun, or maybe they are giving
me food, and so I like that.
You know, you were able to tunein and I think they that is
(23:59):
something that I want more of.
Where can I find that piece?
Where can I find that?
Because it's impossible to findin days now.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So I just want to say that was amazing that you were
able to find that too.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, it felt a lot like love and just comfort,
right?
What advice would you give toother people who are wanting to
turn their life around and maybefind Christ, or you know what
would you?
What would you tell them orhave them?
Where should they start, Iguess?
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Well, okay, so I don't, I don't, I don't think
this is in the Bible, but I'm anengineer by trade right.
Anytime you have a problem,whether that problem is personal
in nature, whether it's abridge or a road or some type of
a business obstacle or arelationship, what have you?
(25:00):
The first thing you need to dowhen you try to solve a problem
is you need to define it right.
Correct and what gave me thegreatest difficulty in my
earlier years of adulthood wasthat I did not have a good
definition of what was wrong,and I spent a lot of time
chasing my tail with solutionsthat did not work, and so I
(25:25):
would start here.
Whatever your problem is and itcould be a myriad of things the
first thing I would recommendis a connection with Jesus, and
even if you don't have any ideawhat that means, all you have to
do is bow your head and askmeans All you have to do is bow
(25:52):
your head and ask.
And it says in scripture Iforget exactly where, but knock
and he will answer.
And I think that's always thefirst step.
And if you have an idea ofwhat's wrong and you don't know
how to fix it, or you don't knowthe full breadth of the problem
, that is where I would startand past that, no matter what
you do, you got to get back up,right and I can give you a
(26:16):
boxing analogy, where you don'tlose.
in boxing If you get knockeddown, 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, thenget up and fight and do
something that's going to helpyou have a better tomorrow.
And it's hard to see whenyou're grinding it out and the
(26:40):
problems seem enormous and thesolutions minuscule.
But yeah, you've got to startclimbing the mountain.
And if you don't, you'reprobably not going to stand a
chance of solving it.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Yeah, well, and I love that, because it's through
the atonement of Christ that youare able to change right, it's
these small, minuscule, tinythings that even all he wants is
just you.
Whether you're 100% today mightnot be your 100% tomorrow, but
he sees your heart right, he,the man, what I'm sure I think
(27:16):
there's.
There's a scripture in theBible that says he looketh on
the heart and he knows yourheart, and if you truly are like
God, please, I need help.
I just want to change.
Just help me to see you or helpme to feel you.
He will be there and I and I'veexperienced that in my own life
and I and so I love that yougive that as advice, because
(27:41):
that that is the best place tostart.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
That's what I did.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I tried everything but that first.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
So the other thing that I was kind of thinking of,
that I was wondering if youwouldn'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 reallywas the catalyst aside from
going to rehab that kind ofstarted you on this, on your big
(28:08):
change journey, where youreally kind of reflected back
and you were like, oh my gosh,christ was really.
There was the really cool storywhere you had the impression to
go home and then ended up in ahigh-speed chase but then at the
same time at your businessyou're trying to figure out
someone to hire but you had tomiss the meeting because you're
on a high-speed chase the nightbefore.
And how, when you looked backon that you were like how can
(28:30):
this insane experience beorchestrated by God?
Would you mind just sharingthat story with us?
And then kind of how?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
that.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
I remember in the book you had said that that was
also definitely a memory, thatkind of pricked your heart to
remember him and where youstarted looking for the
fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Absolutely so.
The uh my book is is bookendedwith a story from my hometown
high school.
I grew up in a very uh smalland now poverty stricken area of
West Virginia and I always tookthe approach through my career,
(29:12):
that I gave back anytime Icould Christian or not Christian
, that's what I did, and sothere were many instances where
I went up to my hometown highschool and volunteered a career
day and et cetera.
So one of my friends has acharity called Building Hope and
he put on a one day event at myhometown high school that had a
(29:34):
moderator from Ohio and thatmoderator was used to working
with children and the intent ofthe program and the charity
really is to replace bullyingwith empathy.
It's teaching freshman age highschool students why bullying
and being mean to your fellowstudent is not an approach that
(29:57):
you want to take, and here's why, and here's what you should be
doing and why you should do it.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
And so it's.
It's done with these moderatorsway better, because they're
used to working with childrenthan I am.
But I volunteered as abasically a small group
moderator.
So I'm in my small group andthree of the four students in my
small group were victims ofviolence and, as a result, one
(30:23):
of the four was completely shutdown.
She really didn't say much atall the entire time.
Two boys, two girls and bothboys had experienced violence in
their home physical violenceand shared it, and we're we're
having difficulty with it.
And the other little girl I cansay this now but I didn't in my
(30:44):
book because they're now incollege the other little girl
was a Baptist preacher'sdaughter, and so God at least
gave me a wingman in that rightor wing woman.
And so I'm doing this smallgroup breakout and from eight
o'clock until like noon I justfelt like I was drowning in
difficulty and I really wasn'tgetting anywhere.
(31:06):
But hey, we were havingeffective conversations and it's
not my job to fix things, it'sjust my job to try and do what
this charity wants to achievefor the day and I believed in it
.
So I got an opportunity afterlunch to answer a question from
one of the four and maybe it wasmore of a comment than a
(31:29):
question, but he made a questionthat he said well, god isn't
real.
And if he is, he doesn't loveeveryone the same.
And you know, it really equatedto feelings that I had, maybe I
didn't express, as a youngperson or a young adult.
And this kid told me a story,so I understand where he's
(31:53):
coming from.
And so I'm sitting in there andit's about 1230 in the
afternoon and I just look upinto the rafters of this
gymnasium and there was a bannerfrom my family's company
hanging and it reminded me ofthis story, of how I know God's
real.
And so I just looked at him andyou know, after about a minute
(32:15):
and I knew exactly what to sayand how to say it.
So I I told a story of how Iknew and I'll tell it in a
nutshell.
But you know, essentially I wasin my early 30s, I was not.
I was a believer, but I was nota practicing Christian, and I
(32:35):
was basically at my office andwe were trying to hire a certain
slot in our office for someonewho estimates work right that
construction companies execute,and so you know I had this call
(32:56):
come in and one of my vicepresidents walks in and says we
need to interview this lastminute candidate and I said we
didn't, it was by invitationonly, we didn't advertise it.
How did this person find us?
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Right, no idea Right.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Coincidence, I'm sure was something that was thrown
out there, right and so I sharedthis story that I didn't want
to interview the guy, and myvice president basically talked
me into it.
So I said, whatever, if you'vegot time to do it, go ahead.
I'm going home.
And so I went home and I pickedmy girlfriend up and we went
(33:30):
out to eat.
And after we went out to eat,my girlfriend wanted to watch a
movie.
So we went back to her placeand we started watching a movie
and I kept having this feelingcome over me, you need to leave
right now.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Right.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
You need to leave right now.
And it became more acute Leavenow, leave now, leave now.
So I speak up to my girlfriendat the time and I said you know
I'm getting this message.
I don't even think.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I said it that way.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
I need to go Right.
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 myhouse had been broken into and
about three seconds after Ipulled in there was a huge bang
above my garage and it was threeguys trying to take my TV out
(34:20):
of my living room and theydropped it.
They were startled and anyway Ithrew it in reverse.
When I heard that called 911and shot around to the front of
the house to see if they wereexiting.
And the 9-1-1 dispatchdispatcher was very displeased
with me and wanted no part of mechasing or apprehending or
(34:42):
trying to do anything with thepeople in my home.
Her answer was you need to letthe authorities do it.
And I my approach was well, I'mhere and I want my TV back.
Kick myself.
They have the TV, I haveeverything in it.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
But you kicked the wrong house right, that was for
sure.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah.
So anyway, I got into a briefaltercation with one of them and
I, shortly around that time,found out there were four people
in my home not three and two ofthe four people ran into a
vehicle and sped off.
And so after the altercation, Ijumped in my vehicle and I
followed them.
And I continued to follow themat a very high rate of speed
(35:26):
through a residential area formiles and miles, and miles and I
got up to a boulevard that hadseveral traffic lights and at
the third traffic light I hearda voice, and it was not an
audible voice, but it was avoice that just bellowed through
my being that said stop, turnaround now.
(35:50):
And it startled and scared meso much that that 911 operator
was squalling at me for 10minutes, shooting and shooting
up the road, trying to followthese guys.
Anyway, I did stop and I turnedaround and came home and when I
got home my house was destroyed.
(36:12):
There were all kinds of copsthere and essentially I called
my vice president and said Iwouldn't be there for the
interview the next day.
And so he was there for theinterview.
I was dealing with the sheriffand being broke into and
everything else.
And, to make a long story short.
I found out later that my vicepresident wanted to hire the guy
(36:34):
that I didn't want to interview, and he told me, on top of that
, that he was a pastor on theweekends.
And I'm just like do you, do youhear what our guys say on the
construction sites, Like?
This is not going to work verywell.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
And I was wrong.
You know we hired him and thesheer volume of work that this
guy brought in I've never seenanyone else in my career do that
in the state of West Virginia.
Yeah, just a testament that Iwas just.
(37:14):
I hate to use the word pawn,but that is when I realized
there absolutely is a force inthe universe His name is Jesus
who made these things happen.
And I was just, I had nocontrol over it and it was all
used for good, and so I sharedthat with these young folks at
building hope event in myhometown high school and uh it
(37:36):
ended up being a wonderfulafternoon and I I hope they're
doing well.
I did not keep a touch with themwe're not permitted to write.
They were freshmen in highschool, so I don't know how
they're doing, but uh, you know,they, they, they've sculpted my
life forever and that they'rememorialized in my memoir as as
(37:56):
being catalysts who changed theoutlook on how I viewed my own
life.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Right, and I think it's amazing that it was through
the Holy Spirit that heinspired the story.
That was that not only helpedyou, but I'm sure it helped the
other kids, cause I remember inyour book they, they, they
wanted to keep talking to youafter that like they, they
really wanted, they, they feltsomething just like you.
Whatever you felt at thatchurch, you were able to bring
it to them and that's the whole,that's the whole point of
(38:23):
christ, right.
He inspired you and you bothwere edified and you both were
able to feel his peace and andyour relationship was able to
grow with him, and so I, I.
That was one of my favoriteparts in your book because I was
like he's got to talk aboutthat so thank you for sharing
that um yes I think I've gonethrough all of my questions.
(38:44):
So was there any other things,any other thoughts that you
might want to share, or anyother stories that that just
kind of come to your mind thatyou might want to share, or any
other?
Speaker 2 (38:54):
stories that just kind of come to your mind that
you would like to share, not offthe top of my head.
I normally say a little thingabout where my book can be found
if someone wants it, or where Ican be found, but the thing I
normally say exiting I'vealready said, and that is if you
know, if you're, if you'resomeone who's struggling or if
you're just mired in difficultyright now, you know, here's
(39:16):
where you can find the answer.
But we've talked about thatpart, so I feel like we've
covered sufficiently.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Well then, I really appreciate your time, do you,
would you mind bearing atestimony or a witness to Christ
really fast, before we close.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah.
So let me say this I am someonewho has tried pretty much
everything out there to findinternal peace with a disorder,
that piece, with a disorder thathas plagued me my entire life.
(39:58):
So I have a complex version ofpost-traumatic stress disorder
and the nature of this, thedisorder and the symptoms are
such that there are any numberof symptoms that just it kind of
sees you and cause a lot ofinternal difficulties, from a
broken fight or flight, responseto nightmares, insomnia,
flashbacks, chronic muscletenseness.
(40:21):
I could go on and on and onright.
And my search for all ofadulthood has been how do I find
peace?
All of adulthood has been howdo I find peace?
How do I find something thatwill move the needle and help me
heal, help me feel better, helpme not feel this way right?
(40:41):
And so I really I haven't triedevery drug out there, but I've
tried every type of alcohol youcould find and I drank sincerely
every day for over a decade,right and just trying to put
this stuff at bay.
It was that difficult to dealwith and after walking in the
(41:03):
doors of Chestnut Ridge Churchin Morgantown, west Virginia,
and after reaching out in prayerto Jesus Christ and asking him
to take the urges away, that Iwas done with alcohol to to
please help me I was just tryingto quit drinking but a
Testament to Jesus Christ, andhis character is that he gave me
(41:27):
what I needed, not only from aaddiction standpoint, but I got
a whole new chance on life.
My life lived before I invitedhim into my world and after.
Our night and day to experiencepeace, joy, happiness, to
(41:53):
experience sharing my story withothers and helping them out of
a quagmire or addiction or tohelp them overcome a violent
childhood, has been anexperience that it's almost
unworldly.
It has changed every fiber ofmy being.
(42:16):
Who I was before Jesus and whoI am after Jesus.
It's not the same person.
I mean there's the same name atthe bottom of my checks when I
sign them but that's about it.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
The heart's different completely, my heart's
different.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
The way I think is different, the way I parent is
different, the way I lead and mycompany is different.
I am not the same person and mybook 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'sAppalachian Kid, or you can go
(42:56):
to AppalachianKidcom and you canget a link to buy my book there
.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
I listened to the Audible version and it was very
good, so I highly recommendAudible.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Thank you.
Thank you, I'm glad you likedit.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, thank you so much, John, for your time, and I
really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Thanks again for tuning into More Than
Coincidence Remembering JesusChrist in your Story.
Please follow us on socialmedia or share us with a friend.
If you have an experience you'dlike to share, feel free to
reach out tomorethancoincidencerememberhim
at gmailcom.
I can't wait to hear all of theamazing memories you all have
of our Savior.
(43:38):
See you next time.
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.