MARK LARSON (life story)

In the two episodes below that deal with driving while drunk and his parents' divorce, Mark shows the grace and goodness of God and how God can use difficult times in our lives to teach us.

WHAT GOD TAUGHT ME
THROUGH MY PARENTS' DIVORCE

Hello, my name is Mark and I was born and raised in Northern Virginia. While my home was not one that was totally sold-out for Jesus, it was a Christian home.

I was taught two major lessons.
(1) Sex is intended for marriage.
(2) Marriage is meant to be never ending and that divorce is simply not an option.
More or less, I completely built my foundation and identity on these two principles. Then it happened.

While a junior in High School, my parents divorced and this completely rocked my world and shook the foundation upon which I stood. As a result, I didn't know up from down. How did I respond? Well, as a seventeen year-old, I ended up throwing two huge parties that were both visited by five or more police cars. One party had 100 people and the other close to 200. It was an act of rebellion as the parties were held in my dad's one-level rambler house, which had a basement.

During my junior year, I also missed about 40 days of school and my grades plummeted. I just didn't care. Part of it was rebellion but most of it was that simply didn't know who I was anymore.

My behavior could have on one level seemed like 'fun' but it was destructive and continued throughout college and involved drinking, smoking, etc. Why did my parent's divorce impact my life to such a great degree? I wasn't a five-year-old child dependent on my parents for everything; I was a young adult of seventeen. Some would argue that my parent's job of raising me was complete and I wouldn't completely disagree with that argument. The reason that it rocked my world to such a negative degree was that I was placing all of my hope, trust, love, identity, pride and belief in my parents. How can any two human beings be expected to be a perfect example for their children are to live? They can't, and that was something my parent's divorce helped me to understand … albeit five years after the fact.

My parent's did an excellent job at raising three men. However, they did not do a perfect job … as no human can. I learned that placing my complete trust and faith in a fellow human is shortsighted. About a year or so after college, I realized this and came to understand that the only person I could completely trust was God through His Son Jesus Christ.

I am so very grateful that God gave me excellent parents. I am thankful for the blessings He has given our family even through the many trials we have encountered. Of course I wish my parent's marriage would have been successful, but who is to say I would have ever learned this valuable lesson if I hadn't experienced the imperfect nature of humans?

My faith and hope is now in Jesus Christ and through checking out how the bible is reliable as well as witnessing God's creation, I can testify that the hope and love and trust that I now have rests in Jesus Christ. Do I trust and love people? Of course, but my complete and full trust is in Christ alone.

God has enabled me to love others more freely and receive healing from the pain of my parents' divorce. I also believe that He has allowed me to experience these things so I could write this very story and ministry. I pray that this story will somehow open your eyes to the fact that you need to put your full trust in the one we can fully trust … Jesus Christ. Please contact me through my websites EI4G EI4G and The Hope Within, as I would love to talk with you.

GOD PROTECTED ME WHILE DRIVING
UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Arguably the greatest act of God's grace in my life occurred in the summer after my freshman year of college. I had left a party at a friend's house and was heading back to my dad's house, where I was spending the summer. I was driving alone on a very curvy road.

This was a road to which you have to pay attention to, especially if you're intoxicated. I crossed though a very busy intersection (it's even busy late at night) and ended up parked in the driveway of a house. You see, I don't remember any of this except about a three second snap shoot in which I remember driving down a straight road prior to getting onto the very curvy road. It is hard to explain how dangerous this was but I hope you have at least a glimpse. When I came to I was in back of a police car and I spent the night in the Drunk Tank. How many lives did I put our people's lives in danger? Did I stop at the traffic light when crossing the busy intersection? I think the answer is probably not. What if a mother and her little girl were coming home from a birthday party and I had hit them? What if a newly married couple was on the way home after their honeymoon and had been victims in a road accident of my making?

A night of (so called) 'fun' and drinking could have turned into tragedy for my family and for the families of those I could have killed.

Grace … God saved me from the consequences of my actions … consequences I deserved it. That's why I'm sharing this … without God guiding the steering wheel; I could have very well not been here today. I would not have been the only one affected. It possible results of my actions would have impact others, causing pain to those I love. My mom and dad, brothers, nephews and my friends would have (without God's grace) been subjected to a nightmare. I would have also caused pain to God.

Want to know the crazy thing? I honestly did not think I was that drunk when I got in my car and I convinced my friends I was OK to drive. It didn't have a serious problem but this mistake could have changed my entire life. I thank God to this day that He was watching over me. Think on what happened again … a very curvy road, me being blacked out, crossing through a busy intersection … simply not crashing into the garage door of the driveway! Although it took me a few years after this incident to 'wake up', I now fully realize how God was protecting me. If things were just left to chance I should have crashed! How did I go unharmed during all of this? If you think God doesn't play a role in your life just take a moment to talk to Him. Even if you don't think He exists, why not ask Him to show that He is real. You might be surprised.

If you have any questions or just want to talk to someone that knows what it's like to put his life in danger due to his partying, feel free to contact me through my websites at EI4G and The Hope Within.

All the best
Mark