Category: My Jesus Story

Is Your Marriage Rad or Bad: 10 Tips to Help

~ John Johnson ~ 4 Comments

This week is my 4th wedding anniversary! Our marriage is really good, and if you are new to my story, at first glance you would never know that 4 years ago we were also struggling to stay married. Let me tell you, marriage is a rad and beautiful thing, that God entrusts us to manage and maintain. It’s not easy at times, and no matter how much you love your spouse, if you neglect even the smallest things in your marriage you are risking throwing it down the drain. As I said, I know because I’ve been there.

No one goes to bed saying “I’m going to trash my marriage. I invited another person into my life to live with me until death does us part, and I want to destroy this person now.” If you did go to bed saying this, then there are some underlying issues somewhere in your life, but for the most part, this is not a normal thought.

I have loved my wife for a long time, and I never thought that I was ever going to be one of thous statistic. 40-50% of marriages end in a divorce, and that is crazy stupid. So, as mentioned, a few years ago my wife and I were about to split shortly after we got married. Long story short, I was not properly tending to my marriage like I should, and it is only due to God’s grace and mercy that saved it. It was one of the hardest times in my life and I never felt so afraid.

My wife and I have reconciled, and have been working together to make our marriage the way God intends it to be, and everything is great! When we broke up I tried to fix things my way but was only making things worse. I was digging myself deeper and deeper and the only way out was to give up. So I gave up on trying to do it alone, and I gave my marriage to God and trusted that he was going to take care of us. I spent those months not only praying and fighting for my marriage, but studying what it means to love someone, and how to take care of it. I would now love to share all the information that I have came across over the years of studying a Godly marriage because I would never in a million years wish that pain on anyone.

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“God, what are you trying to teach me?”

~ John Johnson ~ 19 Comments

So I have not posted much in the past two months. I’ve been busy and June hit me hard, I mean really hard. I was sick and stressed, and had a hard time of recovery.  I’m the type of person that will wait until I absolutely have to go to the doctor before I go. So, I was feeling really cruddy and did what everyone else does, and I looked up my symptoms online. With fevers, boating, sharp pain, tiredness, all the symptoms pointed to possible appendicitis. You know the alien bursting out of your chest kind of pain. Yeah… so I went to Urgent Care. I waited, and waited, and when I finally got in, they asked for my symptoms, told me that it might be gas, but that it could be appendicitis, said they couldn’t help me with that and if it was like that the next day to go to the ER for a CT Scan, and then charged me $300.

Well, that sucked….and guess what. I did not feel good the next day. I waited until about midday and then had my wife take me to the ER. So we are in the waiting room with the kids. We waited and waited, and then I let me wife take the kids home, and told her I would call her for a pickup. When I finally got in, I laid in my gown for maybe an hour in a really cold room, then finally someone came in, asked for my symptoms, told me that it might be gas and sent me on my way…with a bigger bill (cough, cough)

I was still feeling sick, and worn out from being dehydrated. I called my wife to pick me up. I waited and waited…and waited. In turns out, while my wife was on the way to turn in to the hospital, the transmission of our van blew out, which turned out to cost more than what we paid for the van. “Uhhhhh, why God are you testing me this week?” was what I was thinking.

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How an anarchic punk rock spirit led me to the Holy Spirit: How it still fights!

How an anarchic punk rock spirit led me to the Holy Spirit: How it still fights!
~ John Johnson ~ 19 Comments

I’m like any other punk rock dude right now, I grew up, got married, had some kids and have found that the things I learned through punk rock music still continue to inform my thinking, and help me make sense of the world. I want to share this with my kids, my friends, and my family what I have learned from both my faith and punk ethics daily. The two of these intertwined have assisted in helping me come to several conclusions about my spirituality that are presumably far outside of the norm of contemporary Christian culture.

This probably isn’t all too surprising, but what may be, is that I am convinced that the combination of these ideas informing my head, heart and hands has led me back to the heart of Scripture. I mean, the way of Jesus is pretty punk rock! Several punk bands, now and then, have several points worth reflecting on if you are a follower of Jesus Christ in the Western world.

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Atheist to Jesus: My “Born Again” Story

~ John Johnson ~ 28 Comments

This is a new blog, and I’m in the process of rediscovering myself, Easter is around the corner and it always makes me remember my “Born Again” story, (My Christian walk started on Easter, when I was 15 years old) so it is fitting that I start this journey with you with this post.

It’s a necessity to give you a quick recap of my life before I was a follower of Christ for you to understand the power of this story. I’ll go in more details in other blog posts, but for this one, that background is needed.

I did not grow up in a Christian household, but was familiar with it. From time to time my dad will feel guilty in life and try to get squared off with God, before going right back to his ways. God’s timing is funny sometimes as he always put someone in his path. For a few years it was a man named Larry that did house visit bible studies weekly for two years. My dad grew up in a church environment, and did the bible studies and talking the talk…at times. Behind closed doors he used scripture incorrectly and out of context to control people and do whatever he wants (wife submit, children obey, I can be forgiven of my sins) An abusive father preaching about God is not appealing. I grew to hate him and God. (NOTE: To this day I have forgiven my father, and love him. We do not have a relationship, but I do not wish anything ill towards him and still pray for him)

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