Mike Guzzardo's Story Part I

Romans 10:11
11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Mike Guzzardo started to talk about his story in the fourth chapter of his book "The Great Divide." He had a rough childhood to say the least. His parents got divorced when he was very young. His mom remarried and his step dad helped establish the family on a stronger Christian foundation. However, difficulty soon arose amongst the family. Money was hard to come by were. He lost his house and so he and his family had to move in with his grandparents. Sadly, he and his siblings had to sleep on a foam pad in the dining room. He had very little material things; in fact, his possessions only took up two small cubbies in the laundry room. You can imagine how much he got picked on at school, and he did, especially from fourth to sixth grade because he didn't own what everyone else was fortunate enough to have. Of course at that age, no one really understands. Then, things were looking up financially for his family and they moved out of his grandparents' house. This meant going to a new school, which he was excited about! Sooner than later, he became the popular kid and he was accepted by all. He was even the class clown by eighth grade. He got in trouble a lot and even had after school detention several times a week.

The problem here was that when Mike moved he was more concerned about his popularity level than his relationship with God. That mattered more to him. He still had God in his life and occasionally told others about God, but primarily he was just proud of his acceptance. That hurt him because he was taking over God's ruling and almighty throne. He couldn't experience God in the numerous ways that he could have if he was a full-time Christian, so to speak. There were many additional times of heartache that Mike had to face without God in the mixture. Nothing is more important than letting God direct you in your life even if you feel the need to gain acceptance from the world. However, always remember that you have God!

Mike Guzzardo said, "When we don't follow Christ, by default, we are following the enemy, and that will always lead to destruction in our lives."