Dylan Thorman
My name is Dylan Thorman and I have never had an opportunity to share my story in this way but feel blessed to have the opportunity. My life has been a journey filled with many trials, some brought on by myself but also some that have just been part of the journey! However, through God’s great love and mercy I found forgiveness.
From a very young age I had always seemed to struggle with acceptance. I was always pretty athletic so for me, sports had always come to be that outlet to that desired acceptance. As I journeyed through my younger life I had good friends and bad friends, some that helped me to find my identity, but many that I allowed to be the reason for losing myself. In high school I made my fair share of good and bad decisions some that unfortunately I would suffer from for a long time. My senior year of high school held some of the first moments where I would experience drugs and alcohol for the first time.
Around the same time, during a family reunion, my grandmother had asked me if I would make her a promise. As any grandson would, I said “of course grandma anything”. She proceeded by asking me, “Dylan I will not be here for much longer for I feel that Our Lord is preparing me to go Home. I need you to promise me that when I am gone you will be an example of your Catholic faith for your cousins”. I paused for a moment before promising her that I would do that for her.
I would say that I at least had some level of faith at that time but a faith that would more fit the way I wanted to live. I was going to church every Sunday but I was also doing what I wanted to do all other six days of the week. It was definitely not the life of a son of God. It was at this point when my grandmother began to become more and more ill, so with me being the oldest grandchild I felt the “obligation” to pray. At that time I did not realize how selfish my prayers were for her healing because I definitely did not leave very much room for God’s will.
On February 6th 2013 I was sitting in a church parking lot when I received a call from my mother telling me that my grandmother had passed away. I immediately hung up the phone and began yelling through my tears every curse word imaginable. Every word straight to the clouds. This started the spiral.
I began to put the direction of my life into the hands of the world. Drugs and alcohol became my decided solution to all my problems. I was so far from God that I began to regularly miss Sunday Mass and had gone even longer without so much as even looking toward heaven. I sadly was so engulfed in that life that I had become a completely different person, stealing, lying, etc.. until I hit rock bottom.
I was completely broke, lost 25 pounds, lost all my friends, and had no contact with my family. I had hit my rock bottom and had to come to the reality of knowing that I had put myself there. To say that my journey back to the Lord was painful would be an understatement, but every second and every battle was worth fighting!
“My grace is sufficient”. I have had to constantly remind my self of that fact. The mercy the Lord has shown to me for all the sins I have committed has turned my “heart of stone into a heart of flesh”. Though I could never make right all the wrongs I have done, He still finds me a son worth loving and a tool worth using. My return to my faith I owe to the prayers and fasting of my family and friends but more importantly to the beautiful Queen of Heaven, my sweet rose, MY mother, Mary the mother of my King. The love of our mother in heaven defeats all evil and brings all to the love of her son. Thank you for taking the time to learn a little about the way God has loved me, may it only help in your confidence to trust in His grace that is most sufficient!
In Christ,
Dylan Thorman