How does a foul-ball screwed-up kid, who doesn’t want to make it to 14, get to this place in the middle of God’s love.

Larry started life very confused about who God is. His parents divorced when he was young and he felt that the broken family was his fault. Thinking that if he had been a better kid, his parents would still be married. As an Altar Boy in a Latin Catholic Mass, Larry had no understanding of what he was involved in. This left Larry at a point where God was not even on his mind, and by his early teens, regularly considering suicide.

Larry talks about how his dad had a temper. Though he knew his dad loved him, he never heard his dad tell him that he loved him. He never told his dad that he loved him either, as even until the end of his dad’s life he was still impacted by fear of his dad.

A few teachers and coaches made a connection and impact in Larry’s life. Larry found an outlet in sports. One of his connections in sports led him to Lincoln, Nebraska to walk on as a college athlete for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. While in Nebraska he met his future wife. While dating, a hard breakup sent him packing, back to L.A. After reconciling they married and lived in Los Angeles. Unable to find a job along with her desire to be close to family, they returned to Nebraska.

Larry started to understand faith when his wife wanted their daughter to go to a Lutheran school and said that he needed to start to learn a little about the Lutheran religion. This mixed with seeing that others in his life who expressed faith in God had a peace in their life that Larry wanted and couldn’t explain created an opening in his heart.

Larry had spent his entire life with a fear of what he thought God was. Then when he started to see a compassionate and peaceful God he started to open up to the realization of Who God really was. Not who he had thought God was. For Larry, seeing was believing. He had spent his life not believing in God because he couldn’t see him, and had never seen proof that God existed. When the Lutheran pastor asked him why he believed God didn’t exist because he’d never seen proof that he didn’t exist. This question changed how Larry thought. It opened up his mind and heart and Larry’s life changed.

It wasn’t an easy road after that moment, but Larry said there have been a lot of blessings. Listen to hear how his life changed and what some of those blessings have been. Listen to hear how God turned Larry's failures into ministry opportunities to impact and change the lives of others.