He Told His Dad: "I Forgive You"
Craig James carried twelve years of addiction and his father's abandonment. Salvation didn't just free him from drugs: it gave him the grace to forgive.
Craig James's dad abandoned him when he was three years old. And that void pushed him to look for acceptance in all the wrong places.
At ten he tried marijuana. By sixteen he was using crack. Over the years he fell into meth, depression, voices that tormented him, and a cycle of charges, jail, and rehab. And the worst part: raised in church by his mom and grandmother, he came to believe he was already "saved" while he preached with the Bible open, high on drugs.
The breaking point wasn't hitting his own rock bottom. It was seeing that his addiction was dragging his younger brother down the same path.
«I was able to tell my dad: "I forgive you. It wasn't your fault."»
That day he truly repented. He asked God to forgive him for what he had done with his life and for leading his brother astray. He knelt at the altar crying and gave it all up. He dates it precisely: "On November 7, 2010, I found something I loved much more… I was instantly freed from a twelve-year addiction."
But here's what's most moving about his story. Salvation didn't just free him from drugs. It gave him something he couldn't produce on his own: the grace to forgive.
"The fact that I could tell my dad: 'I forgive you. It wasn't your fault,'" he says. "That abandonment, that feeling of wanting to be accepted… God says: 'I already included you.' No matter what you go through, He's always there."
Do you see it? Craig didn't forgive because he was strong or because his dad deserved it. He forgave because he was first forgiven. That's the work of Christ: He carried your guilt on the cross so you don't have to carry anyone else's.
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32, ESV).
Today Craig travels using rap to reach people trapped in addiction. Who have you been unable to let go of for a long time? Starting isn't about feeling it: it's about releasing it into Christ's hands.
True testimony published by CBN.
