MICAIAH WESLER: TESTIMONY

My life started out pretty normal.  

I come from a middle class home.  

I’m a preacher’s kid.  

My parents did everything to the best of their ability to raise my brothers and I in the right way.  

They helped us memorize scriptures, they helped us get through school and deal with any problems.  

My home life was everything that a person could ask for.  

But for some reason I could never shake this feeling that I just didn’t fit in with everyday normal people.  

I got along with everybody but I didn’t exactly fit in with anyone.

After a long series of events through out high school, I finally was introduced to a thing called “straight edge.”  

In January of 2006 I began to claim edge and things took a positive turn.

From there I got introduced to the hardcore and metal scene.  

This is where I fit in.  

It was raw, it was heavy and it was tough, but it was real.  

Everything I knew before felt fake, but this was real.  

In fact, in my area, if you were fake and came to a show, you would get called out and generally got hit in the face a few times until you left. 

If you weren’t real then don’t bother talking to me.  

That’s how it went, and I loved it! 

I started hanging out with a tight knit group of street kids in the next town over and we started kicking’ it all day every day.  

We became like brothers.  

They practically raised themselves and did whatever they wanted due to their parents being drug addicts. 

I felt at home on the streets with these dudes.  

We were closer to each other than we were to our own families.  

They had always had to fight for what they were given and that made them… well… fighters.

Up until now in life I had been scared of any confrontation, but after hanging with these fellas, that went away pretty quickly.  

I suddenly was confident and knew that I could fight for the ones that I loved.  

I fought for my brothers and they fought for me. 

We weren’t scared of anything.  

For the first time in my life... I wasn’t scared of anything.  

At one point I was threatened (over the phone) to be shot the next time he saw me because I believed in God.  

(I may or may not have overheard this guy going off about Christians and I may or may not have had some choice words.  I shut him up in the moment but apparently he was holding a grudge) 

I knew his threat wasn’t idle.  

All I said was, “Well I guess I’ll see you there then.”  I had no fear.

There were many pinnacles during this season, some good, some bad.  

I remember a drunk man getting stomped to death at a show 2 feet away from me and 

I felt no remorse whatsoever.  

I had moments of being covered in the blood of the person I had just fought and laughing about it.  I was not only fearless… I was numb.

I continued this lifestyle of violence into college and only slowed down after threat of being imprisoned for 5 years minimum for being part of a major brawl where we put a few kids in the hospital and totaled their new truck by taking skateboards and bats to it.  

Finally, God apparently had enough of this.  

Out of nowhere in my college dorm hallway,

God just said, very bluntly, “You’re a hypocrite.” 

This is the one thing that would hurt me enough to shake me awake.  

I hate hypocrisy.  

Hypocrites are a waste of my time.  

Yet I had become the very thing that I hated.  

I was a hypocrite.  

I claimed Christianity but I lived worse than most atheists.

Finally God had my attention.  

Through college God began to draw me and deliver me from anger and rage.  

I began to notice my confidence shift from my own strength and ability to fight to relying on God’s strength and ability to fight.  

My love for real music with depth shifted to a love of real worship with depth.  

He softened my heart more than I can say and He invited me into an understanding of what true intimacy is like with Him.  

The thought of being able to know God intimately often moves me to tears.  

Do I still have tough tendencies?  Yes.  

I hate hypocrisy more than I care to talk about and it drives me to be the most real Christian that a person could possibly be.  

He took me from hate to love.  

From violence against people, to violence against what keeps people bound.  

And for that, I can never repay Him.

Q&A:

What was your hardest thing to overcome in your fresh walk with God? People not understanding why I was so intense about God. My intensity and go hard mentality transferred over fully into Christianity. So when I ran, I ran with everything I had. I've never done anything halfway. When I gauged my ears, I was going to get them to inch and a quarter. Nothing small for me. So when I caught on fire for God I went hard and it offended a lot of complacent Christians who thought that what I was saying and doing for God was unnecessary and not wanted. I haven't slowed down still and I just got hooked up with people who can keep up. How did you go about cutting ties with old friends?

God never had me to give them up, actually. I know it may seem surprising based off of some of the things I mentioned in the testimony but they were a much more positive influence on me than negative. In the testimony, I highlighted some of the negative pinnacle moments of that period of my life where I realized that something was wrong between myself and God, but ultimately, the good things that they taught me in that season far outweighed the bad. Those guys taught me things for life that nobody else could have taught me. Courage, honor, respect, trust, loyalty, putting the ones you love before your own life… They showed me what real friends looked like. Over time and distance and normal life we have all gone our own ways but are still in touch every once in a while to catch up. For the most part we are all still connected on some level. They are all good dudes and we all made dumb choices in that period of our lives and now that we are older, we have all matured a lot. But honestly, with these friends and brothers, the good far outweighed the bad, so God never put it on me to give them up, and I’m very thankful for that. They know how I was, and they see how I am now after encountering God. That’s a real life testimony that you can’t really get around logically. They may think it’s crazy, but there is no doubt an evident change in me. How did your family handle you going through this process? 

I know it put stress on my family. But they didn't know anything that I was doing until I told them everything a year ago. They didn't seem too surprised when I told them because they knew I was running around and being stupid. But they never knew to what extent. I know they were praying for sure though. There's no doubt about that. Have you talked to/apologized to people from your past and how did that go if so?

I have apologized to most of my old friends at one point or another when God led me to do it. I apologized for being a hypocrite. For showing them what a fake Christian looks like. And I told them that God is real and that He has changed me in a real way. True to form we are all still pretty hard headed. But I know it meant something to apologize for my past hypocrisies. I claimed Christianity and lived like I came from Hell. And no doubt it drove them farther from God. I've wept over it and I've apologized. I am still believing for them to turn to God. What did overcoming anger look like for your walk?

It looked like learning what true love is. I got delivered from anger through people laying hands on me and praying and God knocking that stuff off of me. But over the course of the years that I have been burning for God, the majority of what He has taught me has been about real love. It's different than what I thought it was. I learned a lot about kindness and patience and gentleness and preferring other people's feelings over my own. I learned how to lay down my life for other people so that they can excel even if it means that I don't get to excel along with them. When it comes to anger... I'm the exact opposite from what I used to be. I have more patience with people than I ever thought possible. It has actually become difficult to make me angry and I have found that I get angry maybe once a year now. And I've learned how to hold my tongue and treat others in love in those moments even when I'm angry. I always get it resolved quickly and move on without a grudge.

How did the process go? 

I got delivered by the mighty hand of God. And my mind and soul got healed by the washing of the water of the Word. He poured His love into me and that was the end of it. His love is way more powerful than fear or anger and if you experience His love even once then all you will want to do for the rest of your life is get other people to experience that same Love that forever changed you. That's all that matters. His love is the answer for everything.