My name is Jason Kinney, and something incredible has happened to me. I am compelled to share my testimony with anyone who would listen, as it is the very reason I draw.

As a small child, I always had the remarkable ability to draw people. But as I grew older, I neglected my talent. I didn’t want to be an artist and didn’t pursue it, other than the occasional random drawing. I knew that what I had was a God-given talent, as I believed in God in a very general way, but I never really used it. I just kind of floated around in life. I graduated high school, dropped out of college, joined the Army, and got out after a couple of years still not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I had no direction or purpose.

Then, I met the perfect girl and we got married. I found good steady work in computers and life seemed to be going quite well for us. But then we began doing drugs. Crystal Meth, or Speed, was our drug of choice, and what started as a seemingly harmless curiosity quickly became a nightmarish addiction. Internally, our lives began to spiral out of control, yet we somehow managed to hang on to what appeared to be a normal life. Years went by as we fell deeper and deeper into drug addiction and misery.

Then, my wife Amy, who had given her life to Jesus Christ as a child, began to cry out to Him. For a whole year she prayed for God to deliver us from drugs, and that I, who didn’t know much about Jesus, church, or the Bible, would come to know Him. Meanwhile, I had lost all hope of escaping the horrible, tragic life we had made for ourselves. I would loose months at a time, wandering around like a zombie. I was at the very end of what little rope I had left. And then it happened.

It was a day like any other. I got up, took a shower, and was toweling off when I looked in the mirror. In an instant, I found myself standing over a black, bottomless pit. My feet were halfway over the edge and I was leaning over, staring into the blackest void. I most surely would have fallen in, except that there was a hand on my right shoulder, holding me. The hand was a bright, shining, golden hand. I don’t know how I knew, but there was absolutely no doubt that it was the hand of Jesus Christ.

And just like that, I was back in my bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror. And my drug addiction was gone. There were no withdrawals, no drugs in my system, and no craving for drugs. It was, somehow, just like I had never done drugs at all. It was quite simply impossible, yet it was absolutely undeniable. A true miracle.

Well, I ran out of the bathroom, yelling to Amy about what had just happened. At once, she knew that her prayers had been heard and answered, and she was off drugs for good within a week. And I gave my life to the Lord that day. I clearly saw how I had wasted everything God had given me, and I finally knew that my desire in life was only to serve Him. I began to draw again, except this time I had purpose, which is to bless others and allow my art to be a testimony of God’s amazing grace and love.

Now, I am 33 years old. Live in Arlington, Texas, have the perfect marriage, and am truly fulfilled from walking in God’s purpose for my life by using the gift He has given me to His honor and glory.