Here I Am by Martin Johnson

The desire to write has burned in me ever since I was in middle school. I grew up in a military family that traveled the world until we settled down in the South. Daydreaming about the places I used to live and the wonderful sights I’ve seen led me to write about them.

I wanted to share with others my adventure before moving to the South. I can still remember walking the cobblestone streets of Rome—the beautiful fields of flowers that zipped past the windows of school buses while in route to Italian countryside farms.

The serenity of the early morning fishing trips with my father on Pike’s Peak in Colorado. But, my favorite was always having a white Christmas to celebrate the holidays. Writing was just as much an escape for me as listening to the words of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas.

That’s why I chose to major in English during college. I wanted to take people to great places with my words. However, working two jobs and partying in my spare time, left me little time to escape and write. I was stuck in reality.

I had no more stories to tell—I’m not talking about the lies we tell—wait, is that why our parents called lying telling stories?

My Story

We all have a story to tell, it may be fiction or it may be a-real-life, gut-wrenching truth. Sometimes my story seems like a dream… or nightmare.

When I was 22, during college, I died after a severe car accident. At the hospital the doctors had to do emergency brain surgery to remove bone fragments from my brain and I stroked out. After I was revived they removed 30% of my brain so it would rewire itself and I could function.

I remember coming to a week later and having the doctors tell me I would never walk again. Moreover, I still feel the embarrassment I felt when I fell off of the toilet after lying to a nurse about being able to walk.

After eleven months of inpatient and outpatient therapy, I returned to work and even began mountain biking as part of my recovery. There’s nothing like wearing yourself out pushing a bike pedal for hours to make you feel alive.

I spent a decade trying to write my story by pursuing a modeling career in Atlanta. Then, one night on the set of a popular dance movie I was an extra in, the writing bug bit me again.

I wanted to write again, I wanted to tell a more encouraging story. I wanted to tell people about the things I’ve seen God do in my life.

So, I wrote my first screenplay and it won awards. And my desire to write grew more. But I had a problem. My brain injury kept me from being able to type without hurting my hands.

So I prayed for help and got it. I learned that Georgia had a trust fund for people with brain injuries like me. I was awarded grants to pay for speech dictation software to help me write.

I was also awarded grants to take writing classes from Christian professional writers. And I was encouraged to write a book, and then another and still more.

Sure, I’m no big-name rock star writer and there have been plenty of people look down on me because my story doesn’t look like theirs, but that’s what makes it my story.

I was recently reminded by a fellow writer, “Keep in mind that if God is calling you to write, then you only need to do your part and write the book(s) He gives you to write out of obedience. He can make a way for publication in His timing and in His perfect plan!”

God is using my story to write His story.

History?

Now that I look back to my childhood, I can clearly see where God was giving me a story to write and making a way for me to do it. At this point I’m not sure where the climax is or how it ends, but I know it must be written, it’s part of history.

Years ago, when I volunteered in men’s ministry for Promise Keepers I heard, “God doesn’t use the able, He uses the available.”

Dr. Henry Blackaby says it best, “Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do? The answer is yes—all the time! It must be that way, for God’s glory and kingdom. If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory. He wants to reveal Himself to a watching world.” So here I am.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Truamatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at https://spiritualperspectivesofdasingleguy.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtjohnson51.