Always pushing the boundaries, Paul Flynn grew up looking for more--more fun, more of a rush, more trouble. In Sikeside, Scotland, he didn't have to look far. By high school he was already drinking alcohol, smoking cannabis, doing LSD, and looking for anything else that he could get into.
Despite growing up in a devout Catholic family with loving parents, Paul couldn't stop the voice in his head that pushed him to try all the drugs he could find: heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines--his thirst for drugs was unquenchable. His teenage years unraveled into missed court appointments, depression, and bad decisions. Even after a death-defying accident at age fifteen that left him on life support with a hole cut out of his skull and serious brain damage, the drugs just grabbed him with a tighter fist. Through it all, though, he felt God's hand on him. He knew God was there.
His life turned into a blur of depression, paranoia, prison and chaos. He no longer lusted after the drugs, but they controlled him nonetheless. Paul joined a rehabilitation program, but kicking years-long addition to drugs, alcohol, and sex wasn't as easy as it seemed. Wavering in and out of programs, he slowly, finally, began to see past the imperfect people running the programs and see straight into God's will for him. Paul's moving story shows just how winding the path to salvation can be. There is no magic bullet, and no one is perfect, but if you go toward God and listen to His voice, you will find the love, acceptance, and strength that you never could in addiction.
