Published on Crisis Magazine website, written by Paul Chaloux
With so much darkness surrounding us, it’s sometimes hard to see how God is working in the world. Garrett Johnson’s story demonstrates that God is still active, reaching out to even the most fallen who have chosen to embrace darkness and addiction.
Garrett didn’t understand what that meant at the time, and he was certainly not sexualized at age 6; but the taunting persisted throughout his childhood and into adolescence, coming from many different sources.
It happened so often that Garrett began to believe it and to think the easiest path forward was to embrace the title. At one point in his youth, a girl he had a crush on convinced him to put on a wig and a dress. He mistook her laughter for approval and walked home in this attire, which made his father angry.
Garrett had a good relationship with his father in his early life, but as he approached his teen years, tension developed and their relationship soured because Garrett was so undisciplined. Due to his own difficult upbringing, his father didn’t have the tools to bring Garrett under control.
Out of frustration, his father pushed many of those he loved away, including Garrett. He learned from his father’s behavior that the way to deal with people who hurt you is to hurt them back. This hurting included leveraging his mother’s love to hurt his parent’s relationship.
Once, when they were playfully wrestling, he purposely kneed his father in the groin. This opened the rift with his father even more, as you might expect. After this split, Garrett saw only the worst in his father.
He saw every act of love as somehow an example of his father’s self-centeredness, and he took every opportunity to harm his father. As his relationship with his dad continued to deteriorate, he grew closer to his mom, who seemed to reflect his tender, kind side. He began to see himself as more like a woman than a man.
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Garrett Johnson’s website and YouTube Channel