Paul Marcel: Wine or Jesus?

CBN.com “They thought it was really cool to get the young kids stoned, and almost all of fifth grade I was stoned.”

It didn’t take much for Paul Marcel to fall under the influence of older kids. By seventh grade, he was drinking with them too. The party crowd offered what he needed.

“I thought, these guys are so accepting,” Paul tells The 700 Club. “They know what it’s like to be hurt, to not have parents around all day.”

Paul’s parents divorced when he was just five, which made growing up tough. So he partied his way through his teens and 20s. What he saw as “fun” was really an escape from the pain.

“We thought, ‘Hey man, this is great. This is cool.’ One of my best friends and I would pal around and [say], ‘Where is the biggest party? We wanna be there.’”

Paul’s painting business was booming but his lifestyle was wearing thin.

“You can only get so drunk, only party so hard and do so many things,” Paul confesses. “I felt like after while there’s gotta be more to life. I’m young. I have my own business. I had a warehouse apartment, got two cars, got a boat, working hard, fairly successful for my age, and I felt emptiness.”

So Paul started searching. He thought life might be simpler if he moved from New York City to Colorado. He read books and more books on metaphysics and all kinds of religion like New Age.

“[They said] Try practicing this, think a good thought, positive attitude or even much deeper spiritual stuff and you can make the light turn green if you focus enough,” Paul says. “It’s nice to have a positive attitude, but it didn’t change my heart. I’m still sad inside. I’m still hurt. It’s not the answer.”

By now Paul was an alcoholic who had come to this conclusion: “I’ll just be a drunk painter, because I was a house painter and thought [that] there is no hope. For three years I really bottomed out and stayed there -- really struggling for every penny and didn’t care. [I was] living above a garage just painting to get drunk.”

Eventually, Paul needed a truck and spotted one for sale on the roadside. What really impressed him was not the truck, but the man selling it! He was so peaceful and content. Paul was about to find out why.

“He said, ‘Do you know the Lord Jesus as Lord and Savior?’ Right at that moment, I started to weep. The man said, ‘Come into the house. Have a drink of water.’ So we sat around the table, and I shared my background. I knew at that moment that Jesus was real, that He was the answer, and that He was the fulfillment that I was looking for.”

Paul received the Lord into his heart and asked Him to make something of his life. Later, he returned to the man’s house this time for a Bible study. He brought his girlfriend, Paige, and a whole new world was opened to them.

“What is the book of James speaking to us about? What is John talking about? What did Jesus say to us there? How do you apply? All the different teachings [were] directly out of the Word of God. I said, ‘That’s true.’ I could feel it.”

But Paul was still drinking and couldn’t stop.

“I said, ‘Lord, there’s one thing I have not been set free from. Please, please, please take this away.’ I went to sleep that night -- drunk of course -- but in all sincerity. ‘God, I just can’t get away from it. It’s got such a hold.’ The Lord spoke to my heart and said, ‘Pour out all the alcohol in the house.’ I poured out all the wine we had. God set me free, totally delivered me from that.”

Paul soon married Paige, who also came to know Jesus as Lord. As they grew in their faith, they became very different from who they’d been.

Paige recalls, “I could feel the intensity and his dissatisfaction with life. So we didn’t have a very great relationship before. But then when he came to the Lord, he was wonderful, gentle, sweet, loving and everything was about the Lord. Nothing was selfish; nothing was prideful.”

Paul and Paige later adopted two children from Russia. They live on a beautiful piece of land in Colorado where they plan to open a fly fishing resort.

“We have such a wonderful, truly happy family,” Paul says. “We love each other. I love my kids so much.”

Ever since Paul’s life took such a dramatic turn, he’s eager to point others down the same path.

“He will come to your rescue. He is the answer; He is the fulfillment. You need to do His will, not your will. Let Him plan your life. Let Him lead and guide you. He will take you to places that are amazing.”