Redshirt sophomore running back MJ Flowers grew up in a Christian household, but it wasn’t until January 2024 when he proclaimed his faith to God.

That true foundation in faith, he said, helped him out of a dark time that has built up since high school.

“After [I] stopped going to church, I went to high school, I started to do things that I said I wouldn’t do and going around people that had bad influences on me,” Flowers said. “Just living a young teenager life that everybody desires when they try and get out of their parents’ house and break the rules.”

Flowers said he looked forward to enhancing that lifestyle in college and continued it when his college career.

However, in October of 2023, Flowers noticed his lifestyle was impacting him.

“Something life changing happened,” Flowers said. “My sophomore year, just around this time last year, I fell so deep into my sin that I became empty in my heart.”

At this same time, he was performing well on the field, putting together an All-American campaign.

“It looked like on the outside everything was going fine, like I had everything that I wanted, but on the inside, there was something going on behind the scenes that nobody knew about,” Flowers said.

Over a phone call with his mom, Flowers said that she could tell something was off. Despite him lying to get her to not worry about it, she still told him to pray about it.

This led to him praying for the first time in a while.

“I [knew] who God [is], but I’m doing my own thing,” Flowers said. “I haven’t prayed since I don’t know when; I didn’t know how to pray. I just said, ‘God,’ and I just opened up to him about what was on my heart. That was the first time I felt the Holy Spirit encounter me, touch me, because in that moment everything that I was feeling that was on my heart, on my shoulders, on my back that was so heavy I felt it lift off.”

Flowers said he felt a warmness and a sense of peace that he couldn’t understand.

“That was the first time where I started to acknowledge God throughout that process,” Flowers said.

During the final months of 2023, Flowers said he still felt depressed, but then he said he started to prioritize God more in his life.

“He was showing up always, but I wasn’t prioritizing his presence,” Flowers said.

In December of 2023, Flowers said he started prioritizing God more, and at the beginning of the new year, he said he decided to give his life to Christ.

“I’m like, ‘I have nothing else to lose but I have everything to give because I feel like I lost everything,’ so I gave my life to Christ, surrendered my life to Christ in January of this year,” Flowers said.

Redshirt sophomore running back Jay Pearson said he noticed Flowers’ change.

“Sophomore year is when I saw MJ [Flowers] grow in his Christianity,” Pearson said. “First meeting MJ [Flowers], he isn’t the person that he is now when it comes to his Christianity. Music wise, he doesn’t listen to any of the music we listen to now. He was preaching to me about it not that long ago. He doesn’t listen to rap, but he’ll listen to Christian rap and Christian music.”

Flowers shares his faith with others as well by starting conversations with them about God. Even if Flowers doesn’t know the person he’s talking to, he said he wants to share the word of God to as many people as he can.

Flowers said he feels like he was called to do this and share God’s words.

“When I received the impartation of God’s spirit, it’s supernatural because his desires become yours, and that’s something that I wasn’t aware of,” Flowers said. “I wouldn’t just go up to you and talk about football, you just got to come see me play. But with Christ, he gave me his spirit, and now that I know the life that he gives, the true peace, the love that you can’t get outside of him and truly walking with him. Now that I know what that is and know what it feels like, it would be selfish of me to not share that with others.”

Another reason Flowers said he shares his faith is because he knows the situation he was in, and one will never know the situation that someone else is in.

“The Bible says we were once dead in our trespasses, we didn’t know God and we were dead in our sin,” Flowers said. “And I was once there. So, if I can be saved from the lowest of lows, why would I not go out and try and reach others? You never know what God is already doing in someone’s heart, [and] you may be that person that they need that can be that confirmation that God is actually real.”

Flowers said he still feels temptation, but that he said that he avoids giving into them.

“Obedience comes down to hearing the word of God, and faith as well comes from hearing the word of God,” Flowers said. “It’s like if I claim to be a Christian but I wasn’t in God’s word, and I didn’t know how God calls us to live. Then, I could go about my day and fall into temptation without even knowing it and that would kill me spiritually.”

Although stronger obedience didn’t come right away, Flowers said he had to separate himself from situations where what he called sinful temptations would arise.

Flowers said he kept doing this disassociation from potentially sinful environments for four months after he gave his life to Christ, and instead spent his time with the Bible and other resources to grown in his faith.

“I think a lot of my obedience came from that isolation that I prioritized with God,” Flowers said. “Christ is offering a free ticket to heaven, the gift of our salvation, and if you never truly receive it in faith and in truth, then you will be on the side of judgement. What Christ is offering is eternal redemption of our sin and we actually have to receive it onto our hearts and not just claim it. If you never truly received the gift, then you didn’t know him.”

Bryce Parker can be reached at at 581-2812 or at baparker2@eiu.edu.