This is a thread about the day that I almost left the faith. If you're here for my humor or banter, I won't feel bad if you keep scrolling.

I grew up in the pentecostal tradition. Being blind, this means you get prayed for a lot. 1.

It's nothing for someone you just met to ask to pray for you. I mean, I probably have a permanent anointing stain on my forehead as many times as I've been asked as a child. And of course, I say "Yes." because who doesn't want to be prayed for? 2.

But there came a time where I became very depressed. Firstly, whether true or not, I felt like people's pet project, like I was a challenge that needed to be solved. And secondly, I started to think, "Maybe I just don't have enogh faith to be healed. 3.

I have all these people praying for me and yet nothing has changed. Maybe I'm the problem."
So, this continues to build until one day when I'm 15. My family and I start going to this megachurch where this preacher does healing services. 4.

This is where he walks up and down the aisles saying things like, "The Lord is telling me there is someone in this area who is fighting backpain." He brings them out into the aisle, prays for them, repeat. Repeat. 5.

Well, as he is walking past my row, he says, "The Lord is getting ready to heal someone of blindness." To say I was shocked would've been an understatement. I am one teenager in a megachurch with thousands of people. There's no way he knows me. 6.

I stand up and join him in the aisle. He says a simple prayer I've heard hundreds of times, all the while, he has the bottom of his palm pressed to my forehead. When He says "Amen," he pushes me and I stumble backwards. 7.

Then, these 2 men show up almost out of no where behind me. and grab me. I think they are going to steady me, but instead they gently lay me down on the ground. So now it looks like I'm "Slain in The Spirit." 8.

So now I'm laying here, in the floor of the sanctuary of this megachurch wondering just how long am I supposed to lay there. I count about 30 seconds, then get up and quietly go back to my seat. All the while, the preacher has moved on to other people. 9.

As he is making his way back down the aisle, he sees me moving my head around the room and says, "don't worry Curtis, your vision will return to you fully very soon." But nothing had happened. This man was lying to me in front of his entire church and he knew it. 10

I was livid! I felt I had been sold a bill of goods. I was ready to leave the faith right then and there and not look back. It was only by the grace of God that I didn't. However, for a few more years I struggled with the question, "Why am I blind?" 11

The answer to that question is another thread in and of itself, but I leave you with this. If you have a person with disabilities in your life, don't treat them as a puzzle to be solved, a prize to be won, or a notch in your spiritual belt. 12.

Odds are, they have been treated that way by other Christians already. Instead, treat them as people with value and who have something to contribute to The Church and to life in general. Treat them as as a friend. I promise, God would like that a lot better. 13.