Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Michael Steele's Journey - Faith and Joy Through Trials.
How does a 17-year-old facing 20 surgeries and 700 doctor's appointments maintain an unwavering faith and joy? Meet Michael Steele Funches from Washington State, who shares his deeply moving journey of overcoming Crouzon syndrome on this episode of Road to Redemption. Michael's story is a powerful testament to finding joy amid trials, inspired by a biblical verse from James. He opens up about his faith being a cornerstone of his perseverance and recounts the touching conversation with his father that led to the creation of his heartfelt song, "Dear Someone," a letter to his future spouse.
Join us as Michael also tackles the pressing issue of parenting in a digital age. Drawing wisdom from Ephesians, he emphasizes the importance of prioritizing Bible reading over social media distractions. We discuss practical strategies for managing children's screen time and the significant benefits of engaging them in sports, art, and music. Michael's practical advice and reflections on living in the moment and trusting in God's plan offer valuable insights for parents and young people alike. Don't miss this inspiring episode filled with hope, steadfastness, and the transformative power of faith.
Find Michael Steele's song "Dear Someone" at the links below:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7BLVHW0VdsSwssQjxj9CJW
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lCS9SEg6o0Gt9Q5n7IkjFIEM1q5gz2LH0
For more information contact us at
rtrdestiny@gmail.com
Welcome to Road to Redemption, a show sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Road to Redemption. I'm John Martin, your host. I'm so excited to be here today. Our guest is Michael Steele. Michael hi, Hello. Well, thanks for being here. Yeah, I'm really glad to be here. Well, thanks for being here. Yeah, I'm really glad to be here. I'm so excited that you're here with all your family.
Speaker 3:And we want to hear. Give us a little background on you. Well, I'm 17. I'm from. We live in Washington State right now, so about as far away as you can get in the United States. We're military, my dad's retired, so that's why we're out there. But both my parents are from Florida, grandparents both live in Florida, so we call Florida home, but we're out in Washington right now.
Speaker 2:My wife, christina, was born and raised in the desert valley of Washington State, down almost by Oregon. Yeah so, and she loves it here. She always wanted to get to the south, get to warmer weather. Yep, but I know a little bit about where you're from. That's a pretty area up there, yeah, cool. Well, we'll talk to us a little bit about first, your journey, your life. I know you were telling me a little bit before. Things haven't always been so easy on your road to redemption. Give us a little bit of story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I was born with Crouzon syndrome. If you've seen the movie Wonder, it's like the brother syndrome to the syndrome that that main character has. So I've had 20 surgeries, over 700 doctor's appointments, spent most of my early life in a lot of pain surgeries, doctor's appointments. So I've had three craniofacial vault remodels, where they take your skull apart and they kind of build it back together, kind of like a puzzle. So that's a little bit bigger. So I have a prosthetic skull. So I've had quite the medical journey. I'm super blessed right now I can do sports. I'm so healthy right now, which is a huge blessing. But yeah, I've had a lot of surgeries, just grew up having a lot of pretty abnormal medical experiences that most of my friends are kind of amazed when they hear about it.
Speaker 2:Well, and as I was telling you earlier, you have the joy of the Lord. You are a joyous young man and a lot of people think somebody that's been through all of that. I mean they would think, wow, that's you know. How have you kept your faith in God during all of this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. Well, in the first verse of James it says count it all, joy when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. I feel like that verse really kind of encapsulates my early life. There were incredibly hard moments. I can remember so many prayers where I was saying why me it's 15 kids out of every 1 million why me out of all these people? And why all this pain? What did I do? And I remember asking my mom did I do something? Or did you do something? Or like, did you do something?
Speaker 3:But over the course of my life, you know, I've learned like that that question, why? Has been answered. Now and in the moment you don't know, but you learn to. You learn to trust the Lord because you read the Bible and you're like he's in control, he knows what he's doing, and we don't always know what we're doing, but he, in those hard situations, he, you know, he blesses us with, like you said, he blesses you with joy, you know so the salvation of Christ. Like you have a reason to be happy, even if you're in a hospital bed, cause you know that this is not, in the end, the only life you will have. You'll have eternal life. So that kind of hope, you know, was always taught to me as a kid and now I believe it for myself. So that, always me going in those trials, the Lord has already right now in my life, he's using those experiences so that I can create steadfastness. It's changed me and given me the opportunity to do things for the Lord.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's great Folks. We're visiting with Michael Steele and you have a song. I got to listen to it this morning, dear Someone, and I wanted to find out what. What got you to write this song?
Speaker 3:um. So I was driving somewhere with my dad in the summer this was about a year after I started writing songs and I was just getting going. I was was talking to my dad. I was kind of complaining. I was like, man, I have nothing interesting in my life to write songs about All these artists. They have incredible stories and crazy backgrounds. My dad just looked at me. He was like, are you kidding me? You have so many cool things to sing about your family, your faith, your friends, all the experiences you've had and he just started. And then he just started going Like he was. He was inspired at the moment. He just started going with all these song ideas and at one point you know, I'm sitting here, like some of them I'm like okay, that's okay. Then some of them are like that's a terrible idea. And he just kept going and eventually said you could write a song to your future spouse. And I just had an absolute mind blown moment. I was like that would be insane.
Speaker 3:So I went home and I thought, well, to get down some ideas, I'll, I'll write her a letter Like that's, I'll try that. So I started out and at the top I wrote dear. And then I realized I didn't know who it was. I was like, uh, dear someone. And then I, you know, just wrote down some things and um, and that that sparked the idea for the song and that was where I wrote the main chunks. Most of the lines come from that first revision. I've made so many revisions after that, but that's where the first idea came from. I was just writing it and it was emotional. If you're a young person out there, you should try writing a letter to your future spouse. It will blow your mind.
Speaker 2:I love it. It's a great song. Is that something you're aspiring to do in your career Be a songwriter, or do you also maybe a singer or both?
Speaker 3:Right now I'm just keeping music as a hobby. It's a gift from the Lord. I'm not planning on making it a career, but I would love to keep writing songs, recording music. I'd love to be able to release more of my songs and perform them myself, but I'd also love to have the opportunity to share my songs with other artists, if that's possible cool, what, michael?
Speaker 2:um, just, we were talking earlier just about the world and things, and with your generation, you're 17. Is that how, what? What advice do you have for young folks listening today?
Speaker 3:um, wow, that's so many places you could go. With that I would say something that's been on my heart recently and just something I've been. I had a conversation with a friend just last night about this. I think, just the idea of the will of god. I think in our generation there's so many choices we have to make, like even just 100 years ago, like it in our generation there's so many choices we have to make Like even just a hundred years ago, like it was so different, like there's so many colleges you could go to, there are so many schools, there's so many people you could meet. You know, think of dear someone. Like there are so many places you could go, so many people you can meet.
Speaker 3:And I think a lot of times we get overwhelmed and we end up not really doing anything with our time. You know, we get distracted by social media and sports and we don't really focus on the kingdom of God, and I think that's one of the reasons why a lot of people my age have anxiety. So my advice would just be live in the moment, live where you are. If you're at school, then the will of God is probably for you to be a student and to do that well. So I think for my own life, and then talking to friends last night, just like I guess a lot of times my generation really struggles with, like where do I want to go? And all these indecisions and all these opportunities, but you just need to trust the Lord with where you are right now and where you're going to be and then just live in the moment and do whatever you're doing for the glory of the Lord right there in the moment.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, that's cool. Well, I would just ask you now, Michael is there anything else that's on your heart you'd want to share?
Speaker 3:Man, this is so random but, since you asked, yesterday morning in my quiet time I was going through Ephesians and I was going through the armor of God very common youth group passage, you know, brought up a lot. But I read the part where it said take up the sword of God which is the Holy Spirit. I thought, okay, that's cool. And it said the Holy Spirit which is the word of God.
Speaker 3:And that kind of blew my mind because I've heard people, a lot of people in my age, be like I feel like I just haven't felt the Holy Spirit and I don't really know what to do in certain situations and I like felt his presence. It's like, well, have you read? Have you been reading your Bible? Have you been memorizing? Have you been studying? Cause it says like right there, like the Holy spirit which is the word of God, and I just that blew my mind. I was like whoa, the Holy spirit is lying on my bedside table every night and it's right there and the opportunity is there. The word of God's just sitting there, and so many young people we get in bed and we scroll Instagram for 30 minutes.
Speaker 3:It's like you know, the Holy Spirit's just waiting right beside your bed. So Amen.
Speaker 2:Well, I would ask you to give me some advice, because I have kids that are younger, from age five to 12. And the big struggle as a parent these days is the devices and the screens. And I was watching this documentary by a pastor the other day called Digital Cocaine, and it was just showing what a lot of these games like Roblox, minecraft, when the kids are on it for extended periods of time, it's doing the same thing to their brain that someone that's doing cocaine or heroin. But it's such a challenge because it's like it's so in the culture. Like every birthday party they go to, everything is centered around these games.
Speaker 2:Every birthday party that we gave for our kids they kept getting it went up to almost a thousand dollars of roblox gift cards they got. They didn't even have roblox, yeah, and I was like this is a game they don't even have and they've already been given a thousand dollars to play this game. And if you look at roblox, it has a 30 billion dollar market cap yep, facebook, you know, a trillion dollar plus market cap. These are getting to be bigger companies than philip morris, and it's just. There's nothing wrong with, know, I don't have any problem with with companies being profitable, but it just as a parent, you just don't know how to manage this. So anyway, I'll let you answer. What's advice do you have for me, as a parent and trying to manage these screens and devices with the younger ones?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know it's. That's. That's some some hard advice to give. You know it.
Speaker 3:My advice would would be, if you can like, engage them with other things, cause I think even as a kid you know, I grew up with that same, you know that same problem Like there's all these video games. All my friends are playing video games and as a kid you want to play the video games, but a lot of times my, my wonderful mom would be like no, go outside. I'd be like I don't want to go outside. He's like go outside anyway, um, which is a huge blessing and I'm so grateful for that. Um, but I would, yeah, I would say like engage them with other things sports music, playing card games, and it's you're right, it's it's really hard because all of their friends, I promise you, all of their friends will be doing these games and have the phones and have the xboxes and what whatnot.
Speaker 3:Um, but I was recently reading in a book I'm going through with my friend where it was like you know, if, if you grow up to be a teenager and you're spending four hours a day playing a video game, like that's a lot of time you could be doing something else, like for the lord and a lot of times, so many people my, my generation, they're just lost in this addiction. You mentioned the effect it has on the same level as cocaine, which is unbelievable. So my advice would be just like, engage them with other things. There are so many wonderful things to do out there, like play outside, art, music. We all have our different, you know. Find what their thing is Like.
Speaker 3:If, say, say, if you have a daughter who loves art, you know like buy her an art book. Like get, like get her an art class. Engage them with these other things that are really just as enjoyable. And even though they might not know it now, I would say I've seen in my own life and my siblings lives like they will. You know, you're gonna become a teenager and you're gonna realize like, yeah, my mom and dad were right.
Speaker 2:That's great stuff. Thank you, michael. Folks were visiting with Michael Steele. Uh, he's just released a new song, dear someone, as as he was writing it to his future spouse. That's so cool, yep. Well, uh, where do uh if anybody wants to get the song? Uh, where do uh if anybody wants to get the song, like download is it? Can you get it on a download out there?
Speaker 3:It is on all platforms Spotify, Amazon music, YouTube music, Apple music, dear someone under Michael Steele. So you'll see a picture of a notepad with the chorus refrain written on it. Yeah, it's on all platforms.
Speaker 3:Wow Michael tell us about the words on the wall part in the song yeah. So in the song you haven't heard it I have a line where I say you know we'll put pictures on the wall and words, pictures down the hall and words on the wall. What I mean by that is you know, I love I don't know if you've ever done this but I walked into a friend's house or walked into your own house and you just see scripture on the wall. And the older I've gotten, the more I appreciate that, because it is just a wonderful thing to like walk down your hallway and see you know Psalm 19 or you know whatever.
Speaker 3:It is a proverb, some random passage, it's I just for me, when I always think of like a Christian family and having a Christian family, that's one of the first things I think about is putting God's word on the wall, you know, next to all the pictures of the family. Um, and you know, just having that like this house, you know, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Like this house has scripture in it. It's on our walls. Like if you come into our house, you're going to see God's word, and I've always just found that such a beautiful thing. So then when I was I was writing the song and I was thinking about you know, future spouse, and what I hope for you know. That was one of the first things I thought of. That was kind of one of my more creative ideas was, you know, I should mention putting God's word on the wall.
Speaker 2:Amen you. To be someone that's so young 17,. You have a spiritual maturity of someone much older. I'm just so impressed with you and your family. What a great testimony you have and to be only 17,. I just say, wow, I mean it's. I know you've got such a great future ahead of you. Keep doing what you're doing. You have so much joy. You have so much to offer the world. We look forward to your future wife coming and children. So it's been great. Thank you so much for coming on, michael.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for this opportunity.
Speaker 2:I'll just close our show today in prayer. Oh Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Michael coming on this opportunity. I'll just close our show today in prayer. Oh Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Michael coming on this show. We pray that someone will hear his story and will come to know you as Lord and Savior. And, as we always say, if you haven't picked up a Bible, just pick up the Bible now and start reading it. We promise God will speak to you. Go to a Christ-centered church, Give it one year of your life and get in a small group, a life group that will help you, a place where you can share and receive God's word. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Road to Redemption, sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own Road to Redemption. If you have any comments or questions, we would love to connect with you. You can reach out to us at destinyradiolive. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week on Road to Redemption.