Depression had taken over Joseph Cantu’s life. The youth pastor, husband, and father of four says he contemplated suicide every day, believing that was the only way to escape the memories haunting him. “For me, the answer was literally death,” Joseph explained. “I could not get it to stop no matter how hard I tried. I couldn’t pray it off. I couldn’t take enough sleeping pills to make it go away. And it scared the life out of me.”
Joseph had struggled since he was 10 years old. After his parents divorced, his mom would disappear for years at a time. His dad, who was in the military, worked long hours. “Dark thoughts of feeling worthless, unneeded, were permeating in the back of my mind often,” said Joseph.
As a teenager, Joseph would find acceptance in a gang, embracing the lifestyle of drugs, violence, and crime. “I believe that at the time, being in a gang made me feel part of a family.” That is until one day when a man named Ralph approached 16-year-old Joseph and started telling him about Jesus. “He took me under his wing,” Joseph recalled. “And really, that is where my life really started to transform with a new hope.”
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