A few years back, former atheist Willie Morris, 32, would have laughed at anyone who said that he would become a Christian.
But after reading a stack of letters detailing Christians' deep love and gratitude towards God, Morris was so moved that he strove to understand the faith and get to know God.
During an interview with the Church Boys podcast, Morris said he was raised a Catholic but gave up his religion after attending Auburn University where he was exposed to the "heavy-handedness" of those in the faith community.
"Instead of kind of exploring and really going deep in it, I kind of slowly phased out going to church and phased out God in my life," Morris shared. "Before I knew it, I was just really a person without any faith or without Christ in my life."
Morris said he used to dismiss every notion of religion. Even if Jesus Christ would have answered all of his questions back then, Morris insisted that he would not have listened anyway.
After graduation, Morris started working with a design firm. It was his work that brought him in contact with the non-profit disaster relief organisation that was helping people who were affected by the 2011 Joplin tornado.
"There was a series of natural disasters that hit that were just devastating," Morris said. "And they ended up mobilising and getting on the ground there really quick."
He was put in charge of starting a blog about the relief efforts, and was also tasked to reply to the thank-you letters sent by the families the organisation was helping. While reading those letters, something inside Morris stirred.
"I started going through them, and it was so impactful," he said. "(It was) one of those times in my life that I'll never forget."
Morris was astounded how people who have lost everything they had still had the heart to thank not just the relief organisation, but praise God in the process as well.
"People who literally lost everything still being so thankful and so gracious and a lot of them were thanking God in their letters, (saying) 'Thank God he brought you guys to us,'" said Morris. "It just really got to me and it kind of just made me take a step back in my life and be like, 'What am I doing? I've turned my back on my faith and yet these people that have nothing have so much of it.'"
It was then that Morris made the decision to rekindle his spirituality. "Instead of attending church, I found myself sneaking off for a few minutes of the day for peaceful reflection — sometimes on a verse, sometimes on a quote, and sometimes just on the silence. Instead of proclaiming the pros of Christianity, I chose to challenge myself a little each day to be a better person towards others. I didn't speak at all about being Christian, I didn't feel the need to talk about it. It was personal and private," he said.
Morris soon launched the faith-based start-up called Faithbox, which helps other Christians grow their faith. Each Faithbox they sell contains a daily devotional book that hopes to inspire and strengthen people's faith on a regular basis. They also contain people's favourite scriptures, inspirational quotes, and seasonal prayers, among many other things.
"I thought Faithbox would be a great medium to share simple ways for others to enrich their faith and make a positive impact through simple actions and reflections, and I still believe it will be. What I didn't count on was the almost immediate impact that starting the company would have on me," he said.
