By Milo Haskour –
Famous video prankster JiDion has deleted his fortune haul of videos after an Uber driver turned and asked him, “If you were to die right now, would you go to heaven or hell?”
JiDion (his real name is Jidon Adams) started making videos, he says, because he was insecure and didn’t make it on the high school football team. One of his first videos was selling marked-up beverages at school, for which he got suspended.
“I wasn’t really considered one of the popular kids. You see the popular kids go to the beach houses and the parties and everything. And it’s like you get envious of that, and so I wanted to be like that,” Jidon explained. ““I was trying to be someone I wasn’t. Then I would just hate myself even more.”
The Houston native got to 7.8 million subscribers on YouTube and raked in an estimated $5,000 a week from views. But when he got right with Jesus, he turned his back on his quest for viral fame and fortune. He simply deleted his content – valuable assets in the Internet world – and started over from scratch, explaining why he did what few would understand.
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,” he quoted Mark 8:35. “I straight up sold out man, I sold out on you guys. My videos were just a Band-Aid, they couldn’t solve any of your deeper problems.”
His pranks included getting kicked out of Best Buy for being shirtless only to return with a mob of shirtless friends and sleeping at an WNBA game. He’s antics were sometimes mean, and he got banned from Twitch, stores and the WNBA and the NBA for life.
Jidon (also GiDion) rocketed to fame in April 2019 with a video “Put the gloves on public boxing” that ratcheted up 5 million views. In the backyard boxing match, he got knocked out, but his channel flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee.
One video was “How to pick up girls in Goodwill clothes.” In another, he held a dance competition with a cash prize promised, which turned out to be a paltry $25 (all he had at the time).
In one prank, he lied his way into the Gatorade Headquarters saying he was an employee. As a result, three security personnel got fired. “Because I lied and was saying that I worked there, I got three security workers fired because I wanted to play a practical joke,” he acknowledges.
The impact on others was part of his reflection about his own behavior.
He was living on top of the world until that Uber driver asked him and his girlfriend about the condition of their souls in September 2023. The Holy Spirit pierced and confronted him.
“The way I’m living right now, if God was to take my breath away right now, I’m going to hell. I couldn’t even lie about it,” Jidon recalled. “I’ve been letting so many worldly things dictate how my day is going to go.”
Under conviction, he deleted all 570+ videos from three channels — not just the mean-spirited ones.
“Like a madman who throws flaming darts or deadly arrows, so is the person who deceives his neighbor and says, ‘I was only joking,’” he quotes Proverbs 26:18-19. “We probably posted a video that we hated but you guys loved it, so we loved it. In all honesty man it’s not a way to live.”
The meanest comments, however, didn’t come on his mean, mocking videos. They came on his decision to delete his videos, he says. Some people even reasoned that God is the source of joy. Why would he get rid of videos that caused so many people joy? they asked.
Jidon has started uploading Christian content under the handle GiDeon1444.
“Welcome to GiDeon, I believe EVERYTHING the Bible says and my mission is to get people to turn back to The Most High God and truly follow Jesus,” his “About” menu says. “I pray one of the videos touches your heart and Leads you to God!!!”
“Having everlasting life will always outweigh anything the world has to offer,” says Jidon.
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
About the writer of this article: Milo Haskour studies at Lighthouse Christian Academy near Inglewood of Los Angeles.
