By Caleb Campos –
Bryce Crawford refused to visit his grandfather the night he died of cancer.
“I was harboring resentment towards God, and I just beat myself up for such a long time secretly and quietly,” Bryce said on his YouTube channel. “There was one day I got done with wrestling practice and was crying in my car afterwards because I carried this weight every day, and I was crying. I was like, ‘God, why would you let this happen?’”
The fact that Bryce didn’t know that it was his last chance to see “Grandy” didn’t make it any easier.
The reason Bryce refused to go makes it worse. Everyone – family, friends – had the impression that Bryce was a super spiritual Christian. So his family asked him to go talk to Grandy because everybody was concerned that he had never accepted Jesus.
They were leaning on Bryce, counting on Bryce, to come through for Grandy in the critical final moments of his life.
And he said no.
Then Grandy died.
Bryce didn’t go because he was struggling with his own crisis of faith.
“A lot of people in my community who proclaimed Christ with their lips, but their lives didn’t reflect it,” Bryce says. “My example of Jesus were just people who said they were Christian but didn’t live it. My brain would say, if that’s how people are, then this must be how God is and God must not be that great.”
He knew the answers in Bible class, had a good personality and got along with people, so people assumed he was Christian.
When Grandy died, Bryce was devastated, plagued by the thought that his grandfather could be in hell, and he didn’t share the Good News with him.
Bryce Crawford didn’t want his life, so he gave his life to someone who wanted it.
“I just said,’ God if you’re real, take away my anxiety and depression.’ and since December 25th of 2020 I haven’t had anxiety or depression,” Bryce recounts.
Now, Bryce is a full-time missionary in Los Angeles, working to bring people the same hope he found and share Jesus’s light wherever he goes. His ministry is called Jesus in the Street.
Raised in the South, the church was a tradition everyone partook in, but observing nominal, hypocritical Christians is what turned Bryce into a sponge of resentment.
“I felt like when I was growing up, I saw a lot of people in my community who proclaimed Christ with their lips but their lives didn’t reflect it, and so my example of Jesus was just people who said they were Christian but didn’t live it,” he said.
Growing up in a private Christian school, he was seen as a pillar of faith for many, and people brought their questions to Bryce in search of an answer. Meanwhile, he struggled with watching porn.
“I would go into my bathroom, and I would look in this mirror and I would just cry and weep some nights because I hated how I was living my life. I hated the things I was doing deep down, and I just had shame and guilt.”
Bryce had a Jesus-shaped hole in his heart that he constantly tried to fill.
During his moments of doubt, Bryce brought his toughest questions to his grandparents who helped him during the time of emptiness.
Regardless of their help, High school is what slowly turned the trigger for Bryce.
“One day I got done with wrestling practice and I was crying in my car afterwards and I was crying,” he relates. “I was like God, why would you let this happen? “
Then he heard an audible voice.
“He’s okay,” the voice said.
Bryce freaked out. Where did the voice come from? Was that God? How could Grandy be okay?
He called his grandmother, and she told him that Grandy had accepted Jesus just days before dying.
“The weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Bryce says.
He told the story on TikTok. The next morning, 3 million had seen it and 90,000 became followers.
People peppered him with questions about God and salvation. He didn’t know how to answer because he himself had not yet accepted Jesus.
“The supernatural encounter didn’t lead to any depth for me,” he confides. “It led to a spiritual high, but after some time it went away. I went back to my life of sin and anxiety and depression. Even after that encounter, my life spiraled down even more. It felt like I was becoming more hopeless, more hopeless and more hopeless. I hated myself.”
The outlook was so bleak that Bryce decided to commit suicide. It was Dec. 25, 2020.
For his last meal, he went to Waffle House. As he was munching Southern staples, a random guy sat next to him and started complaining about his marriage. In his head, Bryce wasn’t terribly interested; he was contemplating suicide.
The man continued to dump on him. It was going to be his last Christmas with his kids. His wife was dumping him and taking the kids. Bryce nodded perfunctorily but still too consumed with his own wallowing. Then the man said something that hit home.
“There’s no growth in a relationship that isn’t mutual,” he said.
“I got a supernatural encounter with Jesus inside of Waffle house,” Bryce admits. “I had head knowledge about Jesus. Finally the 18 inches separating my head from heart finally connected.”
Bryce realized he hadn’t been giving love back to God.
He started bawling. He left Waffle House and got in his truck. He asked God to take away his depression and porn addiction. He went home and closed himself up in his room and studied the Bible. After two weeks, he emerged “gun a blazing” sharing the gospel with everyone and anyone.
A year later, Bryce got to know the Holy Spirit. He was at an Airbnb in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when an Ecuadorian and his translator knocked on the door.
“I’m looking for you,” the Ecuadorian told him, as Bryce recounts on an Isaiah Saldivar video.
Without Bryce telling this stranger anything, the Ecuadorian told him he had bursitis in his knees from wrestling from high school. He prayed for him and got healed. The Ecuadorian also prayed for his broken finger (which Bryce had also NOT told him about), and he got healed.
Bryce now lives in Los Angeles and hits the streets daily to share the Gospel. He films his encounters. He goes to Comic Con, to Venice Beach, Burning Man. He gets prophetic messages that make people cry because they know that Jesus is real.
He told a man that the man lost a close friend when he was eight years old. The man broke down, surprised to hear that God is real, and accepted the Lord.
To learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus, click here
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About this writer: Caleb Campos studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy near Los Angeles.
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