Is This as Good as It Gets?
Life for high-rolling Chris Costa needed to change
Chris Costa with his family
24 . July . 2008
He lost everything. Again.
Driving home at 5 a.m. from another night of poker, Chris Costa wondered, Is this as good as it gets?
Chris' life looked good on the outside, but he was $20,000 in debt, struggling with addictions and falling apart inside.
Later that week Chris met David Williams on the golf course. They spent an afternoon on the green and then met for lunch.
Chris thought this could be a potential client opportunity until the director of Campus Crusade for Christ's Priority Associates turned the conversation to spiritual matters. Chris remembers thinking, Oh, he's a Jesus freak.
But then David explained how Jesus desired to have a personal relationship with Chris.
"A light bulb went on in my head," Chris says. His old life no longer seemed attractive.
That afternoon in 1996, Chris began his journey with the Lord.
Today, Chris volunteers with Priority Associates in Tulsa, Okla. He leads a group that reaches out to others. He's training and teaching men who remind him of his old self: addicted, almost hopeless, until they meet Jesus. The men ask Chris for tips on managing finances, parenting and marriage.
"I never thought, 12 years ago, that guys would be coming to me for advice," Chris says. "There's nothing else I'd rather be doing."
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