I tell people there's a lot of times in my life
that I fell in love.
But I definitely fell in love with skating.
I mean, it defined me.
Looking at the side of a skateboard and the plywood
with their trucks and bullet wheels, the way the bearings
rotated, I just knew this was it.
Kids in school would say, if you have to throw one thing
off a bridge, would it be a girlfriend or would it be a
skateboard?
And I'd be like, she'd be swimming.
As a school boy, I got into a lot of fights.
I didn't have a clue what life was about, especially growing
up in Liverpool.
It's a rough place.
You get into a lot of fights.
You deal with everything with your fists.
"You'll Never Walk Alone," that's the
famous song from there.
It's a football song, "You'll Never Walk Alone." But, I guess
at 13 at 15, I did feel like I walked alone.
I did feel like I was separate from anyone.
I just existed, and that skating just woke that up
inside of me.
That became the idol for me.
And within two or three years, I was riding for--
getting flow product release from some of the biggest
sponsors in the world at the time.
I visited New Jersey.
The bagels, and the smell of the candy store, Caramellos,
and the Slurpees, and the different accents, and the
freeway sign, I just fell in love.
And then coming across to California to ride sidewalks
that were smooth, and to grind curbs that were painted
red, and for the cops not to care back then, and then
especially to be riding forTony Hawk's company.
I just was thinking, is this it?
Is this who I am?
Am I--
yeah, I'm this skater.
But am I now this person that's fulfilling this dream?
Am I going to matter?
Is it going to be relevant?
The lifestyle of a pro for me at the time, it was daily
skating, barbecue after party, after Jacuzzi, after video
premiere, running around Rome and being on tour.
You're out drinking everyone.
People are starting to get messed up on this and on that.
The chaos in my life, it came from-- it was back to
fighting, beginning to get into some of the chaos that
would later set a path for me.
I fell in love at 13 with skateboarding.
And at 19, l fell in love with my wife.
So I figured, you know what, here's a girl,
we're falling in love.
We've been together about four months.
Why wouldn't we just jump in a car right now, drive off to
Vegas, and get married at the first little
chapel that we see?
And that's what we did.
Life's perfect.
We're driving out to Vegas, six hours away.
There's the little white chapel right there.
And, no, it wasn't Elvis that married us.
There was a man who shared, and he spoke out of
Corinthians, and he told us about love.
And we were in love.
But did we really know love?
Then you get pregnant.
Then hormones start changing.
And then the focus of Brian from Tracy
becomes she's pregnant.
And the focus of Brian is, where's my attention?
So before long, there you are, and you're questioning it.
And you're beginning to say stupid things to one another.
She has the baby.
Her hormones go back to normal.
There's Brian adjusting as the dad.
And now she wants the attention, very selfish.
You're beginning to say wicked things to one another, mean
things to one another, things that you don't even believe
because you're so stupid.
I keep going back to everything's about you.
We didn't feel a connection.
We were jealous.
Maybe you're not the one.
Within a year and a half having our son, we're fighting
like crazy.
Well, maybe we should get divorced.
Fine, I'll get divorced.
You're pushing yourself into a corner.
I'm punching holes through walls, holes through windows,
shouting and spitting, and saying foul words to this
woman that I love.
Why aren't I happy?
There's money in the bank.
There's cars.
Why aren't I satisfied?
There's houses.
There's things going on.
Does it satisfy me?
No.
I'd had enough fun, and it wasn't fun anymore.
Now I'm going to downtown and people getting in my face.
And that's when I began to get into more fights.
That's when I got into trouble with the police.
I don't care if I lived.
I'm getting suicidal.
There I am, arrested, messing with my probation, and then I
have community service.
And I'm going through the list. I'm looking all these
lists: community service, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
Christian Thrift Store.
Christian Thrift Store?
If I can go to a thrift store and get these cool little polo
shirts or these plaid tops, and that Christians were those
crazy people that pray to a God they don't see, and they
want your money, and some of those priests even mess with
kids, like, man, I'm going there anyway, this is going to
be interesting.
The first day I walk in, "I Saw the Light" by Hank
Williams is playing.
I'm hearing it worship.
I walk over to the bookshelf, and the first book I pick up
is The Case for Christ. I go to the guy at the front, hey,
can I read this book?
And I remember just saying, you know what, God, whoever
you are, I'm going to prove that you're not real.
And in that Christian Thrift Store, as funny as it sounds,
you would get extra credit by going in the church on a
Wednesday, and cooking fries for all the people, and
helping out.
So there's Brian who's going into the church, hearing the
messages, hearing sermons on tithing, and thinking, really?
Reading the Bible, beginning to see that this God in the
Bible wants to have a relationship with me, that
there's some kind of answer being formed here.
I realize that as I was trying to prove God wasn't real,
through His scripture, He was speaking to me.
I wanted it to be filled.
I wanted the meal.
I wanted to know, is this Jesus alive?
Is He, who I can't see, going to change my life?
Is He really who He says He is?
Through reading the scripture, through getting to know what
the Bible says, I realize this.
I realize that the world changed when a man called
Jesus Christ lived.
And now I'm beginning to see that You do have a plan, a
will for my life.
And You do want me to be married to this woman.
And You do have the answer to everything.
And through that process, I got to a place where I said,
look, God, I never met you, and I won't follow something
that's fake.
I need to meet You.
And I cried out and said, forgive me of my sin.
Jesus, I believe in your name.
I pray the sinner's prayer, but I've never met You.
And I need to.
And as I cried out to God that night, I felt, in a instant,
the craziest thing I could ever say in life.
I felt the presence of God enter that room, without
warning, and it was like sitting here right now.
The lights go on.
That was it.
I can't believe this is real.
I'm beginning to cry.
I can't believe this is real.
I can't believe people don't know this is real.
Instantly, I've got to tell people.
I've got to share.
And I began to pray and cry out to God.
And this was worship.
Jesus Christ showed up that night, and changed my life.
It's transformed everything about me.
And today, I'm remarried to that woman.
My son's nine.
My baby girl is two and a half.
And she's at home today, pregnant with our third child.
It isn't the same.
There's nothing that has me--
I go around the world sharing the gospel.
There is an angry Brian--
I love on people-- or suicidal Brian, or divorced Brian.
I'm a deacon at the church.
I go places preaching because Jesus Christ made Himself
known to me that night.
And He forgave my sin.
Am I still angry?
That is a crazy question.
I'm not.
I'm not angry.
I am by no means the same person.
Put in perspective, I'm really second and Christ is first.
His word is first. His love is first. His blood is first.
Now for me, I'm second.
And I enjoy it.
That's who I'm meant to be.
I'm meant to be second.
My name is Brian Sumner and I am Second.