Christianity Today

But on that night in a Boston club, hopped up on mushrooms and beer, I received a frightful reminder of something that had peeked around at me over the years. The "social additives" that I loved to use and abuse were a gateway into another world, a world that I knew little about—a world that none of us controlled. Perhaps now it was time to put the college lifestyle away for good. I wanted success in my job yet I still wanted a good time. I had eased off most of the drugs near the end of my college career but now I felt like it was time to abandon them completely or something bad would happen.

So, I tried to shelve them. I had to function professionally and, frankly, I was freaked out by the connection between drugs and Satan made clear to me that night in the club. Not only was I conscious of the spiritual pressure of guilt that confirmed there was going to be a time to pay up, I was getting pressure from the other side. As if dealing with God wasn't enough. Now a dark side was making its presence known to me. And I didn't like it.

Excerpted from The Secret Life of a Fool by Andrew Palau, © 2012. Published by Worthy Publishing, a division of Worthy Media, Inc., Brentwood, TN. www.worthypublishing.com. Used by permission. Tell us what you thought of this excerpt on Twitter: #SecretLifeofaFool @WorthyPub

Copyright © 2012 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

The Secret Life of a Fool: One Man's Raw Journey from Shame to Grace is available from ChristianBook.com and other book retailers. CT also did an interview with Palau.

The Luis Palau Association site has a section on Andrew and his evangelistic ministries.

Worthy Publishing also has a trailer, audio interview, and first chapter from the book.