In some of my past columns, I have featured individuals who were or are directly involved in supporting the development of Oklahoma Catholic Radio. Their volunteer efforts and selflessness inspired me to share their stories and reveal unique facets of Jesus Christ in them. My good friend, Deacon Larry Sousa, one of the OKCR founders, called me recently. He proposed a new twist on this idea. He reminded me that there are many Catholic radio listeners that owe the vitality of their faith to what they have heard and learned from the programming.

“Some have come from ... nothing. They had no faith at all,” Deacon Larry said. He urged me to put a face on a few of these people to encourage readers and listeners to be confident in the work God accomplishes in OKCR listeners.

Doctor Chris Edge began listening to EWTN in 2013 when an employee clued him in.

He began by listening to “Catholic Answers Live,” and soon he was listening all day to various programs. In an interview on “Make Straight the Way,” Edge told Deacon Larry that all he had been taught about his faith were clarified by listening to Catholic radio. I think that rings true for many of us, myself included, who were raised Catholic. Mother Angelica, Deacon Larry Sousa, Father John Riccardo and many others embody the power of focusing our lives on God through Jesus Christ instead of living for ourselves.

Edge spent his early school years at Saint Benedict Catholic Church in Shawnee. His family’s move to Norman coincided with his middle school years. The respect he observed others had for his father as a psychiatrist, coupled with his own respect, influenced him to pursue medicine. He found himself going to school, raising a family and trying to support his family. It was a challenging time.

However, Edge and his wife worked hard – and it paid off.

“You might say though, by my late 40s, I was a little too full of myself,” Edge said.

Then his world turned upside-down. His marriage fell apart; he lost his family life: and he lost his dream home. Even his work suffered. A couple of his partners left his medical practice. Everything he had worked for, even his identity as a doctor, was disintegrating. Edge was floundering. He was part of a profession where he was accustomed to people asking him for help. Now, he did not know where to turn.

Edge described it as “divine intervention” that he was able to engage a therapist who helped him get past his anger and see his responsibility. He also read Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose-Driven Life.” One sentence jumped off the page: “It’s not about you.”

What it is about, Edge came to realize, is what God has planned for you. With the
help of a business manager, his therapist and mentoring from two priests in particular, Edge traded in his anger at the circumstances of his life for accountability and a spiritual renewal. In his practice, Edge concentrated on work not only as a physician but as a healer. His personal relationships were transformed too.

Edge attributes the improvements in his life to the time he now spends in prayer.

He touted “more praying, more apologizing and more asking for forgiveness.”

He said this focus on what God wants from him lived out in his prayer has made his relationship with Jesus Christ real. Edge knows his presence daily, through his prayer. He now actively prays for his patients, and he is a witness to the difference that has made in his role as a healer.

The blessings Edge’s testimony describes touch my heart because all of us experience life’s ups and downs, and some can be life-altering. I want what Edge discovered and Catholic radio confirms: seeking God’s purpose for my life in all its circumstances will destroy an- ger and despair and replace it with hope and joy at what God accomplishes in me.