I could never have imagined that I would be here at this point in my life. I would have initially thought that I would have arrived much sooner but that was based in arrogance. My mother used to say that “Craig could do anything he wanted to do,” it went to my head, often giving the little boy in me permission to act however I desired. God needed to break that and other parts of me off. He was working in the deep places inside my heart when everything seemed to be so bleak.

I began writing my first legitimate book twelve years ago, while going through my darkest places and deepest valleys. While writing, I distinctly remember praying that, “if no one ever read the words I was pouring out on the screen, it was fine.” I needed to put down what was boiling over inside of me. I was compelled to write two books over those five or six years and they have sat on a hard drive ever since. The second book I let some of my closest friends read, but not many. It is a raw and harsh work that may never see the light of day again, but who knows what will come?

During these years I worked in the concrete business, feeling like I needed to be punished for the wrongs that I had committed. Slogging through unlit basements, wrestling long concrete shoots, wet clay and feces. My body was sore for eight months a year from the physical aspect of the job. My mind was tired from trudging the damp valley floor of despair and my soul was isolated like living alone at the end of a long dead-end road. The long winter night was in full bloom.

But God was not finished. From the dead humus new life sprouted and new hope stirred.

Now Craig Matthews Media seeks to be a beacon of hope in a dark world. A place of hope for both the reader and the author seeking to be read. Stories birthed from a place of pain, grit, and failure can point to hope, life, and inspiration! Join us in the quest of distributing light to those trudging valley floors.