“You can be born into a nightmare, but God can usher you into a dream.”

Derek George started his book, Heart of A Lion, with that Tyler Perry quote. Not just because that is his son John Paul’s idol. And not just because that idol has put a son that shouldn’t have lived past birth into his new film opening Friday — but because it encapsulated all that he has watched his son overcome.

The son born, literally, with half a heart.

But as John Paul George continues to teach his father over the years with each day of his life, a half a heart can produce more courage than most.

“The more I wrote, the more therapeutic it was,” said Derek George, of Juno Beach, who authored the book two years ago and just had it published in paperback. “It was a flourish in my mind.”

It all began four months into Annette George’s pregnancy, when she went in for a routine ultrasound. She could tell, just from the look on the radiologist’s face, that something was very wrong with her baby.

Doctors diagnosed her unborn child with hypoplastic left heart, a condition where the entire left side of the heart is underdeveloped and is fatal without surgery. Even with surgery, at the time, there was no guarantee her son would live past his first night.

They suggested she abort the fetus. But Annette, who was raised in a Southern Baptist home, and Derek, who was raised Catholic and has a brother who is a priest, never considered it.

“We made the decision right then and there.,” said Annette. “If he was going to live only nine months, then that would be his life. God would decide his fate.”

That was 18 years ago.

Seconds after being born, John Paul George — named after Pope John Paul II, not the Beatles — was taken for emergency surgery. It would be the first of three surgeries by the time he was 3.

But since, John Paul has lived surgery free. The only remnant of the surgery is a scar down the middle of his chest that has faded over the years. The most obvious sign, though, is his stature.

At first glance — and even at a second — John Paul appears to be no more than 11 years old. And it’s not just his height. His boyish features, bright hazel eyes, floppy dirty-blond surfer boy haircut like his father’s, they all speak to a much younger person.

His heart condition meant John Paul was home schooled, for safety’s sake, since something as simple as an infection could put his health at risk. And he couldn’t play sports. But he loves video games and reading.

“I still do a lot of cool stuff. I read books — lots of books,” he said.

His father, 48, is a golf coach and caddy, so John Paul has met all the big stars from Tiger Woods to local product Erik Compton, who is playing on the tour despite two heart transplants. John Paul was the standard bearer three years ago for Compton’s foursome during the Honda Classic.

And he became a wild hobbyist of movies. And that’s how he came upon Tyler Perry’s films. He was soon going around the house, as a young teen, reciting lines from Perry’s “Madea” movies, down to the inflection. They were his “Madea-isms,” his mother said.

“He’s just funny, you know? He don’t take no junk from nobody,” John Paul says, slipping into character. “He’s such a cool dude and says all these funny things.”

When Annette, 49, heard one of Perry’s plays was coming to Jacksonville, she was ready to buy tickets and, on a lark, wrote Perry’s publicist to see if Perry would be willing to meet her son and hear his story. What she got back were three tickets to the play and an invitation to meet Perry backstage.

In Jacksonville, Perry met with John Paul in his full Madea regalia.

“I just started telling him all my Madea stuff all at once,” John Paul remembered.

And, just before it was time to go on, Perry included him in a circle as the cast held hands and prayed.

“Is it OK if I pray for your son?” he asked Annette, and of course, it was.

During the show, which was held in an arena of more than 15,000 people, Annette remembers, Perry gave a shout out to John Paul, including putting the spotlight on his seat.

“When people meet him, they just fall in love with him,” Derek said.

How to follow that up? In January, Perry invited John Paul and his family to Atlanta, where he would be an extra in his movie, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection Program, which opens nationwide on Friday. John Paul said his biggest challenge was not bursting with laughter when Perry slipped seamlessly into his Madea caracter.

“It’s hard to see him as a man when he’s dressed up as a woman,” John Paul said.

Perry invited the Georges to the New York City premiere, where they walked the red carpet.

The Georges say what they admire most about Perry is his heart, the way he opened his up to their family. But Perry could say the same thing about the young man whose heart was big enough for the two of them.

“We know John Paul is here for a purpose. He’s our gift,” Annette George said. “A very special gift.”