One Bad Night at the Game Room Cost Steve 18 Months of Sobriety. Here's How He Came Back.
Before his relapse, Steve's life looked stable. He worked 10 to 12 hours a day, had an apartment, a car, a relationship, and his bills paid. He had put together about 18 months of sobriety. But he was still dabbling in the old world, and one of those things was the game room.
One day he was there, having a bad night, down about $200. And that's when he heard it.
"I heard a whisper. It said, you're losing money like that, you might as well go get high. And I immediately said, you're absolutely right."
That was the day the spiral started.
Three Weeks
Over the next three weeks, Steve no-call-no-showed his job and went on a crack cocaine binge. When the money ran out, he found himself doing things against the law to keep it going. His car note was due. He had nowhere to stay. He wasn't eating or sleeping.
"I was literally at the end of my rope."
Then his phone buzzed. It was a text from a friend at Rise, and it landed in the exact moment he sat there in his addiction.
"The text just said, what are you doing right now? And I was like, wow. It brought me back to reality."
The Car He Almost Sold
His lowest point came with his money completely gone, even a draw against his next paycheck spent. Broke, he got with a drug dealer, ready to trade his own car for one more high.
"Thank God he didn't go for it. I would have ended up with no car, and become the laughingstock of the community, watching somebody else drive it."
So Steve reached out to his family. He knew the routine, knocking on his sister's door with a story about needing gas or owing somebody, and getting nowhere. But this time he said something different.
"The minute I said, hey, I'm thinking about going back to Rise, she was like, what do you need? Gas money? Oil for your car? I'll cash app you something to eat on the way. It was a total 180."
They gassed up his vehicle, put in a couple quarts of oil, and sent him with fifteen dollars for food. Running on no sleep, drifting in his lane and pulling over once to rest, Steve made the long drive and finally pulled into the Rise driveway.
The Morning the Car Was Gone
The welcome back was warm. No one treated him as different or less-than for having left. What he carried instead was his own shame and remorse, because of the relationships he'd built there. And then the next morning, he went out to grab something from his car, and it was gone. Repossessed. Two payments left, under $500, and it would have been fully his.
But with the support of the leaders and the brothers he already knew, Steve found his footing again, and the confidence that God still had a plan, a purpose, and a calling for him.
"I passed out invitations to my pity party and found out nobody showed up. After about a month, I realized coming back was the best decision I ever made."
The Filter of Gratitude
The deepest thing Steve took from this second time around was an understanding of exactly why he had slipped the first time. After his 18 months of success, he had slowly drifted from what he calls the filter of gratitude.
"As long as I filtered everything, even the hard times, through gratitude that Jesus was the reason I was where I was, I was okay. But slowly I neglected it. And that's when I started to slip."
Gratitude, for Steve, isn't just a feeling. It shows up as a prayer life, as time in the Word, as the daily disciplines that are the fruit of a grateful heart. This time, he says, he's grasped it, and he's far more aware of his gratitude toward Christ in his sobriety, his relationships, his gifts, his growth, and his service.
A Gift for Whoever Is Listening
As Steve continues on at Rise, he's discovering a calling: communicating the Word of God, not only to men and women, but now to the youth as well. Speaking to a younger audience stretched him at first. But it taught him something.
"The gift qualified me for the call. God gave me a gift to communicate His Word to whoever it is. The call is to preach the gospel. The gift is how you present it."
If This Is You
Steve had 18 months of sobriety and still slipped, and coming back was still possible. If you've relapsed and think you've blown your last chance, or if someone you love got clean and fell again, don't wait. It's free, a real person answers day or night, and it starts with one call, the same kind of message that pulled Steve back.
Ready to reach out? Get help now. Freedom really is just one phone call away. (325) 232-5449.
And it's all free because of people like you. As Steve says, he could never have become who God called him to be without a place for God to train him, and without donors, that place, and that opportunity, wouldn't exist.
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction or thoughts of suicide, you are not alone and help is available. Rise Discipleship's 24/7 helpline is (325) 232-5449.
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