He Never Stopped Believing in God. He Just Couldn't Surrender. Then a Lost Card Found Victor Again.
Victor Grimes is a graduate of the Rise Discipleship men's home. He describes the life he came from as a turmoil of negativity, alcoholism, and drug use, and underneath it, a conviction that he was abandoning God's plan for him.
Here's the thing about Victor: he never lost his faith. He believed in God the whole time, and he says God never left his side. The problem was that he was living with one foot on each side of the line.
"Straddling the fence, I wasn't accomplishing much of anything. I was spinning my wheels, and ultimately I was tired of being tired. I had to let go and let God."
The Card He Lost
His lowest point actually arrived disguised as a lifeline. Someone handed him a calling card from Rise, picked up from a fundraiser out in the Odessa and Midland area. Victor was in dire need, and he meant to call and head out there.
"For some odd reason, I lost that card."
It wasn't until six months later, homeless by then, that Victor ran into one of the brothers out in the field, and finally made the call. He knew by then that if he didn't change his choices, he was going to die. He had believed in God all along, attended church here and there. What he had never done was surrender.
"It wasn't until I surrendered my addictions, the drugs, the alcohol, my anger, and was able to forgive those who had trespassed against me, that I could make this change."
"You're at Your Home. We Love You."
Victor still laughs about his arrival. He stepped out of the van, straight off the street, and the brothers greeted him with words he wasn't ready for.
"They told me, you're at your home, we love you. It was odd, having people I just met tell me they love me. Coming off being homeless, it was a process just to accept that I was being loved."
He's working on three years sober now. The home became a safe haven, a place of open-hearted brotherly love where, if he needs anything, he can lean on the brothers and on Father God, who, he says, has his back.
Brothers Who Walked the Same Walk
What encouraged Victor most were the other men walking the exact road he was on, the same afflictions, the same separation from God. Together they surrendered, leaned on the home and on God, and helped each other through the parts none of them could handle alone.
The home also built new habits into him, daily Proverbs to bring understanding to the day, waking early, staying in the Word, even something as small as making his bed every morning, little disciplines he'd neglected on the outside. His breakthrough came at the pew, in morning worship with his brothers, simply surrendering to God. His verse became 2 Timothy 4:17, that the Lord stands with you and gives you strength.
Full Circle
Victor is honest that he still has issues he's working through, and that when he leans on his own understanding, it never gets him anywhere good. But he knows now, deeper than ever, that God will see him through.
"I never lost hope or belief in God. But the home brought me full circle back to Him. He knows every hair on my head."
To the people who knew the old Victor, he has a simple message: rest assured. He's taking it day by day, God has been good to him, and he's becoming the godly man he always knew he was.
If This Is You
Victor is proof you can believe in God and still be stuck, and that surrender is the thing that finally sets you free. If that's you, or if someone you love keeps straddling the fence and spinning their wheels, don't wait. It's free, a real person answers day or night, and it starts with one call, the one Victor almost lost his chance to make.
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 Victor says, it was those donations that gave him the opportunity of the home. Without that open generosity, the door wouldn't have been there for him or his brothers in Christ.
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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