Over the weekend, I had a profoundly impactful experience. On Friday night, I conducted an interview with two remarkable women (Christina Cricks and Jacqui Fullerton) that left a lasting impression on me. The spontaneous nature of the interview - with no prior preparation - allowed for a raw and authentic conversation. Christina, whom I had known for over 20 years, revealed the depths of her personal struggles for the first time. Her story, filled with darkness and despair, resonated with me on a deep level.

Both Christina and Jacqui were what seemed to be stuck in a world of pain and addiction.  Wanting to die but holding on and fighting every day until they were able to grow step by step and allow God to take their heart, transform their lives, and walk in a new life on a firm foundation.  

I invite you to listen to the full interview, as it shares a compelling narrative of redemption and transformation through the grace of God and the support of others. Both interviewees have overcome profound challenges and found strength in each other, serving as a beacon of hope and inspiration for those on the path to recovery.

This episode is the first episode I've done in a group setting.  I tried to have everyone that I interviewed all at once, but I ran out of microphones (so we're missing a fella).  During this episode we all get to catch up to see how we're all doing with our adventures in sobriety.  On this podcast the guests that I have on board are James Segroves, Paul Britt, Andy Spreeuwers, and Robert Davidson.  We not only touch base on our current walk with living sober but discuss how we all got to where we are today through thick and thin.  

I spend a lot of time very late at night scrolling through social media sites for video and audio clips of people pouring out their heart on matters that we all come face to face with on our journey of finding out who God is, and how we can learn to fully trust him.  On this episode I have a montage of many clips of people giving testimonies of their lives in Christ and what a difference it makes.  Some of the messages are clips explaining the beauty of God, and some are testimonies on breakthroughs people have where they grow to a deeper level of understanding who God is.  But what the all the clips boil down to is that God just wants your heart.

Low and behold...A man that has been lifted out of the pit.  I've known Wade for a while but never really engaged in any conversations of sobriety and spiritually.  Recently within the past few months it seems as though Wade has come to the end of his ropes, and while saying that I don't necessarily mean that he hit rock bottom, but I think from the way it sounds was that he just realized how tired he was doing things on his own.  By going his own way, it truly led him down some self-destructive paths to which only gave him an option to turn to God to get his life straightened out.  So, Wade giving his life to God is exactly what has happened.  I had Wade on this show because his testimony is so powerful and it truly speaks volumes on how once we allow God to work in our lives we are no longer stumbling around in darkness, but truly learning to love him and that leads us to loving others.

This one-hour interview is super entertaining as well as informative.  For those of you that don't know Robert Davidson I have some good news...I don't know him either.  We have a ton of the same friends, grew up in the same part of town, but he and I have never actually ever met.  It's because of this show that we crossed paths. So, upon chatting with him while I was posting episodes and going through some really ruff chapters, Robert and I would touch base from time to time, building each other up in a total iron sharpens iron kind of way.  This episode is packed with some humor, and misery of the stories that we share of our drinking days. We also expand on how we envision our lives living in good health for the remainder of our days.

Everyone has a story.  Some are darker than others.  Some have happy endings and don't even seem real.  But every once in a while, you hear a story that will keep you up at night.  This story is one story I heard that did just that.  I was told by a friend who referred Andy to the show that Andy had quite the story to tell.  I had no facts and knew nothing of what he went through to get clean.  Upon hearing all that Andy had to say in this episode my mind was blown and I really felt how lucky I actually am that my life has turned out the way that it has.  For me and for my family.  Andy is a solid dude and has always looked out for those he cares about, but he has a side that got the best of him through addiction that he never maintained properly, and it caught up with him BIG TIME.  He stopped caring about himself.  He mentions that throughout this episode, and I think he really genuinely knows now that living a life that is clean and sober starts with loving yourself.  Then because you love yourself you truly become selfless and choose to love others.  Andy wants his story to be told, he wants people to hear the fight and the struggle that it is on a daily basis to become the man that he is now currently and the man he's supposed to be.  This episode contains strong adult language. Buckle up for a wild ride down this timeline. It is real!  

Doing small things with BIG LOVE has become a thing that I try my best to live by.  In this episode I dissect my life over the past 890+ days since going sober.  I talk about some very personal experiences that I've delt with that have has some lingering effects.  Effects for the better as I can totally feel and see the significant changes.  I don't always like things at first when confronted with change, then come to find out the things I didn't like, I end up living out and enjoying.  In a way I guess my mind is settling in its own weird way.  But as always to go through this and growing closer to God is never a bad thing as it's really teaching me patience on the matter of dealing with myself. 

Getting to sit down and catch up with and old friend is always a real treat.  But getting to sit down and chat to make an episode of a podcast is a pretty amazing thing as well especially when you're catching up with an old friend.  James Seagroves and I go way back to when we were in daycare together.  We even started drinking around the same age.  During the time I've been doing this show, James has been listening.  I was very much encouraged by him hearing about what an impact it made in his life, so I decided to have him on.  James has recently had to start his sobriety counter over because he decided to go for a cold one.  But in doing so it led him to a not so happy emotional state that may have given him the extra boost he needed to never go back to drinking ever again.  

Not too long ago I was in a conversation with a man that I work with named Dale.  Dale is really great to conversate with about anything really so from time to time I'll share with him things about personal struggles or mind-boggling matters.   Since my friend that has gotten out of recovery was doing so well, I approached Dale to tell him the good news.  Dale asked, "what was your friend in recovery for?"  I told him it was alcohol and then Dale told me a story about the time that his Grandad gave him two silver dollars.  This story impacted me so much that I realized that through my recovery I still to this day never really reached out to my children directly and personally about their thoughts on my drinking versus not drinking.  I have great relationships with all my kids, but I'm aware of many times where alcohol didn't help a situation. I'm also aware that after hearing Dales story that there may be some permanent brain stains my kids have that I created during the times they were growing up and I was drinking pretty heavy.  Hearing Dales story of the two silver dollars not only made me contact my children on these matters, but also my wife.  In this episode I share some deep things about myself that yes, I'm ashamed of.  But I share them now because of the reality and the importance of putting it out there for others to hear that are currently in that state.  Or for those that know of someone living in the trap of addiction but in strong denial.  I realize daily after talking with my wife and my beautiful children how lucky I am that nothing is permanently broken, and we're all living so much happier and better because the monster is dead.

When I started this podcast my beginning intentions were to interview others who have overcome addiction or are still actively barreling through it not overcoming much.  Little did I know that I would be sitting alone for the majority of the time telling my life story in the mic on all the episodes.  Believe me when I tell you that I've never imagined me sitting alone with a microphone in my face spatting out how I overcame my addiction.  But it's something I eventually found great comfort with and felt it was making a difference in not only my life but in the lives of others around me.   This is not an interview I thought would've ever been the first interview for the show.  This is something I thought would never actually happen (to be honest with you all.)  For those of you that don't know Paul Britt... Paul has a good heart.  He's always been a good friend, and a loyal person to those he's closest to, and has a huge heart for those whom he barely knows.  Paul just like us all has passions, commitments, joy, pain, and also others that love, support, and depend on him. I'm throwing all this out there because Pauls addition to alcohol robbed him of all of the above.  Paul was almost to the point of death, unable to function, breathe right, hold down food or water, sleep well, and couldn't go a good solid 15minuets of maintaining a healthy cognitive response to anything.  It literally was the saddest thing I've ever witnessed.  I was losing a great old friend.  Several of us were losing our old friend.   Truly the way he had given up on himself was in great measure a very devastating thing to witness.  As you will hear in this interview someone who was lucky enough to know and to recognize they needed help.  Lucky enough to have folks around him to tell him he needed help and those that helped get the ball rolling to get him where he needed to be.  Paul is a walking Miracle and I love him so much.  We all are so very proud of Paul and now he is living healthy and loving life.  Recording this episode is a miracle in and of itself because we're all just so glad that we have our beautiful friend back!  Love you, Paul!