ETERNITY

[tenac]

...i got my first motorcycle when i was 14...that was 1970. The reason i got it....was to be able to get around from farm to farm and make more money helping other farmers when i had the time in place of a bycycle getting around. That was my first year at SGHS. That was also the year that i started sippin on a little beer and smoking a little weed. That was the first year that i started listening to rock n roll. And probably the first year that i was smoking cigarettes regularly. That was the year that life started to change in so many ways for this simple country boy that had had a regular normal life up to this point in time...living in farm country here in Greene County TN...down at the foot of the mountain in the St. James...Cedar Creek area. And in those first fifteen years...Sunday morning and Sunday night...most Wednesday nights...we were in church. Now dont get me wrong...i didnt jump off the cliff all at once...even in my progressive helter-skelter life thru high school...the craziness came by bits and pieces. Me and my close friends we put money in our pockets in the hay fields and tobacco patches of family and most every farmer around...we worked hard. However...and as i said...we started with the beer and weed...and each year thru high school...got a little more intense with what we were doing. And by my junior year and that senior year...i guess you could say that i majored in drugs and minored in booze...or...vise versa! I had grown my hair long...doing uppers and downers...acid...angel dust...PCP...every drug under the sun to get high on...all the way to sticking needles in my arm. I dont remember ever taking part in school activities...never going to football...basketball games...my life at that early age was centered around getting high...the "Age of Aquarius". I was still living at home and working on the farm...but...was flying high most of the time from dope during the day and dope and booze at night. So think about that....i was a normal kid...so to speak...up until the age of 15....then...i jumped off the cliff and traveled a road of drugs and booze and the insanity of that lifestyle for the next 25 years...how does that happen? So my point this morning...never say never in the arena of drugs and booze. Think you cant get hooked...addiction is a monster that takes no prisoners...addiction will grab you up and swallow you whole and spit you out and you may...or may not survive...why take that chance! Ive been clean and sobor for 28 years now...and how did i do that....ill give myself a little pat on the back because ive struggled from time to time but thru the power of the Holy Spirit living in me and my walk with Jesus....ive been totally free of all the stuff and lifestyle...as i said for 28 years...and...i give Him all the credit and glory....because....like all things in life....it is that relationship with Jesus that makes all the difference! BUT....i have to say this...ive known a good many people that i have no doubt have been born-again...and at some point in time slipped back into the grasp of the demon of addiction...that is just how powerful it is....no...i did NOT say that it is more powerful than God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit....what im saying is that in our humanness...our flesh...our sin nature....addiction and satan and his demons and the world can push those buttons and drag us back into that dark mary clay of addiction in the blink of the eye....wrong place at the wrong time....right place at the right time....yes...i totally believe...that once a alcoholic or druggy always a alcoholic or druggy....but with a relationship with Jesus...we can conquer that demon....im living proof of that!

I Have No Regrets About My Past...My Past Is Who I Am Today...Born Again!.....
Rick j Sane