Episode 13: Rooted & Recovered - Rock Bottom Was Holy Ground

What if the place that almost destroyed you is where God planned to meet you?

In this raw, powerful kickoff to Season Two of Rooted & Recovered, Dan unpacks the moment everything fell apart—and how grace met him there. Rock bottom isn’t just the end of your rope… it might be the beginning of your calling. Because while the world saw wreckage, heaven saw a meeting place.

This episode is for the ones who are still bleeding but still showing up. For the ones who know what it’s like to cry out in the dark. For the addict with six hours clean and the believer with six years of doubt. This isn’t about pretending you’re fine. It’s about realizing that God showed up in the dirt and called it holy ground.

Key Highlights:

• Why your lowest moment may be your launching pad
• Moses and the burning bush: A story of failure, fire, and calling (Exodus 3:1–5)
• Grace doesn’t avoid the wreckage—it invades it
• Why your scars have sound—and your story has weight
• What if the dirt wasn’t a grave, but a garden?

Scriptures Covered:
Exodus 3:1–5 • Romans 8:28 • Psalm 34:18 • 2 Corinthians 12:9

Final Truth:
You didn’t just survive rock bottom. God met you in the wreckage and called it holy ground. Stop running from what happened. Let grace rewrite what it means. Because what almost took you out may be the very thing that God uses to set someone else free.

Transcript

0:00

This world doesn't hand out healing. It offers quick fixes, cheap pies and empty promises, but real recovery, it takes roots. Roots that dig deep into truth, into identity, into the unshakeable grace of God. We're not here to sugarcoat the struggle. We've lived it addiction. Shame, relapse, regret. But we've also seen resurrection. We've seen what happens when broken people get anchored in something real rooted and recovered is more than a podcast. It's a battleground for the soul. A place where scars tell stories, where scripture speaks louder than shame, where freedom isn't just a word. It's a war we win daily. So if you're tired of surface level answers, if you want truth that convicts, hope that heals, and conversations that cut through the noise, you're in the right place. Welcome to Rooted and Recovered.

Dan: 1:07

Welcome to another episode of Rooted and Recovered. I am your host, Dan Pyles, and I'm so thankful today that you have taken the time out of your busy schedule to hang out with me here for a little bit, allowing me in your car, uh, in your ear, wherever you're listening to this podcast today. I just wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart, uh, to giving me that opportunity to hang out with you for a little bit. Um, I'm excited to be back in the studio recording once again. Um, I know we've taken a little bit of time off in between season one, but we're back in the studio. We're recording season two, and I'm excited, uh, for today's episode. It's titled Rock Bottom. Holy ground. Now, that might not make sense to you right now, but if you'll hang out with me for just a moment, I promise it will make sense. But let me ask you something, and I, and I don't mean this as a slogan or or some cute spiritual bumper sticker, but what if the moment that almost broke you was actually the place God planned to meet you? Now, a lot of people have different names for that, but let's just call it for what it is we, we call it our rock bottom. That moment where everything falls apart, when the people that you thought would stay walked out, uh, when the addiction got louder than your hope, when shame wrapped around your soul like a chain and said, this is who you and I will always be. You've been there. I've been there. And if we're honest, we didn't ever think that we was gonna make it out. But what if. Hang with me for just a moment. What if right there in that lowest, dirtiest, darkest place, God wasn't absent? He was waiting, waiting for the masks to fall off, waiting for the noise to fade, waiting for the end of yourself to become the beginning of his grace. We call it rock bottom, but maybe God. Calls it holy ground because it's where your pride dies and his presence shows up. This episode, family, and this entire season is for the ones who barely made it, the ones who are walking through addiction, through relapse, through self-destruction, through disappointment and despair, and somehow. By nothing but grace, you and I are still breathing. We're still fighting. We're still showing up, and we are still standing. Guys, this season isn't for the polished. It's not for the perfect. It's not for the people who have never messed up. This season is for the real ones. The ones who know what it's like to be face down in the mud, crying out for mercy. The ones who thought it was over, but found out Grace writes a better ending. So if that's you. Don't just tune into this episode. Don't just tune into this this season, but lean in and listen and grow from it. Because we're about to talk about what recovery really looks like when it's rooted in truth. We're gonna talk about the scars that still ache in our lives, the battles that are still raging in our lives, and the God who has never. Walked away. Amen. And we're gonna say this loud and clear. From day one. We didn't survive at all to sit quiet. Family. We were restored for a reason. So let's find it together. What this season about is real recovery, real grace, and real. Talk this season isn't about spiritual fluff. It's not about performance, faith. It's not about Sunday masks or highlight reels with Bible verses in the captions this season. It's for the ones who walk through hell and still believe Heaven has a plan. It's for the ones who are still bleeding but still showing up. It's for, it's for the ones who don't need another filter, they need a solid foundation. They don't need another. Pep talk, but they need power. They don't need more noise in their life, but they need truth. That breaks chains in family over the next 12 weeks. We are going to go there together. We're not going around it. We're not going under it. We are going to go right. Through it. Guys this season is for the ones who've hit rock bottom and realize God was already there this season. It's for the one who wonders can I ever get back. What I lost this season is for the ones who, who are tired of pretending this is for the ones who have been clean for a year, but still wake up fighting those same demons. It's for the parent crying out over their prodigal child. It's for the spouse who has stayed even after the betrayal. It's for the addict with six hours clean, and the believer with six years of doubt. See guys, you don't need a platform. You don't need perfection. You just need a pulse and a little bit of faith. That grace is still enough. Guys, this show isn't for perfect people. It's a space for those still healing, still hoping and still fighting. And if that's you family, you belong here. So let's talk about it. Let's heal and let's recover together. Let's walk this thing out for real. You see rock bottom. Isn't where God left you family. It's where he found you. Now let that sink in for what I just said because if you have ever hit a point so low that you thought, there's no coming back from this family, you are not alone. I've been there and millions of other people in their recovery journey have. Felt the same thing that you're facing right now, guys, rock bottom. It's a strange place. It's dark, it's humiliating, it strips you of everything. People stop calling you hope. What little hope you and I did have. It begins to grow quiet and you don't even recognize that reflection in the mirror anymore. But see, here's what religion doesn't always tell you. Rock bottom. Is a sacred space because when everything else was gone, God remained. He didn't wait for you to crawl out. He climbed down into the pit with you, not to condemn you, but to resurrect you. You see, you didn't find God. He found you in the ashes of everything that you thought that he wouldn't. Touch. I'm reminded of a Bible story in the book of Exodus, uh, chapter three. Uh, and I'm not gonna read it, but it's, uh, I encourage you to go to the Bible and read in Exodus chapter three, uh, verses one through five, and it tells us that God met Moses in a burning bush in the middle of nowhere. Moses wasn't in a palace when God spoke, Moses wasn't on some platform guys. He was in the wilderness. He was running from his past. He was hiding from his failures, and by this time he was convinced that his story was over. But God, my friends had a different view. And don't miss this. The bush was on fire. But it wasn't consumed. Why? Because that's what Grace does. Grace Burns through everything that isn't eternal, but it doesn't destroy you. What it does is it refined you. You see the fire of failure. It didn't finish you. What it did is it revealed the call that couldn't be burned away.'cause God told Moses, he, he told him, he said to take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy ground. Where was he standing at? This man was standing in the dirt in the desert, surrounded by nothing but sheep in silence. Why was it holy? Because God showed up there. You see, Moses didn't feel ready. He didn't even want to speak, but God had a plan and it started at his rock bottom. Yes. Moses even argued with God. He even tried to say he wasn't qualified. He tried to say, I'm, I'm slow to speak. He even went at to one point and told God to send someone else. Does that sound familiar? Maybe we've said the same thing. God, how can you use me after everything that I've done? God, how can you use some busted broken mess like this because I have failed you so many. Times, maybe you're early in your recovery and, and you, you might be looking at yourself and, and, and comparing yourself to other people, and you say, I don't have the background, I don't have the strength. I, I don't even know where to start. But guys, God's plan. Doesn't start with your qualifications. It starts with your surrender, because God doesn't need polished people. He uses broken ones who will stop hiding, and you don't need to be impressive to be impactful. You just need to be available. Family. Your worst moment wasn't the end. It was a setup. That thing that you thought was going to destroy you in your life that night, that binge, that betrayal, that breaking point. Yes, it was real, but it wasn't the end. It was the moment that God planted the seed. You thought you were being buried, but in God's hands, the dirt was a garden. And here's the beautiful part, family. He's not done restoring what you lost. He's giving you and I something better than we even ever, even thought of or even could even imagine, or to be real with you even more than what we deserved. Addiction, brokenness, shame. Family, they didn't bury you. They became the soil where God planted something new You see, God uses the very things that the world labels as disqualifiers, divorce, relapse, addiction, prison depression. He takes those things that the world disqualifies us from and people disqualifies from. He takes those very things and he redeems them into platforms of grace. Family. You are not just a survivor. You are a carrier of something. Holy guys, grace, the almighty power of grace. Grace grows best in dirt and you and I are the dirt. Our story, your story is the very ground where your ministry is being born. Guys, it is no accident. You are still here. There's a reason suicide didn't work. There's a reason that overdose didn't take you out. there's a reason you're breathing when others aren't. Because God interrupted the enemy's plan with mercy, and now you and I have a responsibility not to be perfect, but to be real. Why so we can let others see the cracks where his light breaks in and broke through. Family. The people who fall the hardest often carry the loudest. Testimony. Let me tell you something. Let me encourage you with something. Your story has weight, your scars have sound, and what tried to silence you will become your microphone. Why? Because God never wastes pain. So stop waiting till you have it all together before you speak. Because the ones who've been there, the ones who have bled, the ones who know what rock bottom feels like, you see they speak a different kind of language and when they talk the hurting, listen, you didn't survive all that for nothing. You made it through so you could make it matter. Family, God didn't deliver you. And I just to sit in silence. He rescued us to reach back for the next one. Still stuck. And here's what's wild. Even now, he's not done. You are still in process. You're still growing and you're still healing, but that's the beauty of it, because God doesn't wait for you to be finished to use you. He uses you while you're still being formed. You see, the enemy tried to destroy us, but Grace stood, you and I back up. We didn't climb out of that pit on our own. You and I were lifted by love. You and I were rescued by grace. And if God brought you this far. Family. He's not done building. You are not a mistake. You are a miracle in motion. So let the devil regret forever touching your life because now you carry truth. Now you carry fire. Now you carry a testimony that hell can't silence. Exodus chapter three, verse five is our, is our key Memory, is our key verse for today that I wanna talk about. And we were just talking about this just a few moments ago, but I wanna share this with you in Exodus chapter three, verses five. This is God speaking to Moses. He says, don't come any closer. God said, take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy. Ground. Let's talk about where God chooses to show up. Because this moment family didn't happen in a synagogue. It wasn't in a temple. It wasn't at the tabernacle. It wasn't on some church pew. There was no choir. There wasn't an altar call. There was no organ swelling in the background. It happened in the desert. The driest place, the loneliest place, the the kind of place that feels forgotten, that that kind of place that feels silent and empty. And it happened to a man who was on the run. He was on the run from Egypt. He was on the run from failure, and he was on the run from the shame of a murder. He couldn't undo. Moses family was a fugitive. A shepherd, a nobody but heaven stopped and spoke. Notice what he said in that scripture. There family, God didn't say, go clean yourself up first and then find me in the sanctuary. He said, take off your sandals because right here, right in the middle of your mess, right in this dirt, this desert is holy ground family. This. Is the upside down power of grace, guys. God doesn't wait for the setting to be sacred. He makes it sacred by showing up in it. And some of you need to hear this right here. You think because you're still in recovery, that you're still in therapy, that you're still healing, that you're still struggling with, with triggers or shame that that somehow God's waiting for you to graduate to some level before he meets you family. He's not that busted motel room where you cried your first real prayer. That's holy ground, that jail cell where you realize you couldn't fix this by yourself. That my friend is holy ground. That detox bed where you felt like you was dying, family that is holy ground, that couch where you finally confessed your secrets to someone who finally listened to you. That is holy ground. Why? It's not the place. It has nothing to do with the possessions in it. It's because God was there'cause grace. Family. Grace doesn't avoid the mess. Grace invades it. This is what sets the God of the Bible apart from everything else. He is not afraid of your history. He is not threatened by your relapse. He doesn't cringe at your rock bottom family. He steps into it. He sanctifies it and you know what he calls it? Holy. Family. Grace doesn't need a stage. It just needs a surrendered heart. So if you're coming into season two and you're feeling tired, you're feeling guilty, you're feeling uncertain or, or less than spiritual good because you are in this exact place. God loves to work because holy ground has nothing to do with the location family. It's about the presence of a holy God showing up in an unholy moment and claiming it as it is his. So what do we do with that? It's simple. Family. Take off your sandals. Stop pretending you've got it all together. Just stand still and listen. Family, you gotta recognize this is not the end. Your rock bottom is the beginning because right here in the middle of the wilderness of your story, God is calling your name. He's lighting a fire in a place that you thought was burned out, and he is looking at you today. Saying you are standing on holy ground. You thought it was over. The enemy tried to pour into your head and tell you it was over. Maybe you had family members that told you it was over, but God says it's sacred. So family, don't run from it. Don't minimize it. Don't wait until you're clean enough to believe it. Just take off your sandals family and stay a while. What if for just a moment? What if it wasn't a mistake, but a meeting place? Now think about that for just a moment. We just spent just a few moments talking about how God loves and honors you and I so much that he will meet you and I in the wreckage. So let me ask that question again. What if it wasn't a mistake but a meeting place? You see, we spend so much of our lives trying to distance ourselves from our past. We avoid it, we hide from it. We apologize for it. But what if God wants to redeem it instead of erasing it? what if that moment you regret the most in your life was actually the moment? Heaven leaned in the closest. Think about the night you broke that day that everything fell apart. The season where addiction and and shame or grief just pulled you under and you felt like you were drowning. What if God didn't wait for you to climb out, but climb down into it with you? We call it rock bottom, but God calls it a meeting place. you didn't just survive, God met you in the wreckage and called it holy ground. what did God reveal to you in your lowest place that you couldn't have seen anywhere else? because pain. Has a way of clearing the noise. Shame silences. The ego brokenness strips away the illusions, and sometimes it's only in the collapse. It's only in that rock bottom moment that we discover strength that we never thought we had in a calling. We've never would have chosen Compassion. We never showed others until we needed it ourself and a deeper reliance on God that we never had when things were good. you see. The truth is there are things that you only learn when everything in your life gets quiet enough to hear God whisper. I'm still with you. Sometimes recovery isn't just about avoiding the pain. real. Recovery isn't about staying sober so you don't screw up. Again. It's about finding purpose in what almost killed you because here's the deeper truth. Family, you didn't just get out. You came back with something, you came back with wisdom. You came back with a testimony, you came back with scars that speak louder than any other textbook or any other sermon ever will. And if you're willing to stop hiding the wreckage, you'll find something powerful buried there. See, your calling isn't in spite of your past. It was formed through it. What part of your story have you been calling a failure that God is calling a foundation? Where did you meet God in a way that couldn't have happened if life had would've stayed easy? What do you carry now that someone else so desperately needs family? Don't rush past this. Take a moment right now and look back, not in shame, but in awe. You didn't just survive. You didn't just recover. You encountered God in the middle of your worst, and he didn't even flinch. You know what he did? He called it holy ground. So maybe it's time you stop running from your past. Start walking in it redeemed. Why? Because you're not just someone who got back up. you are someone who was called in the middle of the fire. You didn't just escape the collapse. You met God there. You didn't just recover family. You were commissioned. And if you're still breathing, if you're still standing and you're still here, that means God's not done. There's still more to say and there's still more to give, and there's still more to become. So welcome to season two, still standing. This is for the ones who have been through the worst. Still have something holy burning deep within their soul. So family, let's go deep. Let's get honest, and let's get to work. Until next time, family stay rooted, stay recovered, and let's get to work.

26:51

You are not just surviving. You are becoming, becoming rooted in truth, becoming recovered by grace, and becoming the person God always knew you could be. Thanks for joining us on Rooted in Recovered. If this episode stirred something in you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, live it, let it take root. We'll see you next time right here where scars become testimonies and hope rises from the ashes.