Episode 28 - Steve Pierce

Listen in as Steve shares his journey to salvation.  He nearly ended his life twice, but the Lord had other plans for him.  

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:10

Hello, I'm Becki Dowd, and this is The Journey to Salvation. Join me as we walk alongside real people and hear the unique journeys that led them to faith in Jesus. Today my guest is Steve Pierce. Hello, Steve.

Speaker 0:24

Hello. How are you doing, Becki?

Speaker 1 0:25

I'm good. How are you doing? Good. Steve and I know each other from a long time ago, back in school, but I really got to know you a little bit more. Uh, probably in the last year, through the celebrate recovery meetings here held in Wynne and in Colt. And um so I'm anxious just to hear your story. I haven't really heard your story, uh, your journey to salvation. So can you just give us start out by giving us a little bit of information of you growing up?

Speaker 0:53

I can. Uh I started out life. Uh I was born in Wynne in the hospital here in Wynne, but I was carried home to Vanndale in a small country home out on a farm, uh, no running water and nothing like that, you know. So it was a little different back then. Uh most of my life at the six year, up to six years old, I didn't even know what a church was. We didn't go to church and wasn't a whole lot of prayer or nothing going on in home, you know. So uh around six years old, well, I started my my first addiction. I tell everybody that it was uh my first sin that I remembered and my first addiction started my first addiction, and that was uh we stole a pack of cigarettes, me and my nephew stole a pack of cigarettes and uh started smoking at six years old.

Speaker 1 1:46

Wow.

Speaker 1:47

So um but let me back up just a little bit. My my parents was older when I was born. I was born to a family that already had five kids, and uh I was ten years later coming along, so it was kind of I don't know, I guess I was told most of my life that uh I was a mistake, you know. And not by my parents or nothing like that, but I mean by other kids and things like that.

Speaker 1 2:14

Just because of the age gap.

Speaker 2:15

The age gap. See, my uh my nephew, the one I was talking about, we stole that pack of cigarettes. He was a year older than me. I was his uncle, but he was he was a year older, and uh he had a sister that was a couple months older, so that was my older sister's kids, so they was more like brothers and sisters than they were my nephew and niece, you know. But anyway, we stole that pack of cigarettes and we started smoking, and I guess I was around six years old, he was around seven at that time, and uh at seven years old we moved to Wynn from Bandale to Wynn, and uh it was so much easier at that time to smoke because you could take a quarter in a machine and pull a lever and you had a pack of cigarettes.

Speaker 1 3:00

Yeah.

Speaker 3:01

So I kept on doing that, and different things went on, and the more people that you run around with, the more frenzied you get, the more you get into, you know. And then I got into uh drinking, you know, we started drinking at a young age because they'd have parties or whatever at his house or whatever, and we'd sneak and grab somebody's beer, they'd left, walked off and left it, or or drank. Next thing you know, we was drinking and just kept getting more and more. That uh I don't know really how to say it, but I uh got to where I I drank all the time, just more and more, and then I got into smoking weed.

Speaker 1 3:45

Now, what age were you during this time when you started drinking?

Speaker 3:48

When I started drinking, I was probably just around eight or nine years old, you know, still young. Well, and uh hadn't really uh really hadn't started going to church anywhere or doing anything like that, uh, you know, or anything.

Speaker 1 4:02

u Did you know what you were doing was probably not right?

Speaker 4:06

Oh I did, I did. I knew it wasn't right, but uh I I guess uh what really happened with me was uh I uh finally started going to uh vacation Bible school a little bit, uh once a year, you know, something like that. And I'd got to know a little bit more about Jesus and dying on the cross and stuff like that, but still never got to know him, and later on in life I uh met a girl and I started dating her, and uh I found out real quick that her mom was uh big into church and she wanted uh you're gonna see her, you had to go to church to see her, more or less, and so I started going to church quite a bit with her and going to different functions and things that they just happen. We lived just down the road from uh Union Avenue Baptist Church at that time as west of town. And um so I I kept going there and uh and we kind of tell a joke every once in a while, which it really ain't a joke, but Pastor Biddle there at the church there, he used to preach a sermon almost every time that I ended up in church about a long-haired boy, and and I told him I got to looking around. I'm the only long-haired boy sitting around there, so I knew he had to be talking about me. But uh anyway, we uh we dated for a long time there and everything was going pretty good, but the more I got into drugs and drinking and the more she started, you know, stepping away. So we got to a certain point in life there to where uh she just had about all she could stand of it, I guess. So she walked away from me. So uh kind of got heartbroken and got to the point uh one night I decided to commit suicide. So I got in uh my car and I sat on the railroad tracks there for a good while and decided that it was time, so I floatboarded the car about 110 miles an hour. I snatched the steering wheel to the right and I went to flipping and flopping through the air. And when the car landed, there wasn't no glass left in it, and wasn't a straight spot on the body nowhere, and all four tires was knocked out from under it, didn't have a tire wheel on it. Uh when the door when I stepped out, I stepped out of an open door, the door was wide open, and uh I started to walk, try to thought I was gonna walk home. Got in cornfield and got lost, couldn't find my way out, and I remember looking up to the sky and it looked like the stars was just right at the top of the corn, like I could reach up there and touch it, you know, and which I couldn't, but uh I finally messed around there for hours, I guess it was, and I uh ended up out in the gravel road, and I finally bumped my way to the gravel road and fell out in the middle of the road. Wasn't doing too well at that time.

Speaker 1 7:11

Were you disappointed that you were still alive? Uh because you were trying to injure the room.

Speaker 7:18

No, I'm I I I don't really think so because I I remember I seen car lights coming towards me, and I thought, uh, oh my goodness, that these people probably messed up worse than I am, you know, so I'm thinking, you know, they probably can run over me, they ain't gonna see me or whatever. So I guess my attitude had changed at that point, but uh these guys pulled up, didn't have any reason for being there. They couldn't tell me, you know, why they were there or anything else, and uh uh they picked me up, they got and they was gonna carry me to the hospital. And I told them, I said, No, I don't carry me to the hospital. I said, just take me home. I just live back down here and I'll I'll go home and I'll go from there. Well, the uh they got me in the car and they turned around and started back, and they passed where my car was at and they seen it, and they said, Oh my god, I said, You're lucky to be alive, you know. So God must have been with you, you know. And uh one of them asked me, he said, Do you know Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior? I said, No, I don't. He said, Well, would you like to? And at that time, I said, No, I don't. So uh anyway, they carried me on to my house and and let me out. They made sure I made it in, and my brother, he came to the door, and he uh he let me in. I went through and, you know, trying to avoid everybody. Went through and fell on my bed and I screamed out. I had broken ribs and all kinds of stuff, you know, at that point. So um they got me up and carried me to the doctor. And uh my doctor's your dad, Dr. Burks, was at that time, and uh they uh had me in there and the police come in and they was shoving me around and giving me a hard time and 'cause I had the bad reputation, you know, at that time.

Speaker 1 9:16

How old are you at this point?

Speaker 9:18

At that point I was uh around 20, I think.

unknown 9:21

Okay.

Speaker 9:21

Somewhere around 20. And uh he uh Dr. Burks came in and he seen him uh push me around and he got mad. He told him to get out, you know. They said, Well, we want a blood test because we're gonna get him for a DUI and this. And he said, No, you're not getting nothing. All you need to do is get out and leave him alone. So before you mess around and hurt him, so he's got broke ribs, you're gonna, you know, gonna hurt something, you know, and punch her along or something like that. So anyway, he saved me again from getting another DUI. That's something else. I I got like four DUIs during that time, that period, up until I was 21, I guess. Uh stayed in trouble all the time for drinking. I had a credit in most of the liquor stores and win. I'd pay off when I got paid Friday or whatever, I'd pay my bills. And but uh somebody said, Well, you're not boss, I know we wasn't supposed to have, but I did. I mean, you know. So at 15, I think uh well, I already had bleeding ulcers and stuff, you know, from drinking so much. But uh anyway, life went on and I got uh my wife now got married to somebody else. And uh I dated several different people, but I just never felt like I fell in love with anybody else. And she was the only girl that I felt like I ever loved. And I uh went out with a couple of buddies and or a buddy and uh we had met a couple of girls and we stayed with them that night and messed around with them. And next morning one of them called me and wanted to know when I was getting married. And I said, I don't know what you're talking about. She said, Well, you said that me and you were gonna get married. So I said, Well, I don't know about all this. And next uh that girl that was with her called me and she told me, she says, Well, what the deal is with that, Steve says she is pregnant and she's looking for a husband and a daddy for her baby. She said, But if you're not really interested, I'd like to go out with you. I said, Well, we'll have to see what happens, you know. A couple days later, my wife now, where she was married to somebody else, she uh got a divorce and uh we started dating again, and I guess God had this planned the whole time because through her is the only way I knew him at all anyway.

Speaker 1 11:46

And uh now was this the girl from high school?

Speaker 11:50

Yeah, the girl that I met high in high school, or junior started in junior high, I think, something like that. But uh anyway, we ended up getting married and and had a little boy, named him Adam, and uh we uh I was still drinking. Uh I told her when I got married, I said, well, I quit doing the drugs, but I'm still gonna drink, you know. And she wasn't okay with it, but she was, you know, to a certain point. And uh I was uh at home quite a bit at night with him because she was working at uh Hayes at that time. They had a high she worked mostly at nights. And so uh I don't know, I guess I started having a lot of dreams. And during that, in that dream, there was angels kept coming to me and they kept telling me that I need to change my own ways, need to change my life. Time for me to grow up, more or less, you know. And one of the main angels in that deal was her mother. She had a red-headed mother, and I could told her that that was my red-headed angel. She always got on to me for I'd cuss or something. She'd slap me in the mouth and tell me, shut up. And, you know, she kept me pretty well online. But um, she came to me one night in that dream uh dream and she told me, she said, Steve, it's time for you to grow up. She said, You got a family now, you got a wife and you got a son, and it's it's time for you to grow up and be a man. And she said, but not just any man. She said, You need to grow up and be a man of God. And uh so I I got thinking about that, and it went on for several weeks. And I finally told my wife, I said, Well, she had been going to East Baptist up there to, and I told her, I said, Well, tell that preacher come up here and talk to me. So sh uh I guess she had talked to him, and I don't know whether they made a date or what, I don't remember, but I remember uh I was sitting there one afternoon and he came and knocked on the door and he'd come in and he'd started talking to me. And I remember the conviction so strong, you know, and and I remember when I went to my knees to look uh do the do the prayer and everything, I looked down and I remember seeing the beer bottle sitting on the inn table. And uh I went ahead and give my prayer and everything, and then when I got up, I was able to walk away from that beer bottle, pick that beer bottle, and pour it out, and every other drop of liquor I had in the house that I didn't need it no more, you know. It's like God He He took the want and the need away at one at one time, you know.

Speaker 1 14:36

Because you'd been drinking a lot of years, hadn't you?

Speaker 14:38

Oh, I've been drinking a lot of years at that time. Well, I well I was actually I was twenty four at that time when I when I finally met the Lord, was twenty-four years old. And um we uh we started going to church at uh East Baptist. I got baptized there, and I I found out that I had a a lot of friends once I got into that church, older friends, it was like bigger brothers, big brothers and big sisters, you know, and even father figures that was in that church. And uh I really got into it. I mean, we we done a lot of good stuff together. We went to visitation and visitation people and uh spring river and done canoe trips and hunting trips, fishing trips. I mean, it was just completely different. So I didn't have any trouble with going back to the alcohol or the drugs, but I was still smoking them cigarettes. I stand out in front of a church and I'd smoke a cigarette with somebody else and never think nothing about it, you know. And I thought about a lot of times since I've quit, and then I can smell how bad they stink or whatever. And I tell somebody, you know, I uh my mom and dad knew that I was smoking way before I ever confessed I was, you know. The I believe the worst part of my journey was to uh have to uh uh throw them cigarettes down and to you know walk away from them. I mean, I smoked them things for 53 years, you know, I was fifty-nine years old before I ever quit.

Speaker 1 16:16

Oh wow.

Speaker 16:17

Uh thanks to God and me figuring out that I could give it to him. I've uh been over six years now, so um.

Speaker 1 16:27

So how has God used you since you I guess you gave your life to him at twenty-four?

Speaker 16:34

Yeah, I did at twenty-four. I and I also I spent twenty years walking away from God. I walked away from God, I walked away from church.

Speaker 1 16:43

Uh was that right after what age were you when that happened?

Speaker 16:47

Probably around 45, something like that.

Speaker 1 16:49

Was something was there something that led to that?

Speaker 16:52

Uh kind of I used excuse. I used something for excuse, and that was uh during the time that I was at the church, the pastor that was there when I first went there, he had left and went to another church. And uh, we got another one, and uh he uh done a lot of preaching on different things and adultery and things, and come find out he got caught and they got rid of him or whatever, but you know, it was kind of like I was starting to see that I couldn't put my faith in man, you know, how that goes. Well, he ended up getting fired from being a preacher there, and they got another one, and some things went on with him too, so he ended up leaving, and me and my wife we decided that maybe we need to leave there and go somewhere else. So we did. We ended up going to the Wynn Baptist, which was a bigger church at the time. A lot of people there, three different services going on. So next thing I know, uh it was real easy for me to slip out, and nobody even noticed I was gone. So I kind of slipped out of going to church, and like I said, it didn't go for like 20 years. And uh couple years ago, my uh I ran into an old friend and on Facebook, and we got to talking, and he I got to watching him. He kept saying something about his little big brother, and I kept thinking, what in the world is he talking about? I said, I think I know his whole family, but apparently I didn't. He had another brother I didn't know about, and uh come find out it's Brian Frank. So I got to watching Brian on uh on his uh Facebook thing where he showed him preaching, and I thought, man, I don't go hear this guy, you know. And uh so I I got up one Sunday and I was going to get ready and my wife got gone before I could go and didn't know where to go or where it was at, so I didn't go. And next Sunday I was up and I was ready. I was gonna make sure she didn't get off without me. So I told her, I said, I'm gonna go to church with you, and she said, uh, looked at me kind of funny. I think she liked to pass out because I hadn't been in so long, you know. And uh I went, I felt at home as soon as I walked in the door, I mean, and I think God had this all planned the whole time. Well, I know he did because he started a recovery program shortly after I become a member there at the church.

Speaker 1 19:22

And uh And this is at Ridgewood.

Speaker 19:24

At Ridgewood. Yeah. And uh he uh they started a recovery group there called Luke 15, you know, and that's the story kind of is where God left the 99 to come after the one. I kind of felt like I was the one, you know. And uh before I let me back up a little bit, before I done that, I uh I'd had cancer. I'd lost my mom to cancer, I lost a brother, and then another brother and my dad, all the cancer. Uh my brother died at 54. At 54 I had cancer. So, and I don't know, I just I felt like I wasn't the person that I was supposed to be at that time, and uh I got to a point in my life that I just didn't want to live anymore. So I was gonna commit suicide and I had a nine millimeter stuck to my head and uh fixing a pull of trigger I was at home alone. Good Lord opened the front door and all my grandkids come running in. And I heard 'em, so I put the gun away, and one of the little granddaughters came running down the hall and she knocked on the door and opened the door and she said, Papa, what are you doing? I really didn't have no answer for, you know, or the answer I could tell her. So uh she jumped up in my lap and she'd give me a big hug and she said, I love you, Papa. And she'd run back down the hall. Then I heard another one come and then she came and she'd give me a big hug and she said, I love you, Papa. And she walked on about three times. Then three three of them, my granddaughters come in and they all told me they love me and walked back out. My grandson, he came in and he said, Papa, I said, uh, you think you've taken me out, let me shoot my BB gun? I said, We got a competition coming up in 4H, and he said, uh, maybe you can let me practice a little bit. And that kind of hit me hard, you know. I'm thinking, well, if I'd done what I was gonna do, he probably never would have picked up a g another gun, you know. So uh I uh I kind of got my priorities a little bit straight at that time, but it seemed like when I uh when I finally went into that Ridgewood Baptist Church, it's really when God started dealing with me and he uh he started showing me that he had plans. For me, you know, more like to be part of a recovery group.

Speaker 1 22:05

Because at at fifty-four you kind of felt like your life was maybe over because of the cancer?

Speaker 22:10

I I think it was. I mean, I was just I I knew I couldn't do what I used to could do. Things you know, things that had changed that uh I didn't feel like I was the man I used to be, you know, or I could be anymore.

Speaker 1 22:27

Well, and you didn't feel like God was using you at that time because of where you were.

Speaker 22:31

I I know he wasn't using me. I mean I wasn't letting him use me, you know, at that time.

unknown 22:35

Yeah.

Speaker 22:36

So uh I started uh like I said, they started with Luke 15 and I started going there. And the next thing I knew, I thought, I'm gonna go to the rest of these. So I started going to the rest of them and the celebrate recovery meetings. Yeah, all the all the ones I could go to. And uh I uh finally met uh Doug and uh he uh he started going with me to some of them. He had uh lost his driver license and he couldn't drive at the time, so he was going with me and uh kind of felt like we was you know hitting them pretty heavy. And uh he was having to because he had to get his paper signed. I was going because I don't know, I guess because God wanted me there. That's the way I look at it. Uh we uh started going to several of them, and then uh one night could uh finding hope in Bandale, they uh they was talking to preachers and and then was talking, they come by me and they said uh duck said doesn't right there and make a good one right there. And uh and uh Harris said, Well I asked him. So they asked me to come out to Living Waters and look around out there and see what I thought and see if I'd you know want to help with that. So I did and feel like God told me so that's where he wanted me at at the time.

Speaker 1 23:55

So So Living Waters is an addiction recovery program.

Speaker 23:58

Recovery program for me.

Speaker 1 24:00

Yeah, similar to the harbor that we have.

Speaker 24:02

Right, right. It sure is. And uh I think it holds like twelve men and uh seemed like that I done real good with that. I mean, I had a I could go in and sit down and talk to these guys, and and I had the experience with most everything that they've been through, I've done through, you know, a long, long time back. Uh but that's you know, that's another amazing thing that God he uh he might have he might have waited uh you know, I had 41 years in or 39 years, I think, at that time, before he put me in that situation, you know, just because he knew I could handle it then, maybe. Uh I kinda wondered a couple of times when I first started it whether I really should be involved in standing there with somebody smoking cigarettes or whatever. Why would God put me there? But he put me there for a reason so I could tell them there was a way out. Because, you know, I'm living proof that God can do miracles, you know.

Speaker 1 25:02

Yeah, because that means a lot to those guys that are going to through those same things. Right. Is to have someone that's done the same thing, been the same places, and they've come out on the other side.

Speaker 25:15

Yeah, there was one of the guys there, he uh he told me, he said, uh, I've kind of wondered about you the whole time I was in here. He said, he said, here you are. Most of the time you come in here and said you're wearing a Jesus shirt. He said, I'm thinking, you this guy's gotta be a plant. He's gotta be something, you know. And he said, I got to watching you, and he said, I got to do it. He said, Man, I want what he's what this guy's got. He said, I want some of what he's got. He said, and you know, before he left, we got to lead him to the Lord in the office there one night. So uh, and and God he God started showing me that he was paying attention to me, I guess. I uh I started praying for these guys by say by name, one by name, go to the altar on Sunday, and I prayed for one of them and that the Lord would reach down and touch him and save him. And Miss Carolyn called me and she said, Guess who got saved? I said, You and then I could tell her tell her who it was, because I done already knew what God had done done. And uh so then uh the next time I done it, I picked her up, was going to a balancing bank, and she said, Guess who got saved? I said, Really? And so it happened three times, three different times that uh I prayed for somebody that morning and that night God saved me. Somewhere else in a different church, a different situation altogether. But uh I guess he was trying to show me that he that he was using me and he was paying attention to what I was trying to do. So I I still right now to the day I don't know what he's got planned for me. I I don't know where I need to go from here, but you know, I'm still trying to tell the story of you know how great he is and commit miracles for my whole life. He built my whole life out of miracles. I've seen uh I've looked death eye to eye a couple of times with him, and he's uh he's brought me through. I mean, you know, he's always been there for me. I ain't always been faithful, but he has.

Speaker 1 27:24

It's obvious that on two different occasions he intervened and when you were trying to in your life.

Speaker 27:30

Right. And and a couple of times when when I actually wasn't, I mean, uh I used to work for the highway department when and done a lot of work in West Memphis on the interstate, and I uh was out there in the middle of uh West Memphis Ford in front of West Memphis Ford right there in the middle lane of the interstate and uh heard this rack racket or whatever, and I looked up above my head and I seen this car flying over my head.

Speaker 1 27:59

Oh wow.

Speaker 28:00

And uh it done turned around and landed in the concrete when I finally got out of the way, then I got everybody got out of the way, didn't nobody get hurt, but it landed in about 12 inches concrete where I was standing at. I was pulling a had a cumbe along with my hand pulling concrete. About 12 inches of that cumal on was sticking out from the front of that car. Oh my goodness. So uh he's always been with me a lot of times at different different now. I've been shot at and different things like that too, and and he's just I mean, he's just been there and I guess to keep me safe to get me to this point, I guess, in life. I don't know. I don't know how much longer I got, but however long it's gonna be, it's gonna be with him. I know that.

Speaker 1 28:42

Yeah. And so he's he's using you on I know you go to the other CR meetings, but uh your church is hosting one on Friday nights.

Speaker 28:50

Yeah, we have one on Friday night. And uh so uh I I've kind of just set back on that and let uh let Gary and and the ones that's been in there doing that. And I just kind of like going out and asking other people to come in and give their testimonies and stuff like that. So uh I feel like that's where God wants me to do, you know.

Speaker 1 29:15

Yeah.

Speaker 29:15

I go out and I listen to a lot of testimonies. I mean, it's to me a lot of the churches have gotten away from that and they need to get back into it because I think that's the way God talks to a lot of us, is through somebody else's story.

Speaker 1 29:31

Right. And that's one reason I started this podcast.

Speaker 29:35

Right.

Speaker 1 29:36

Because I I think the same thing too. I think we can see how God who God is and and what someone else has experienced. You know, they may not give um the thought of the Lord give any thought to the Lord until they hear what he's done in someone else's life. And it is a miracle when when we're saved, because he's taken us from really death to life. That's right. And uh the old person to the new creation.

Speaker 30:08

You know, I I done a I've done a lot of drugs back in the younger age too. I don't talk a whole lot about that. I'd I'd rather talk more about the taking the cigarettes away from him since I'd done it so much longer. But yeah, uh he did take uh the alcohol and uh the weed and acid and cocaine and all this other stuff that I'd done. But uh it was like that wasn't the hardest part. I mean, a lot of people say, well, the alcohol's the hardest part. This was to me, the nicotine was the hardest thing that I had to give up. And it and I had to realize that I had to ask him for help to get rid of.

Speaker 1 30:50

Because You couldn't do it on your own.

Speaker 30:53

The other part wasn't it really wasn't hard. I mean, you know, at 24 years old when I went to my knees and like I said, and I was looking to that half-drank beer bottle sitting on that table, when I got up, I didn't need it anymore. I mean, it was it was done. But the those cigarettes was completely different. I mean, I fought that fought that fight a lot on my own trying to quit. I tried to, you know, the gums, uh, the patches and all this other stuff, and it just didn't work. And I was telling a young man the other day, he asked me in the recovery, and he said, Well, just how did you quit? I said, I just give it to the Lord and he took it. I said, Didn't you know I didn't have no problem with it after since then? I said, he actually I can go out and talk to somebody that's smoking a cigarette and it don't even bother me no more. And that's I'm the the the person that said ain't no way I can quit. Ain't no way I can quit. I said it a thousand times, I know. And people I work with said, man, have you quit smoking, you know, quit smoking? I don't believe that. I did.

Speaker 1 31:58

Yeah.

Speaker 31:59

I said, but God helped me with it. Because I couldn't have done it without him. Yeah.

Speaker 1 32:05

So how do you see God using you? I know that you just spoke about that a little bit, but do you see yourself I do know that in the CR meetings, it does mean a lot to those guys that are starting out because a lot of those guys are in addiction recovery programs that go. Right. And they're so they're within maybe a month or eleven months of being in that program. And I think it means so much to them to hear from those people that have walked down those same roads.

Speaker 32:39

Right. Well, see, that's that's something uh that I couldn't do. I mean, uh, I told Doug, I said, I don't know anything about these programs. You know, I'd never have been in one of them, you know. The only thing I know is if you give it to God, God can take care of it. I mean, you know. But uh he he he got to teasing me one day about my shirts because I'm wearing shirt. He said, uh, Steve, he said, let me ask you a question. He said, uh, why do you wear those shirts all the time, Jesus' shirt? I said, well, you know, uh the good Lord said that uh you deny me before me, and I'm gonna deny you before the Father. I said, buddy, I ain't taking no chances. He said, Do what? He I and he started telling them guys at the recovery that. And uh a lot of them started wanting to get them shirts and stuff like this, you know. And I thought, well, you know, that's a good thing. And one day I was at the doctor's office, and uh, this lady walked up to me and she said, uh, let me see what your shirt said. And she was trying to read it, she kind of stumbled and almost bailed, and I kind of caught her, and she read that and she said, I like that. So I sat back down, I said, Thank you, and sat back down, she walked, got ready to leave. She walks up and she grabs me, she hugs my neck, she said, Thank you for showing your faith on the outside as well as on the inside. Yeah. And it that's something just it hit me so hard, you know. I'm thinking, you know, maybe she's got a good point there, you know.

Speaker 1 34:04

Yeah.

Speaker 34:05

And I I have people come up to me all the time and start talking to me about my shirts or whatever, and it it gives you the opportunity to share what the Lord has done with you, and then and I'm I've got more outspoken. I don't mind telling people what God's done for me.

Speaker 1 34:20

Right.

Speaker 34:21

Where I used to be kind of shy at it and I wouldn't say anything, and now I could care less. I tell you all about it.

Speaker 1 34:27

Do you have anything else you want to share?

Speaker 34:30

Uh the only thing I want to share is like I said, I have now I'm looking at 41 years. I've got 41 years of being clean off drugs and alcohol. Uh six years from nicotine now going on seven. But if I can do it, anybody can do it. But the best thing you do is your best friend's got to be Jesus Christ. And you're gonna have to put your faith and trust in him to ever walk away from what you can't handle, because he can handle anything that you can't.

Speaker 1 34:59

Thank you for joining us today. New episodes release every Wednesday, so be sure to subscribe and get notified when a new episode is available. You can listen on the Journey to Salvation website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. So, where are you on your journey to salvation?