A Spiritual Rebel Comes Home
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Grant is now in WorkNet, the final phase of our long-term recovery program. He faces the future with confident hope, thanks to your support.
“I had conversations with God, saying ‘I know what I’m doing and I’m GOING to do it.’ It was just open rebellion.”
Like the prodigal son in the Bible story, Grant turned his back on the Father who had blessed him with a faith-based childhood, a Christian marriage, a precious daughter, his dream job as a teacher...and more. Why? “I really just went into total spiritual rebellion,” he says. “I had conversations with God, saying, ‘I know what I’m doing and I’m going to do it.’ It was just open rebellion.”
Grant didn’t just wake up one day and decide to bolt. It was a “slow slide” that began, strangely enough, at a high point in his life. “I became selfish,” he recalls. “I just started looking elsewhere.” Even when Grant was unfaithful to his wife...God was faithfully pursuing him. “I remember sitting in my car after I had just been with this one woman,” he says. “I had a vision...I saw a blackness, a tunnel. I heard words within me that said, ‘This is where you’re heading if you don’t turn from what you’re doing.’ I was shaking. I knew it was God.”
Into The Darkness
Sadly, Grant did not turn from what he was doing. He headed straight into the darkness—and eventually lost everything. While going through a painful divorce and custody battle, he began using drugs. Another slow slide...from pot, to “club drugs” and finally, to methamphetamines. For nine years, Grant used and abused. Five times he entered (and completed) recovery programs. Five times, he relapsed. “I went through the same cycle every time,” he explains. “I would get cleaned up...secure employment and I would not last past the second paycheck.”
Finally, one late summer day in 2008, Grant found himself living in a tent—alone and heartbroken, wandering the streets of Sacramento. He broke down and cried out to God. Before that week was over, Grant was on a train headed for Omaha where his parents were waiting to welcome him home—and to bring him to Open Door Mission.
A Man With A Plan
“I have not looked back,” Grant rejoices. On the contrary, he moved full-speed ahead! And what he found here that finally made the difference was Christ—at the center of every aspect of our New Life Program. “They have requirements that get you into the Word, which was key for me,” explains Grant. “The Mission acknowledges that you need to be in the Word...developing a relationship with God.”
Grant has completed the New Life Program, and is now in WorkNet. He already has a job and an apartment. “I do have long-term goals,” he says. “I’m certain that I will go back into teaching.” Since his credential has expired, Grant will have to do some work to resume the career he loves. This will require money, but Grant’s not worried. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he says. And he smiles confidently because the rebel in him has come home. From now on, God’s will is the only way for Grant.
