A Life Transformed

            Al and I were touched recently by the testimony of the leader of our weekly Bible class, a good friend and proof that the Lord is in the business of transforming lives! It is a privilege to share his testimony with you.

            “After graduation from high school in 1966, I went to Michigan State University.   Too much playing around and drinking was the reason it took six years to get my undergraduate degree!

            “The summer after graduating from State, I started work on a training program for a large natural gas pipeline at a construction company in Monroe, Louisiana. It was there that I met the angel who became the love of my life. 

“When I was asked to move to Big Rapids, Michigan, we decided to get married even though we had only been dating a few months. Although we do not recommend it, I believe now it was the Holy Spirit who helped us make it through that time.

“Later I was hired by Michigan-Wisconsin Pipeline Company and was eventually moved to the main office in Detroit. My new job required a lot of travel and had an expense account for entertaining landowners and property tax officials. It was not the best situation for this young man who was progressively becoming an alcoholic. My boss was a great enabler of my addiction as he pursued his own.

            “When my boss decided to take early retirement, I lost my alcoholic enabler.  I expected to get promoted to his job, but the company had other ideas.  I became angry, coping with this change by drinking more.  My work suffered to the point where my new boss put me on a performance improvement plan that could have meant losing my job.

“Again, the Holy Spirit intervened and helped me realize I could not keep on living this way, that I needed to do something about my drinking. My wife, my angel, saw this coming and was prepared for it. When I told her about my decision, she called our pastor/therapist friend. Soon I was at the Maple Grove Treatment Center for an intake interview where they determined that I had an advanced degree of alcoholism.

“I stayed at Maple Grove for two weeks. There I found the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and did the First Step work that is part of their treatment program. In AA, I admitted I was powerless over alcohol and that my life had become unmanageable.  I came to believe that God had the power to restore me to sanity and that He wanted to do this for me if I would let him.

“When I turned my will and my life over to His care, the real work started.  After taking a moral inventory of myself and sharing it with God and my sponsor, I was able to identify character defects in myself and asked God to help me remove them. Then I made a list of all the people I had harmed and proceeded to make amends to them all. According to Step 10, I continue to take personal inventory and when I am wrong, promptly admit it. 

“After all that work, I reached Step 11 where I was directed to improve my conscious contact with God through prayer and meditation. The Holy Spirit has led me to do this through daily study of the scriptures and also in the multitude of Bible Studies I have taken over the years as well as the one I currently lead.

“Because of the changes God made in me through the Twelve Steps, I became a good employee again.  I learned how to be a better manager from my boss; and we began to work well together. When the company decided to move him to a new subsidiary and that job became open again, it seemed there was no question but that I was the man to fill it.

“I have worked through all Twelve Steps with the help of God, the support of my wife, family and two wonderful men who became my sponsors, and have been continuously sober for almost 29 years.   It has been a long and difficult journey.  What the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 is true, ‘I can do all things through Christ who comforts me.’ (NRSV)

“Through the Twelve Steps, I have experienced a spiritual awakening and am hard at work practicing AA and Christian principles in my life as I carry Jesus’ message to the still suffering alcoholic.”

 Thank God for this faithful servant!