Building on Rock, and not Upon the Sand..
The Foundation one Finds at Christian Love
More than 23 years ago the founder of Christian Love Ministries Drug and
Alcohol Treatment Center had just discovered this time-honored, biblical truth
about sinking foundations. He, as most alcoholics and addicts had built
his life upon shaky ground. Most addicts are familiar with the impending
doom due to consequences of their behaviors. Lack of a solid work ethic
leads to the inability to manage finances independently, as the addicted
person seeks anyone- any resource- to use for unfair benefit. This toxic
codependence temporarily permits the alcoholic or addict to continue building
his or her web, home, family, and life of addiction and solemn self-centered
destruction and instability- poorly grounded.
If you or someone you love finds paralells and similarities to this way
of life, be not surprised. When I found Christian Love Ministries ten
years ago I was 22, had wrecked every car that hadn't been sold for crack
cocaine, had destroyed every meaningful relationship with every person I had
ever come to know, and was laying on a bed at a relative's house wanting to
die. How could something become so powerful over my better judgement?
I was raised in a country club surrounded by lawyers and financiers at the
dinner table, had always made straight A's and could build computer programs
at seven years of age! I had fallen through my own cracks. Those walls of steel
which had once wooed and amazed so many "friends" of mine were rusting...
And all the while, even with faint glimpses of reality, I failed to
acknowledge where I had built this bullet proof fortress of walls and draw
bridges. My castle was built upon mud and sand, and though the walls
sheilded the world from knowing the ME who lived behind them, it wasn't long
before I was smothering in the seedy foundation of my own life. And
worse, I couldn't just walk away from it all... The walls around me were
welded tightly and heavily.
I had a few hundred questions I had when I
entered Christian Love. First let me make clear one rudimentary detail
which is often left unconsidered by people encouraging, hoping and praying
that some certain person will go to a rehab and get off of drugs.
Christian Love Ministries does not accept insurance. (Being a 501(c)
IRS Non-Profit organization, however, it's possible that your financial
contribution to sponsor a student at CLM could be deducted from your taxes.
Your accountant or the appropriate staff member at Christian Love should
know for certain). Now, I started drinking prescription cough medicine for
the hydrocodone , a strong morphine like narcotic , at the age of 13.
I was hooked on it by the age of 15, and every doctor in my town knew it.
I burned holes in my insurance before I was old enough to truly even need
its coverage. If I would have had a medical insurance policy when I
was 22, a rehabilitation center would've been the absolute last place you'd
have found me. Not until I extinguished and defrauded every last
resource that would get me drugs was I willing to consider a treatment
program for my addiction. After the third time of being kicked out of
the methadone clinic, for failing drug tests ironically, I was sick,
paralyzed, depraved, senseless yet panicked, without healthcare but in
serious need of medical attention, sinking, sinking, sinking.... So who
cares? Who did care for me, as I couldn't care for myself and didn't
want to anyway? Who wants a faint hearted, criminally minded, professionally
gifted conartist anyway? PLEASE READ ON TO "
ABOUT CHRISTIAN LOVE " to find out...