September 26, 2014, David hit rock bottom. He’d spent more than 25 years of his life high or hungover. Now he was arrested for the eighth time that year for drugs, and he was sitting in the back seat of a police car, on his way to jail again. He wanted to die, and he screamed inside his head, “God, take me or fix me. I can’t do this anymore.”

Turning to drugs and alcohol didn't help

His long slide had lasted a lifetime. “I never felt peace,” David says. “I never felt grounded. My dad was bipolar and never available emotionally. I needed him to love me, but he couldn’t do it. So all my life, I felt sad and insecure, full of self-doubt.”But when David started smoking weed at 13, and drinking at 15, he found a way to mask his emotional emptiness. By the time he left high school, he was already an alcoholic.David got married and started a family in his early 20s. His sales job earned him good money, which fed his “wannabe rock-star lifestyle.” He worked hard and played hard. But after his father died when David was 25, he turned to harder drugs. Meth. That started a long cycle of job loss and instability. It only got worse when he was injured in 2008 and started abusing painkillers, like Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin — and later, heroin.When he worked, life went well. But his addiction made it harder and harder to work. Four years ago, out of work and broke, living out of hotels, he lost custody of his kids. It broke his heart, but he still couldn’t stop. He started stealing to keep up his habit — until he finally hit rock bottom that September day in 2014.

Turning to God helped and brought new life

“In jail, I sobered up,” he recalls. “I was an utter failure. I knew the only hope I had was to get right with God. So when someone told me about Springs Rescue Mission's New Life Program, I came in January 2015.“About six months into the program, I had this revelation of Christ’s love for me, His forgiveness and redemption, His strength made perfect in my weakness. I felt so loved, I started crying, and I felt peace for the first time in my life.“I may be a convicted felon, but it doesn’t matter. My father couldn’t love me, but now I’m a child of God and a new man in Christ. I’m loved.”

God rescued David and He's using David to rescue others

David is now serving as a lead shelter coordinator at our homeless shelter. He is one of thirteen men who've graduated from our addiction recovery program and joined our team, devoted to helping others overcome homelessness, poverty and addiction.David shares his story of restoration regularly with shelter guests, hoping to encourage them and give them hope. God is using David's past struggles with alcoholism, drug abuse, job loss, crime, and losing custody of his children to minister to people who find themselves in similar situations without any hope of overcoming them."Being able to meet people where they are and hopefully let them see Christ in me is the best way to help and encourage them."David's prayer is that God would restore his family and that they'd all sit around the same table for dinner once again."God willing. I live one day at a time, following the path the Lord lights for my feet. Life is better and much more exciting for me when I let go and look for Him."

Neighbors helping neighbors

David's story is a great reminder that God uses brokenness to fix brokenness.We've all been broken.Whether it was the death of a loved one, a failed marriage, deteriorating health or any number of other devastating hardships, remember how hopeless you felt when you hit what seemed like rock bottom?You probably felt lost, alone and forgotten.But nothing was more encouraging than knowing you weren't forgotten, right? Nothing gave you more hope than knowing you weren't alone.God picks up the pieces of our lives, time and time again, restoring us and putting us back together again.But He doesn't just make us whole. He improves us and makes us better than we were before. He restores us so we can help restore others. He uses our brokenness to fix brokenness, allowing us to come alongside others dealing with similar problems and assure them they can and will be made whole by God's love. We're living proof of that truth.Pray and consider how God can use you to help someone struggling with homelessness, poverty or addiction, today. Read more about our New Life Program, and learn more about opportunities to volunteer and support Springs Rescue Mission.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort."2 Corinthians 1:3-7, ESV