Brad was a pastor, but his drinking eventually cost him everything, and when he thought his recovery would go one way, God showed him a different direction.
“They put me in treatment, and that was the beginning of the slow climb we call recovery…the time where I allowed God to reclaim me as His. To reclaim and reshape the way I was to recover and to be reborn.”
“I’ll tell you, as a pastor, I wanted to go at my recovery like ministry – here’s the plan, this is what it’s going to look like – and time and time again God said, no, it’s going to be the way I’m going to do it.”
As God was redirecting Brad, He was teaching him about humility and truly accepting grace.
“My prayers were answered often with, ‘no.’ And that meant taking the bus to go up and see my kids because I didn’t have a license, and riding bikes, and asking for rides. I became one of those people that I designed ministry around.”
“I became the one helped, and that was a really hard thing. I have to be honest about that, being in a position to accept grace and mercy, I resented it. Because I had been a pastor, I could be the dispenser of His love and grace, but to be on the other side, that was difficult.”
“I think it’s telling that I can talk about, ‘by grace, through faith, I’m saved,’ but when I needed grace, and I really needed saving…that was really difficult.”
Ultimately, Brad got in sync with what God was doing in his life.
Accepting grace“I had to let go of more and more of how I imagined how God was going to restore me and just be open to the way that God was, and it’s been remarkable…just so many surprises and unexpected gifts.”
