Delivered From Alcohol

     My name is Bob.  I was born in one of the eastern states.  Both my parents were habitual drunkards.  Their drinking habit definitely interfered with their health, their work (especially his job standing and ability), their reputation and with our home life.  Our home was a place of misery and suffering—a place of hell on earth.  Our domestic troubles tormented me also in public school during the early years of my life.  Nothing seemed to turn out right.  So I never graduated from high school.

     As a dropout at the age of fourteen, I began drinking, trying to bury my head ostrich-like in the sand of daydreams and fancies in order to escape the unpleasant realities that haunted me continually.  “Why can’t my parents live like decent human beings?” I asked myself.

     My parents had no time for me, and even if this were not the case, they would not be able to help me, because they had their own feelings of guilt and despair, which they tried to drown in the habit of drinking.  Real friends I had none.  No friendship.  No love.  No responsibility.  No useful occupation.  I lived in total loneliness.  My only companions were my growing anxieties and hang-ups.

     I searched for companionship, happiness and fulfillment, but, because I sought these things in the wrong way and in the wrong place (in the streets), I only met the opposite of that which I was looking for.  My drinking habit intensified and my problems worsened.

     When I was seventeen, I was deeply anguished by the news that my mother had passed away, and in a fit of depression, I found no other form of escapism but drinking and drinking and drinking.  I longed to share my grief with someone, but there was no one that I could empty my heart to.  I longed to find a place where I would be welcome, but I found refuge only in the streets, in loneliness, in silence, and in alcoholism.  What a curse!

     Finally I thought I had found a friend—in a pistol that I managed to get hold of.  I carried it with me all the time, because it gave me a feeling (certainly a false feeling) of independence, security, and triumph.  Intoxication and possession of a gun made me feel foolishly bold.  Now I can see the condition that I was in when I think of the story of the mouse that came upon a little pool of whisky spilled upon the floor.  The mouse drank and drank, and then he cocked up his head and said, “Where is that cat that was chasing me yesterday?”  The same false courage was mine.

     I moved to another state where I finally got a job.  But with my job I had pressures.  To get temporary relief, I knew no other way out but drinking.  Now I often ask myself, “How could I be so stupid?”  My problems, of course, did not go away.  Instead, they grew worse.

     While I was in that pitiful situation, I got word that also my father had died—of alcoholism.  Then my oldest brother also died of the same disease.  Feelings of frustration took possession of my mind.  I developed a spirit of bitterness which drove me to brawling and fighting, which only aggravated my problems.

     At this stage, to escape from the bitter realities which I was not prepared to face.  I often listened to the radio.  It helped fill the emptiness of my useless life.  One day I tuned into a Christian station and, for the first time, I heard about Jesus Christ, I listened attentively.  A few days later I turned on the television and again tuned in on a Christian program.  As I heard more about Jesus, I longed to cry out to Him to save me.  Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, I finally surrendered my heart to Him and became a partaker of the following victorious experience.

     “If we confess our sins, He [The Lord] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  1 John 1:9

     I became associated with a Christian group, among whom I found what I was looking for, friendship, love, peace, happiness, fulfillment and a glorious hope.  God restored my mental and physical health, and He is cleansing and healing my wounded soul.  I praise God everyday that I have been delivered.  I am a new creature.

     “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  2 Corinthians 5:17