7-24-02 - Rescued!

"Sleep, and dream of this Death angel's kiss

Brings final bliss Completely!

Empty they say, Death, won't you let me stay? Empty they say Death, hear me call your name? Oh, call your name!

Suicide, I've already died You're just the funeral I've been waiting for

Cyanide, living dead inside, Break this empty shell forevermore

Wait, wait patiently Your death-black wings Unfolding sleep Spreading on me

Empty they say Death, won't you let me stay? Empty they say Death, hear me call your name Oh, call your name!

Suicide, I've already died You're just the funeral I've been waiting for

Cyanide, living dead inside Break this empty shell forevermore"... Metallica

"He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God" Psalm 40:2-3

July 24th 2002 is my sobriety date, a day that I will not forget til the day I die...Perhaps, I'll remember it even throughout eternity....I hope I do!

It was the day that my father in heaven rescued me from certain death...literally! Towards the end of my love affair/addiction with drugs and alcohol I became suicidally depressed. The lyrics from Metallica's song, "cyanide" explain exactly how I was living and thinking in the summer of 2002. "Sleep and dream of this Death angel's kiss, brings final bliss completely!" It's almost surreal when I remember that in those dark days, I actually believed that embracing death was the answer! I'll never forget feeling the cold chains of a merciless addiction crushing my very soul. I can still remember the utter hopelessness of blackest, darkest night surrounding me as I helplessly sunk ever deeper into the pit of hell! Out of control, fear, no...terror! Oh, sweet death, please come, embrace me...

I'll also never forget the merciful hand of God reaching down from heaven and bringing me "up out of the pit of destruction" Life has not, and will not ever be the same! Since then, I see God as my Deliverer, my Rescuer, my Healer, my Redeemer, my Saviour...my only Hope. He's my Hero, He saved me!

I took the above picture in 2001 after getting high. I think something in me was hoping that one day I would look at this picture with several years of sobriety and say, "Thank God he set me free!" Today is that day.