By Abigail Aguilar –
When his mom revealed Stage 4 cancer, Brandon Sutton just got deeper into drugs.
“I saw her take chemotherapy and radiation and she started to wither away. I couldn’t handle it,” Brandon says. “I come home from school I didn’t want to look at her I didn’t want to be around
Her. I would use drugs and drink just to escape reality.”
Brandon had sampled marijuana first in middle school. When his family went to the altar at a Billy Graham crusade, Brandon stayed in his seat. He was embarrassed by them.
“I wasn’t committed to what they were committing themselves to,” he explains. “I wouldn’t have
called myself an atheist or an unbeliever. But it wasn’t part of my life.”
After weed came cocaine. To support his habit, he resorted to crime and did time in jail. He even stole from his dying mother.
That’s when he entered what he calls “Phase 3.” Phase 1 was fun and games. Phase 2 was numb and pain because of his mom. Phase 3 meant “I don’t want to be sober and I don’t want to be drunk,” he explains. “I’m not happy. I’m miserable. Suicide crossed my mind.”
Once released from jail, he got invited by his Grandma to live in another state. He tried to stay sober and attended AA. But it wasn’t working.
Then his aunt invited him to a church. What the pastor preached resonated with Brandon. He understood for the first time that God wanted a relationship with him. He accepted Jesus that night.
“I went to bed that night and woke up in the middle of the night. I remember like it was
Yesterday. All of a sudden it dawned on me that I didn’t desire to use, to drink, that I didn’t have those thoughts anymore,” Brandon says. “There was this rush of power and presence of God in my life like I’d never experienced before.
“I felt so hopeful and optimistic, like good things are going to happen and continue to happen for me,” he adds. “Life has meaning and purpose and God desires to do something with my life.”
Brandon hasn’t fallen back into drugs. It’s been 18 years later, and he’s sober, leading a recovery group at a church.
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