- Alcohol
- Drugs
Hearing bells ringing 501 days ago turned Darin’s life around and made him find recovery. At the time, he was living in the streets of Oklahoma City, addicted to alcohol and methamphetamine. He was 49 years old that day, homeless and just chasing the next high day in and day out. Originally from Indiana, Darin struggled with alcohol and pot all his life. He took his first drink around age 14, had his first DUI before he even had a driver’s license and had eleven more DUI’s to follow in his life. He went through four treatment programs. Some of them were court ordered, others he volunteered himself. He wanted to change something, but was never fully passionate about making a change. He was married in his 20s for not even five years and it was followed by a unhealthy relationship of 13 years, that was more about drinking and drugging than anything else. He lost relationships and his job to meth and it led him to life in the streets. Darin had a good business and a fair income before addiction took it away. He was not rich, but did well. Due to his drugging problems, his partner, who was in recovery, had to let him go. His business partner could not be around the substance use anymore. With only a little money left, Darin entered the streets of Oklahoma City as a meth addict and lived with the drug for seven years. He had done crack cocaine before, but meth took him down and to the streets, where it was widely and easy available. The last several months of using led to a very fast downward spiral. The situation of living in the streets was far from perfect, but he had accepted it. In his mind, there was no need to steal; he got a bed, a shower, and some medical help at missions and shelters once in a while. He was feeling content for the most part of living this way, so he thought. One day he was arrested for public intoxication as he walked out of a liquor store with a six-pack of beer. He didn’t resist and went to jail for four days. At his discharge he got his possessions back: his clothes, his wallet, his phone and his six-pack. Freshly out of jail, he walked down the road and opened a beer as he felt the urge to call his mother to tell her that he was doing okay. When he spoke to his mother, she only said to him, “Do something positive, son” and hung up the phone on him. He always liked his mother a lot and was feeling a need to smoke a cigarette thinking about her words. While hunting for a lighter in his pockets, he found the small version of the 12-step program book that was given to him at the last time he stopped at a shelter four weeks earlier. He remembered his mother’s words and decided to read one page from this book. While he had never even looked into this book before, he randomly turned to page 158. There, he read “That afternoon he put on his clothes and walked from the hospital (in his case jail) a free man… but he had found God– and in finding God had found himself.” The words struck him. In this moment he heard a bell ringing three times very clear. And then he heard them another three times. He immediately thought that this is God saying to him, “God Loves You”. Another three rings, this time longer and more intense, and he thought of his mother and was certain it means his mother saying, “I Love You”. The bells were going wild and ringing nonstop now. It was a very intense feeling for him and was felt throughout his body as vibrations. In need to share this experience with his mother, he called her again. She heard the bells over the phone as well. He only told her, “I will return home”. Darin put all of his money together. It was enough for a Greyhound bus ticket to Indiana, so he left the same day to arrive the next morning back in Indiana. At arrival his mother told him that after hanging up the phone on him she prayed to God and asked God to take his life in order to relieve him from suffering as an addict in the streets of Oklahoma. Today, just one and a half years in sobriety, Darin has his plumbing license back after seven years of not working, his driver’s license, a good job, insurance and lives with his parents in Indiana. But most importantly, he feels God in his life today. Consumption of crack cocaine and meth destroyed not only his teeth, but also his complete chin and he had to have three surgeries of reconstruction for it. The third one was finally successful. While the surgery was planned to last seven hours, it lasted over fourteen hours while doctors took his fibula bone from his leg to form a chin for him. Darin feels blessed in his life today and is attending at least five meetings per week to maintain his own sobriety and to help others. He has hopes and dreams, but he is extremely grateful for what he has today. Hearing those bells and opening the book he had, brought him recovery and he feels very blessed today. Those bells saved his life.