Letting God Take Control
Nate returned in March to Adult & Teen Challenge Ohio Valley for the second time.
“I was in prison for four years,” he said. “I had turned my back on God. And I knew that I needed to come back so he could continue the work that He started with me.”
Nate, 34, from Norwalk, Ohio, graduated in 2019 from ATCOV’s year-long program. He knew that he wanted the good things that ATCOV taught him his first time through the program, but he rejected parts he found less appealing.
“The small compromises started and then I got in trouble and I knew that I needed to come back,” he said.
Nate is finishing the six-month restoration program and after graduation he hopes to work in the recovery field.
His drug use started when he was 14. He used heroin and later switched to methamphetamine. He points to depression, his inability to cope with life on life’s terms and “why me syndrome” as what started it.
“I remember when I first started using, it relieved this anxiety of life that I had in me,” Nate said. “It was a good coping mechanism at the time because I didn’t know how else to cope.” Since reenrolling in the program, he describes his life as fantastic.
“I don’t think about using at all,” he said. “I have been completely relieved of that burden. Praise God. Life is great. I’m super grateful and happy.”
He also feels that he’s learned ways to cope and he points to Candace Bryant, one of the counselors at HOPE Counseling & Addiction Services, for teaching him those strategies. “She’s really blessed me with lots of tools and knowledge,” Nate said.
But he’s also learned to be willing to learn and to receive the truth. He had to change his attitude of believing he could do things his way.
He was broken and bitter about everything, but his heart softened while in prison. “Nothing that I did myself ever worked,” Nate said. “The best that I was ever given was a prison number. I had to realize that I could do absolutely nothing in my own power and just let everything go and let God take control.”
God has proven to Nate that God is who He says he is and does what he says He does. “The evidence and proof of that has just repeated itself over and over again,” Nate said.
