From the Archives: Summer 2011

Written by Fred Alderson

As with many people who get involved in drugs, I grew up in church. I knew all the Bible stories but quoting the Word wasn’t something I could do because I’d never spent any time in the Bible. I knew church, but I didn’t know Jesus. I was 42 years old before I realized knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus.

Experimenting with drugs began at 18 due to peer pressure. I was drawn to drugs that made me feel in control. The first time I tried meth that was it. It became a cycle: I’d use it and then dry out. This went on for 20 years. Meth made me feel 10 feet tall and bullet proof. The deep need to succeed helped drive me to it. I worked hard, paid my taxes, but I wasn’t hurting anyone, or so I thought.

Locked Up to Find Truth

In 2004, due to making and selling meth, I was sentenced to two years in prison. While awaiting transfer, I sat, alone, in a darkened cell in the Watauga County Jail reading from the Gideon Bible. At this point, I didn’t have any religion, not of my own. From my childhood time in church, though, Proverbs 22:6 kept coming to me: Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

After 23 years of meth use, it took awhile for my head to clear, but I quickly knew which direction to turn. I was tired of the lifestyle, tired of being driven to succeed and measuring myself against others. Meth is a jealous drug and using it caused me to lose my first wife and children. During my prison stay, I wrote my daughter twice a week until she responded. My daughters and I have reconciled and I’m very thankful for that.

During the two years in prison, I got lost in the Word of God. I started out in a spiritual wilderness, but I studied the Word and sought the Lord. A fellow inmate, a Chaplain’s assistant, told me to be diligent in seeking the Lord. I did. When I got out of prison I was urged to go through Celebrate Recovery. I’d been through NA (Narcotics Anonymous), but NA is a secular program. Celebrate Recovery is Christ-centered and Bible based. The first priority is to make Jesus your Savior because you can’t go through the program without Him.

A New Life In Christ

Although my wife, Tammy, did not receive the clemency we had asked for, I had peace in my heart. The three years she remained in prison allowed us to get to know each other “clean and sober”. I had total peace. Over the next months, she was allowed home passes. We became new creations and got lined up spiritually.

Upon getting out of prison, I lived with my parents. When Tammy got out of prison we renewed our marriage vows in Christ and were baptized together in August 2009. It has been our desire since leaving prison to have own our own home again. We believe the Lord led us to this house, and we are working toward buying it in the near future.

I always knew in the back of my mind that God had a plan. Philippians 1:6 says it best: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God took my freedom in order for me to finally come to him and mean it and he set me free. God swept my house clean and it has now been filled with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. We have a brand new life, marriage and a peace that is based on God’s love and forgiveness. We are excited about the “good work” he has planned for us.