Half of the people who know Dwight & I can’t imagine us partying, drunk or high. The other half can’t imagine us as Christians, reading the Bible or praying. There are lots of stories like ours — of lives and marriages transformed by God’s grace and they should all be told. I’m not proud of a dark past, but it’s against that backdrop that our Savior, Jesus, shines.
It was early November of 1998 and I was 24. The autumn colors around the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains were quickly fading, falling and rustling under foot. I’d moved here earlier that year to the small town of Madison Heights, Virginia to start over. I’d been through a divorce and had my 5 & 6 year old children in tow. It was a beautiful place for us to get away to, but as my own worst enemy, many of my problems were still with us.
I often wrestled with loneliness and bouts of homesickness in this new town, especially on weekends. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name… right? I had wanted to take the 3 & 1/2 hour trip east to my hometown of Chesapeake that Friday, where I could hang out with old friends for awhile, but a string of speeding tickets said, it ain’t happenin’. My Saturday would be spent in a mandatory driving class at a local community college — that is, if I wanted to keep my license. Party poopers.
With my kids away for the weekend, I still managed to head out for drinks and dancing somewhere locally with a friend. We ended up at a bar in downtown Lynchburg called The Kleaners or maybe it was just Kleaners — whatever — it was much like any nightclub you’d find in bigger cities — loud and crowded. Little did I know that someone from my hometown would happen to show up there, too.
Dwight was working for a traveling construction company whose current job was located in Roanoke, Virginia, about an hour away from Lynchburg. He’d usually travel home to Chesapeake on the weekends, but lately he’d been meeting up with a friend who lived in the Lynchburg area. On this particular Friday night, he’d be meeting that friend at the bar where I was.
I don’t remember how long I’d been there or how much I’d already drank when I saw Dwight, but his familiar handsome face, bright blue eyes, and too much alcohol — did. me. in. I’m so embarrassed by this part of our story, because sober me would never have thrown myself on him like I did, but drunk me? Well… yeah. If I were telling this in person to many of my Christian friends, I’d be trying to crawl under the nearest rock. Even so, it’s the one drunken move I can’t regret. I don’t recommend it, though! Thankfully, Dwight happily caught me and didn’t let go.
He asked me to marry him at Christmas and I was overjoyed, but there was a dark cloud hanging over us from Hello. Both of us brought addiction and baggage to this relationship. I’m pretty sure my personal baggage was a few hundred pounds heavier than his. Either way, it was now ours. Great.
We didn’t deal with life and issues. We drank and smoked them away. Sure, it was fun while it lasted, but when your money, your dreams, your hopes — and ultimately your relationship goes up in smoke — ain’t nobody laughin’. The more we escaped reality, the more we needed to.
Wanna know if you’re addicted to something? Ask yourself if you can you get along without it. For us, it was — NO. Not at all.
We were still newly married when God really began working on me, slowly opening my eyes to my self-enslavement. My insecurities and fears, the addiction, the likelihood of another failed marriage, the wreckage from my past — all brought me to a very low place.
Someone musta been praying y’all.
As I sat in our bedroom surveying the mess that was my life, I had a come to my senses in the pig-sty moment. There was no denying that I was sin-sick and that’s when the message of salvation became clear in my soul. It wasn’t threats of hell-fire, but the gentlest voice of compassion. It was as if the Lord stepped in beside me to consider the mess with me and then said —
“Remember everything you’ve heard about me dying on the cross for sins and how you need a Savior? Well, this is why and I’m Him.”
Talk about unexpected people showing up… I threw myself on Jesus that day.
His love and faithfulness against the backdrop of my mess??? You just don’t even know the half of it, but He showed me that HE did, that He still loved me, forgave me, and wanted to give me a new life. That’s the gospel (which I prefer to call good news) that grabbed hold of me — that I never wanted to let me go. It was the feeling of a perfect security like I’d never known, and one that I knew could not be had anywhere else.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all easy, neat & clean — I’m still a work-in-progress, but that day I began letting go of a life and world that up to that point had left me empty, addicted and hopeless. In a sense, I even let go of Dwight — no longer looking to him for a security he could not give. I wanted so badly for our marriage to work, but if he decided to leave because I was changing, I was prepared to let him go. The beautiful thing is how much I received when I let go.
Dwight hung in there right beside me. His gentle love and commitment has been one of God’s greatest gifts to me. It’s crazy how you only TALK about all the things you’d like to do when you’re an addict, but never DO them. These days, we enjoy so many healthy, God-given things together — our children, the outdoors, working with our hands, and especially one another — better than we ever could before. And it just keeps gettin’ sweeter.
Although our stories are connected, Dwight’s journey with the Lord is his own. It’s amazing how God weaves us together in such a way that honors our individuality and at the same time, unifies us. We’ve been through an incredible amount of change, joys and sorrows together, and we’ve watched God bring good from it all. Speeding tickets, loneliness, a bar, a drunken move, addiction, failures, insecurities, baggage…. that’s what God had to work with, and He did.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to them that love Him and are called according to His purposes for them.” -Romans 8:28
I’m still throwin’ myself on that good-lookin’ man of mine, and even more-so on our Savior. They’re both still catching me — still working on that baggage with me, and it keeps getting lighter. On August 28th, we’ll celebrate 17 years of marriage, friendship & new life. Cheers!
Your friend in life, faith & art ~ Jamie
*For part 2, A Deeper Love, click here
I love your story and I love your friendship! Hope you guys have a wonderful anniversary!
Thanks so much Ruth! I’ve gotta tell you how much I think of you & Randy when I tell our story (based on our conversation at IHOP). Your story is so precious to me because it gives me HOPE for our kids — that they won’t have to make the same mistakes we did. No matter what, I know that God will show His goodness thru it all. <3 xoxo
Jamie, what a beautiful tribute to our amazing Savior! I’m thankful for you and for the work you’ve allowed Him to do in your life. You are a gentle and loving testimony to the world. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to be your friend. Love you and Dwight and the boys and hope you have a special day celebrating your anniversary!
Sherry
Thank you for those beautiful words of encouragement, Sherry. You have no idea how glad WE are that you and your family are a part of OUR lives — such beautiful examples of what love, family and marriage should be. We love y’all deeply my friend!
I love you guys! Thank you for sharing. Your story and those of all my new friends who are recovering from all sorts of addictions give me so much hope that I can, one day at a time, turn my compulsion to feed off others’ attention over to my Higher Power and find the sanity and serenity in The Mystery that is life and The Paradox that I must be of unselfish service and re-parent myself in a loving, gentle, kind way in order to fully receive fully the intuition, the guidance, that I am a worthwhile and lovable human being simply by existing. I am so proud to know you both! Work it, you’re worth it! Those boys will benefit so much from the spiritual work you do every day. Truth and honesty all the time make for wonderful, authentic, direct, and self-caring people.
Awwwww!! We love you too Cliff! Thank YOU for reading!! I’m so glad to know you have a support system. We all desperately need it. And yes, things/compulsions are revealed to me that I don’t even realize, but I can see it’s for the purpose of having them healed. We were made for relationship! It’s crazy beautiful how intimacy is deepened through struggle. Hard but worth it. We are most thankful that the boys are growing up in the kind of nurture that we have not really known, taught to us by a truly good and loving Heavenly Father. It’s wonderful to be so free before Him, knowing that He only desires truth in our innermost being. He’s taken care of the rest! PLEASE PLEASE do come visit us when you come into town!
Beautiful testimony Jamie. I love when people share their stories with others! There is nothing so powerful as a salvation story. God is so good, and your story reminds me that it’s His kindness that draws us to repentance. I’m so thankful He brought the two of you together to share His life for you and your family. He is able to keep you guys together and complete the good work He’s started. What a testimony for your children and friends. Keep pressing into Him and He will continue to bless you.
Your sister in Him.
( He is able: we’re celebrating 41 years together)😊
Jamie, Your story is a great testimony that all the world needs to see that there is a better life with Jesus. HE is the one to give us peace. Thank you for sharing. I love you, cousin Butch and Mollie. Lord willing October 28th will be 41 yrs. for us.
Thank you! I’m so sorry I somehow missed this!! Happy (almost) anniversary to you two!!! What a beautiful time of year to celebrate… the last week in October is usually the peak of fall color here. I just love it! Much love to you two!! xoxo
Jamie, I am in awe of what you have done with your life. Happy Anniversary to you and Dwight🎉❤️ I will have my 50th Anniversary this year and I have not been able to bring my husband to live through Jesus. I am so happy for you that Dwight decided to follow God along with you. It has made a good life for your boys as well. I continue to pray that my miracle will come. I am so glad that you were my student and you have shared your miracle with me and many others. I know all of us are a work in progress and I know God is proud of you and Dwight and will continue to bless you. Thanks for your inspiration❤️
My sweet friend, thank you!I so regret that I’m just now seeing this comment!! I’ve left the blog sitting for so long and get tons of spam so often I barely notice a real comment!! I’m so sorry! Anyway, I so appreciate your kind words. I remember the same from you in school—always so encouraging and the great balance of firm that you needed to be for us!
50 years is an amazing accomplishment! It seems that y’all have a wonderful relationship. We know none are perfect of course, but when we enjoy each others company as great friends I think its such a gift.
I grew up going to church, but my husband didn’t. Oddly enough, I’m thankful that he didn’t because God used him to help me see just how unlike Jesus my supposed Christian influence had been. I saw many serious abuses and cover-ups in the Christian circles I was raised in, and I had nothing to compare it to until I really studied my Bible and had such a different kind of man (my husband; a good/kind/respectful man).
His gentle patience and walking with me through the very difficult time of having to reckon with the truth of the abuses, followed by separation from my family of origin— was such a gift. I think it would have been much harder had my husband been as deeply involved & deceived as I was by wolves in sheep’s clothing. My husband could see the brainwashing and gross hypocrisy more quickly and easier than I could accept, but he also never pressured me, but let me reckon with it all with much patience as I struggled. So here was the man— already skeptical of the church as an organization (yet believed in Jesus) but in his life acted far more like Jesus than many of the closest people to me who were supposed to be Christians.
It was so good and healing for us to be able to be honest about it all. It took a lot of time, but I think we’re closer to Jesus now than ever, yet neither of us want anything to do with a traditional church. We love God’s people, but see the organization/system as something very much NOT like God. The image must be maintained at the expense of the people.
I tell you all this just to say that sometimes a rejection of Jesus is actually a rejection of the system —what people with clearer eyes can see as a business and gross hypocrisies. This may not relate to your husband’s beliefs at all, but I say it to encourage you to have hope in case it is. The Lord sees how misrepresented He is— how His Name is being used and abused and surely is patient with those who struggle to believe because of all that.
No need to even worry if our dearest should refuse to go to church. God literally came to me and flooded my heart with His love in my home when He first saved me in 1999. I think He did that specifically so I’d recall it later when I’d have to reckon with so many lies and abuses much later in my walk with Him. He wanted me to know that He is much bigger and greater than any man-made organization or building and now He is using me to help people who have had to leave church because of corruption, abuses, etc… who cannot go back.
Please know I’m not against people who go to church and I know there are many wonderful true people in it and God uses them just where they are — but it just fills me with gladness to know that for those who struggle with belief — we don’t have to worry. He’s not willing than anyone should be lost and goes to the greatest lengths far beyond church walls to rescue. I pray that Jesus will reveal Himself to your husband and flood HIs heart with love and knowing who He really is — irresistible. Love you my friend!!See ya on Facebook! Ha-ha!