 Little over two years ago, I died. My name's John and I'm an addiction survivor. You might wonder what an addiction survivor is. We'll get to that here in a little bit. For 11 years of my life, I was a drug addict. I was taking approximately 600 pills a month. You know, one day my son out of the blue walks up to me and he says, you're not my dad. I don't like what the drugs are doing to you. I want my dad back. Something no son should ever have to say to his father. But I'm eternally grateful he did. That was on October 8th of 2011. That was the last day I used anything. I find it interesting that it was my son that came to me. I think about God and how he sent his son to us. And then I think about God and how he sent my son to me. You know, everybody talks about a rock bottom. I remember the night I hit rock bottom. On that night, I threw my daughter and her husband in my brand new grandbaby out of my house. Told them I never wanted to see them again. The next day they moved a thousand miles away. But that sweet little girl of mine, I think she had radar for when dad had a bad day. About a month after I cleaned up my wife and I split up. I lived on the streets for about five months. As much as I hated that, I loved it. When I look back on it. It was a great teaching ground. I was a prescription guy. I took prescription painkillers. I didn't know anything about street drugs or alcoholism or smoking or anything like that. So living on the streets, I got to learn about all those different things. I got to learn about street drugs and what a big problem they are for the homeless people. Alcoholism. You know, about a year after I cleaned up, I started helping out with the group I was going to for my recovery classes. Not two years into it, I started running my own meetings. But I really wasn't totally focused on recovery. At least on other people's recovery. I'd help when I could. But over two years ago, I died. I was dead for 18 minutes. I have a five-week gap in my memory. The only thing I can remember from that is a conversation I had with God. I found myself sitting in a room and nothing special about the room. Just a room. I didn't go towards the light or anything like that. Then I heard a voice. I said, son, I need your help. And he said, okay, what do you need? And he said, my children are killing themselves with drugs and alcohol. You walked the road for 11 years and came out good on the other side. Then I learned he had a bit of a sense of humor. He said, you're welcome, by the way. I just kind of giggled. And he said, I need you to be my God. I need you to go down there and open your mouth to everybody to listen and everybody that won't because they'll listen to you. I said, okay. But I spent about five weeks in the hospital and that's the only thing I can remember from being in the hospital. So now, I spend a lot of time helping folks in recovery. I don't call myself a recovering addict. I call myself an addiction survivor. Addiction is a disease. You need to understand that addiction is a disease. And I got it. I contracted the disease. Then I fought it and I beat it and I live in a way that I won't let ever let it happen again. I'm a survivor. Anybody can be a survivor. You just got to want it bad enough. I am so grateful to my father in heaven for showing compassion to me for lifting me up out of the gutters and for showing me the way to be able to live on purpose and not on autopilot. Most of my life was done on autopilot. Now I live on purpose. I have the most beautiful woman in the world that I call my wife. It was a new world for her living with an addict. She helps me in a recovery process with other people. I'm grateful for that. I love my father in heaven and his son Jesus Christ. And I'm grateful every day that I get another one. But I get another day.