Celebrating Life in Recovery

Meth Death - The Shawn Bridges Story

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Cheri Peters (Host), Jack Bridges, Gramdma Wilma

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Series Code: CLR

Program Code: CLR00032A


00:11 Welcome to Celebrating Life In Recovery,
00:13 I'm Cheri, your host
00:15 sad and intense, but don't be
00:17 fooled, God was right there blessing everyone.
00:20 Come join us as we talk about the miracle of
00:22 recovery, of healing.
00:51 It's hard to describe the sadness you feel
00:53 when someone you love dies,
00:54 mother, father, son, daughter.
00:56 It's like a part of you dies with them,
00:58 but when they die, when someone you love
01:01 dies by their own hand, by their own behaviors,
01:03 by their own addictions, it's even harder.
01:05 It's a different kind of sadness,
01:07 and I want to talk about my dad,
01:09 my actually step dad.
01:11 before I do that I want to do to introduce you to
01:14 who's on the set, first of all Wilma,
01:17 I just want to say so glad you're here.
01:19 Wilma is on oxygen, and so you are going to hear this
01:22 sound the entire show.
01:24 Hear that?
01:27 And so you are going to hear that sound
01:29 and that is just her oxygen.
01:30 We were going to have her shut off, but you know,
01:32 I thought if she dies I'll feel so bad,
01:34 So we are not going to have her do that.
01:36 Jack Bridges, we have got Brenda, Pastor,
01:41 his name is Bud, Buddy.
01:43 Cody and Stephanie, and you are going to hear each
01:46 one of their stories before we are done.
01:48 Be blessed by them.
01:49 Most of you know that my real father died in a
01:53 crack house last year, ninety-five pounds,
01:56 hair and nails grown out, unrecognizable.
01:59 When my brother found him, or came to deal with him,
02:02 they couldn't even recognize him as my dad.
02:05 My real father has died.
02:07 My stepfather who raised me since I was 4,
02:10 died in December.
02:11 I love him, I love him, I remember flying down
02:16 and just seeing him in emergency room.
02:18 Seeing him laying there with the tubes in and all
02:22 He is now down to eighty pounds,
02:24 cancer's riddled and he's got Emphysema,
02:27 and all these addictions are just taking over his
02:31 life, and they're all intense.
02:32 I remember just walking in and saying I want so badly
02:37 for you to be well.
02:39 Soon as they, how can I say this without offending
02:44 someone, this show may offend some people,
02:46 just because it's talking about how raw our
02:49 addictions are.
02:50 But my step dad is laying in the emergency room,
02:53 he's got cancer, in his throat because of smoking
02:56 weed, smoking cigarettes and all that kind of stuff.
02:58 His liver is shutting down,
03:00 his kidneys are shot, all that kind of thing going on.
03:04 They have this little, I love my dad,
03:07 and don't if I smile, it's just because he cracks me
03:11 up, they put a little thing on his finger to
03:13 check his blood gases.
03:14 You see when he takes in a breath,
03:15 how much oxygen was actually going to his
03:18 extremities or his hands.
03:19 But when they put that on, it also checks your pulse,
03:23 so it has a light that beeps,
03:24 or it lights up with your pulse.
03:27 My dad put it on his middle finger and showed
03:29 his middle finger to everybody that came into
03:33 and if you know what mean, I just had to laugh,
03:36 Even in your death is like you're the addict,
03:40 it's still there.
03:42 I held him and my family is just not into prayer,
03:45 God or whatever, and they know I am.
03:47 I held him and he just quietly said he didn't want
03:50 to be embarrassed by any one,
03:51 but he quietly said to me, are you praying for me?
03:53 I wanted to weep, I said absolutely,
03:56 absolutely I just held him for the longest time.
03:59 It was amazing for the next few days as he was
04:03 dying, for me to watch as God stepped in and loved him.
04:07 It was amazing for me on his death bed for him to
04:10 allow me to pray, and knowing that he wanted God
04:14 It was like he wanted God back in his life.
04:17 he wanted forgiveness, he wanted to come back home.
04:21 and you know what God did, absolutely wrapped His
04:24 arm around him.
04:25 It's just the coolest thing I have ever seen.
04:28 Absolutely the coolest thing.
04:29 As he was dying, he had kids from other marriages
04:33 that showed up and we were sitting in his room
04:37 and I said, Mac, do you remember the first song
04:41 you ever taught me as a little girl?
04:42 And he said no.
04:45 I said, can I sing it for you He's like okay, and
04:50 I just went,
04:52 trailers for sale or rent, rooms to rent for fifty cents.
04:57 As a little girl, I'm singing,
04:58 ain't got no cigarettes.
05:01 You know that is the song that he taught me in his
05:04 addiction, but I absolutely love him.
05:07 Does anybody hear me, I absolutely love him.
05:10 Most people think that people that are strung out
05:13 in their addiction, they don't look at them as
05:15 people anymore, but their family still does look at
05:18 them as people we seen them in their best
05:21 times, we've seen them in their worst times,
05:22 and we miss them when they die.
05:24 As soon as somebody told my dad that he could have
05:26 as much morphine as he wants, he's like Yahoo!
05:29 I watched him take morphine almost every
05:33 hour on the hour.
05:34 So much that he could even wake up to say goodbye to
05:37 us, does anybody hear me?
05:38 I wanted so badly to grab his face and say please,
05:41 and through all the drugs, do you
05:45 know that I love you?
05:46 I wanted, it was so important to me
05:50 that he hear that.
05:51 but he was so drug sickened,
05:52 that can that he could hardly stay
05:54 present to hear that.
05:55 I love God, for accepting my father back,
06:02 I love Him.
06:03 I think it's a miracle to know that in the middle of
06:10 our addictions and were acting like idiots,
06:11 we think that the most important thing for this
06:13 moment is to get some more drugs in our body.
06:15 Even when it's our last breath, God says,
06:18 I still love you, I still want to heal you.
06:21 You are still my child as much as
06:24 anybody else is my child.
06:25 And I'm sorry that your addiction,
06:27 has cause you to come to this place.
06:29 So this show is going to be about addictions.
06:32 It's got to be about families,
06:34 it's going to be about loss, but don't fool yourself,
06:38 the most important thing is going to be about
06:40 is how incredible God is.
06:42 Absolutely incredible that the God of heaven,
06:44 that created everything waits for the addict to
06:47 turn even his head a little bit.
06:49 And as he turns a little bit,
06:51 the God of heaven says welcome home,
06:53 Welcome home, I love you.
06:55 If we can't take you the body and heal the body,
06:58 I'm just going to heal your soul so much,
07:00 you're not going to care about your body.
07:02 I'm thinking Amen, and Pastor don't you
07:04 don't you say Amen?
07:06 Amen!
07:07 Okay, The first person I want you to meet,
07:09 this show, it's going to be a little bit
07:10 different, because I've absolutely so many folks
07:13 for you to meet today.
07:14 More than we have ever had on any program,
07:16 more than we have ever even dreamt that it would
07:19 be possible to have on any program so going to go
07:22 fast, you're going to meet a ton of folks,
07:23 and I want you to just pray that
07:25 you stay with us.
07:26 Jack I want you to come up first,
07:28 and Jack Bridges is going to come up first.
07:31 He's going to tell us a little bit about his
07:33 family and addiction.
07:36 Jack, welcome to the show.
07:37 Who are you and what you think of what I'm talking
07:41 about as losing somebody you love to addiction?
07:44 I know where you're coming from,
07:46 because I've lived it with my son and I,
07:49 I know exactly what you're saying.
07:53 Okay, one should you start from almost the beginning,
07:55 because I saw a picture, a video of your son,
07:58 when he was running around the house,
08:00 as a cute little 2 or 3 year old, adorable.
08:03 Well, that's a long story.
08:05 If we go back that far, Sean was our firstborn son
08:14 and I love him very much.
08:16 And he grew up, like most kids do.
08:21 He got into, what we from what we understand from
08:25 his friends, from watching him grow up in
08:31 some of the things he did, he got into,
08:32 started probably smoking at age 14.
08:35 Just smoking cigarettes, but you know what that I
08:39 know from just knowing you guys,
08:41 and watching some videos you put out,
08:43 that Sean had a brother that died when
08:46 he was young.
08:47 How old was Sean when he lost his brother?
08:49 He was about 41/2, 5 years old when Jason was
08:52 killed in a car accident in 1976.
08:55 And that shook him.
08:56 It shook all of us.
08:58 We didn't realize how badly it had shaken Sean.
09:04 We were so tied up in our own,
09:06 it was more than grief, it was devastation.
09:13 We were only kids too at that time.
09:16 How old were you?
09:18 I was, probably early 20's, would
09:25 be about 23, I think.
09:29 And just lost your son.
09:31 23, and Jason was killed in a car
09:37 It just about devastated all of us.
09:40 It almost made me forget my Christian upbringing,
09:46 but thankfully it didn't.
09:49 The Lord stuck with us and brought us through it.
09:52 But we can't understand.
09:54 And what I want to say, Jack because for a
09:55 lot of people, it's hard for them,
09:57 but when you said, almost made you forget your
09:59 Christian stuff, it almost made you step away from
10:02 God or any thing that you believed at that time.
10:04 And that's what grief does to us,
10:06 it's like where is God when
10:07 all this is happening?
10:08 We don't understand, but He's right there with us
10:11 for whatever reason.
10:13 We don't know, the big plan.
10:15 We have got to have faith that the Lord knows best,
10:19 that He is there for us and help bring us through
10:26 the passage says that, "He will not give us any
10:30 more than we can bear".
10:31 And we also forget that the Devil is real.
10:35 We have an adversary, just if he can set us
10:38 down, if he can take our kids or what ever.
10:39 If he can get us to smoke some crack,
10:41 he'll do it because his job is to destroy us.
10:44 His goal to destroy us because we are created in
10:48 the image of God, and it just kills him to see us.
10:52 So the fact that you lost your son,
10:55 that Sean really was affected in a huge way,
11:00 at that point and then got into smoking cigarettes
11:02 and doing other drugs early, 14.
11:05 He started smoking at age 14,
11:08 he probably started experimenting with beer,
11:14 light alcohol, possibly marijuana between 15 and 16.
11:18 At 16, we understand that he and some of his friends
11:21 were smoking marijuana regularly.
11:23 Sean went on to harder alcohol,
11:27 and we believe that probably when he was
11:33 about 20 years old, he got it to some of the other
11:38 drugs the kids were doing.
11:39 Meth and stuff.
11:40 At first, I don't think so.
11:42 From what we understand, he started
11:46 using Pseudo ephedrine.
11:48 Here than going with me on the truck.
11:49 He started going with other people on the truck,
11:53 and driving more and more and more.
11:55 And finally got his license,
11:57 got on his own and started using Ephedrine and
12:01 Pseudo ephedrine at age 23 he lost his appendix.
12:06 They were eaten completely up from the Ephedrine's
12:11 and Pseudo ephedrine's from what the doctors told
12:14 us that he had holes in it was leaking
12:17 poison into his body.
12:18 Imagine at 23, 23, Wow!
12:21 After he healed from at for that, evidently,
12:23 he started the use of Meth,
12:25 some of the harder drugs, because he had his first
12:28 heart attack after that, 26.
12:29 He had his first heart attack at 26, did he stop,
12:36 off all drugs then?
12:37 He did for short time, he was told
12:42 he couldn't work anymore.
12:43 He had put into for his disabilities,
12:47 because he had no income, they wouldn't let him work.
12:51 They wouldn't give him his CDL's back,
12:53 he couldn't pass the physical
12:55 because of the doctors and the cardiologist,
12:57 they told him that he wouldn't be
13:01 able to work anymore.
13:02 So when it came down to it and they had the hearing,
13:06 the doctors came in and said sure, you can work.
13:09 So he went back to driving truck,
13:11 then he couldn't keep his appointments with the
13:14 cardiologists...
13:15 So you know what I got to say is,
13:16 cause I'm going to interview your mom too,
13:18 and so, as his father, you watched this whole kind of
13:27 deterioration of him physically, mentally,
13:28 and definitely spiritually.
13:29 I was on the road myself.
13:31 So you didn't see a lot of it.
13:33 I went coast-to-coast, and then he was driving at
13:37 that time too.
13:38 So we were like ships passing a night.
13:42 I seen some of it when I questioned him about some
13:47 of the things that was happening, in his health,
13:53 A lot of times he would lie to me,
13:55 would tell me what he thought I wanted to hear.
13:57 And you know, a drug addict lying, no way,
14:00 don't even tell me.
14:01 They become perfect.
14:02 perfect liars,
14:03 perfect liars overnight.
14:05 And we don't even know we're lying half the time.
14:06 So I just have to say that out loud.
14:07 Just because I could see Sean.
14:10 We don't even know.
14:11 We're so convincing in our lies that we don't even
14:14 know we're lying We don't even know what the truth
14:17 looks like anymore, and we alienate everybody.
14:20 I want to interview different people in your
14:22 family and then what to have you back up.
14:23 And I want to say it before you sit down,
14:27 is God bless you.
14:29 God bless you, Cheri, for what you're doing.
14:30 Getting people stories out and helping people that
14:36 are affected with addictions of drugs and
14:39 other addictions and helping them find a way
14:43 to Christ, through their addictions,
14:45 and back into the life, and living life.
14:48 And that's what Sean was doing.
14:50 I'm going to have you back onto talk about that,
14:52 because you're doing that in a huge way.
14:54 Sean asked you to do that in a huge way.
14:57 This is the Lord's message using Sean's story to get
15:02 it out to the world.
15:03 So I'm going to step down, go-ahead have a seat.
15:05 I'm going to step down and talk to your mom.
15:07 The reason I want to step down and talk with you is
15:11 because you told me some things about your
15:13 relationship was Sean and some of the things that
15:15 happened as he got into his addiction and then as
15:20 he came out of that.
15:21 And so can you say, what was it like for you to
15:24 watch your grandson jump into a drug addiction,
15:28 be lost in that?
15:29 It was heartbreaking.
15:31 I bet it was.
15:33 Because I couldn't do anything.
15:35 I talked to him, but I didn't know
15:40 how to talk to him.
15:42 You just knew that something was wrong.
15:44 Except that, and I prayed for him,
15:47 and I'd tell him I prayed for him, and he'd say,
15:52 okay granny.
15:54 He went to church with us when he was little.
15:58 But when he came out of the hospital,
16:07 he had turned his life around.
16:14 But he couldn't get in his head that he didn't have
16:20 to be baptized anymore.
16:21 He didn't understand that he could
16:24 just re-dedicate his live.
16:27 Because he had been baptized.
16:28 And he had been baptized, Yes.
16:31 But he wanted to come back in the water, yes.
16:33 So you know what we jumped way too far,
16:35 because I'm thinking wait a minute, he turned
16:37 his life around.
16:38 So I want to ask you, there was a time that you
16:41 said what you just said that I told him I was
16:44 going to pray for him and he said okay.
16:46 Do think that he had any idea the power that he
16:49 gave you, that you could actually take his face to
16:50 the throne room of God as his grandmother?
16:53 No, He didn't, but you prayed every,
16:55 I'm sure you prayed every day.
16:57 I'm sure that you love this kid.
16:59 He was my first grandchild, Yep!
17:03 So, when you said, he turned his life around,
17:05 I want to hear that, what happened,
17:07 because I know he's a Meth addict,
17:09 He's fried his brain.
17:10 There's literally holes in his brain,
17:12 he's having heart attacks, he can't hardly think
17:14 clear, and how did he turn it around, what happened?
17:17 Well, he just give his life back to the Lord.
17:21 You took care of him when he was
17:23 out of the hospital.
17:25 Partly.
17:26 You said there were times you couldn't
17:27 even lift his head.
17:28 He couldn't when he first came home, and he didn't.
17:33 I prayed for him then.
17:34 But he didn't ask for anything and then as he
17:39 got better, he asked for a Bible.
17:42 I got it for him, got him my Bible.
17:45 Did it for thrill your heart?
17:48 Yes, and I stood there and cried.
17:51 Of course.
17:52 So, I read him some and then he'd say,
17:58 let me read it.
18:00 So he'd read John 3:16.
18:03 Do you remember what it says?
18:05 "For God so loved the world that he gave his
18:11 only begotten son, that whosoever believe in me
18:16 shall not perish but have everlasting life. "
18:20 And whosoever at that point was a Meth addict,
18:23 with holes in his brain, yep.
18:25 So when somebody says, whosoever don't you ever
18:28 read that passage again without knowing that
18:29 whosoever is an addict, with holes in his brains.
18:32 Whosoever is an alcoholic, that just ran over
18:35 somebody during a drunk driving thing,
18:37 whosoever is anybody that says,
18:39 God I am so sorry look at me,
18:42 I can't even lift my head.
18:44 I'm at my grandmother's house, she has to feed me,
18:46 I'm on feeding tubes, I just had heart attacks,
18:49 and God says, whosoever is Sean.
18:51 That's right.
18:53 And I just want to say, from the time I met you,
18:57 I love you, the fact that you had so much love for him.
19:00 And I even see the love you have for him looking
19:02 at me knowing that I went through a little bit of
19:05 what Sean went through.
19:06 And when he got able to hold his head up and ride
19:14 in a regular wheelchair, he'd want to go to church.
19:19 Amen.
19:21 So we took him to church. - In a wheelchair!
19:23 In a wheelchair!
19:24 Every Sunday, or every time we went to church,
19:28 right down that isle he'd want to go,
19:31 and he couldn't get it in his mind, he was okay,
19:39 that God would forgive him,
19:43 and he was going to go to heaven.
19:45 He just simply couldn't understand that because he
19:51 thought he had to be baptized over.
19:54 So every time we go to church,
19:58 right down that aisle he'd go.
20:00 He got to where he would even go himself,
20:03 nobody had to push him.
20:04 It's just like I want to get that water again,
20:05 because are you sure I'm forgiven.
20:07 That was the cry of his heart.
20:09 So finally, brother Jake, he had been out with back
20:15 surgery, and he came back and he preached that time,
20:20 And so he explained to Sean.
20:25 He didn't know how, but that he would figure out
20:33 a way to baptize him.
20:34 But he was in such a shape,
20:38 because he's so sick.
20:40 He had heart catheter here,
20:45 that dripped down all the time,
20:48 it went straight to his heart for it to beat.
20:52 To keep him alive.
20:54 Yep, he was on a feeding tube,
20:56 and he was on a feeding tube and a catheter.
20:58 And so to dunk him in water,
21:00 people were just scared, how do we do that.
21:01 Yeah, so he was satisfied after brother Jake had
21:06 explained it to him.
21:09 I remember when I first came into the church is
21:11 that I knew in my whole heart
21:13 I'm a heroine addict in recovery.
21:15 I have never been loved at all and I finally feel the
21:18 love of God and the grace of God,
21:19 and someone says that I could be baptized, right.
21:23 And I wanted to run around everybody, and dodge them,
21:26 and just jump in the water myself because I didn't
21:28 want to get out of that water.
21:29 Because I had found God, and I want to talk,
21:32 I'm going to leave right now.
21:33 I'm going to go back on the platform and I'm going
21:36 bring the Pastor that talked to Sean up.
21:39 But first of all I just want to say,
21:41 you know that I love you.
21:44 I love you too.
21:46 Okay Amen, Amen, And I praise God for you.
21:48 Thank you, and you too reading the Bible to him,
21:51 God bless you, okay.
21:53 Pastor Buddy, come on up.
21:55 So now I just have to say that we have heard from
22:04 Sean's father, talking about the fact watching
22:09 his son go into this addiction,
22:10 being helpless as the father not understanding
22:13 what was going on.
22:14 Sean lying, and all that kind of stuff every thing
22:17 that is common, in an addictive guy.
22:20 And then, heart attacks, catheters and feeding tubes,
22:24 and not being able to lift his head, near death.
22:26 Many, many times, grandmother having to feed
22:29 him all the time and then Sean gets a sense that
22:35 I want to get back into church.
22:37 So tell me when you met him,
22:39 did you hear anything about him before
22:42 he came into the building?
22:44 Yes, briefly, because I was the Pastor of Wilma
22:47 the grandmother and the husband, Leonard.
22:49 Of course Wilma and Leonard would always have
22:53 us pray for Sean, knowing that he
22:55 was going through struggles.
22:56 Can I just offer a quick and look I wanted to say
22:59 prayer is absolutely crucial.
23:01 All of heaven moves, we may not see it we may not
23:05 sense it, we may not even see it in a persons life,
23:07 we think nothing is happening,
23:08 everything is happening.
23:10 Absolutely.
23:11 Alright.
23:12 So, the first time I had actually met Sean,
23:14 was after evening service, through the week,
23:17 and I turned around as I was locking the door,
23:20 he was just standing there,
23:21 didn't know him at that time.
23:23 I say, could I help you, and he said yes.
23:26 Are you the preacher, I said Yes.
23:29 Who are you Buddy.
23:30 He said I need to talk to you in private,
23:32 and I said, certainly.
23:33 So we went into my office, in the church,
23:36 and he pointed his finger at me and he said first,
23:38 I don't need to be preached at.
23:41 I said all right, fair enough.
23:42 So what do you want to talk to me about,
23:45 and you know, the Word tells us that our light,
23:48 our eyes are a light into the soul,
23:51 and there was an emptiness there.
23:53 He could see it.
23:56 Yes, and he said I'm really struggling, he said can
23:57 trust you, I want to know if I can trust you and I
24:01 said, absolutely.
24:02 I have to ask you is this something I
24:04 can share with my wife.
24:06 If you don't want me to share with her I won't.
24:08 He said right now, I don't want you to share it.
24:10 I said okay, so he started telling me
24:12 that he was struggling.
24:13 He said, I'm really searching.
24:17 I don't have any peace in my life,
24:20 and I don't know what to do.
24:22 I said, Sean, I think you do, you are here.
24:24 So I think you do know what you need to do.
24:27 He said, you don't understand.
24:30 I'm struggling, I am an addict, and I need help,
24:35 and he said, I know I need to get my life
24:37 straightened out before I can accept the good Lord.
24:40 And I said, "hold it time out",
24:42 what you need to understand is what the
24:44 gift of grace is all about,
24:45 and the gift of grace says that God accepts
24:48 us as we are.
24:50 He takes us, He takes a drug addicts,
24:53 He takes a prostitutes, He takes the person that
24:56 had an aborted baby and He takes us as we are.
24:59 We wouldn't be able to do it.
25:01 We can not scrub ourselves up, and I quoted to him.
25:05 I said, I'm not going to preach to you,
25:06 but Philippians 4:13 says, "we can do all things
25:09 through Christ who strengthens us. "
25:11 First we've got to have Christ,
25:13 He takes us as we are, we accept Him.
25:15 We will draw strength from that point forward.
25:18 And he look at me and said Grace,
25:20 I said yes Grace is something that we don't
25:23 deserve, grace is something that God freely
25:26 gives to each and every one of us.
25:29 If it was not for that merciful gift of grace,
25:31 none of us would have a chance.
25:32 So Sean started unbuttoning his shirt,
25:34 I kind of looked at him, what are you doing here
25:38 Sean, and he starts unbuttoning his shirt.
25:39 Let me show you exactly what I'm talking about,
25:41 and so he had tattoos on his body and he pointed to
25:47 the left side of the arm, and it was evil.
25:50 He said over here is evil, and he pointed
25:52 to the right side.
25:54 It had the cross and some good things over here,
25:56 and he said this is the right side, this is good,
25:58 but the evil always wins.
26:00 What do you think about that preacher?
26:02 Don't you think we all struggle with the same
26:05 thing, you visualized it for me,
26:07 but we all struggle with the carnal and the
26:09 spiritual minded and you know Sean,
26:12 you are not so far gone that you can't be
26:17 accepted by God Almighty.
26:19 Amen!
26:20 And I said, you know, you got to understand that Sean.
26:22 Okay, you know what preacher,
26:24 because you cannot let a preacher start talking 'cause
26:26 you'll lose the show.
26:27 But I want you to, we're going to break and come
26:30 back for the second half.
26:31 I want you to again share some stuff, but right now.
26:35 We are going to go ahead and take a break and I
26:37 just want you to hear.
26:38 This is a guy that got lost in his addiction.
26:42 His father, his mother, and wife, his grandmother,
26:47 everybody praying and wanting him to come back.
26:50 And as he starts walking back it's absolutely
26:52 unbelievable, but stay tuned,
26:56 because the next step in this, it will WOW you,
26:59 of what God had planed for Sean, in his life,
27:02 and the people around him.
27:04 In some believable, and it just makes me want to
27:07 kiss God on the face, stay with us.


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Revised 2014-12-17