Breaking Free
Mysterious Ways|December/January 2021
I stepped out of the federal prison in South Dakota after a decade behind bars and breathed a sigh of relief. I’d served my time. But I wasn’t just free. I was a new man. Honestly, I doubted anyone who knew me before would recognize me. I hardly recognized me.
Chaplain Danny Cox
Breaking Free

My home life hadn’t been great growing up. My dad died in a car accident when I was just 10. He’d been abusive and violent. An alcoholic. When I was 16, my mother remarried. Another alcoholic. My stepfather handed me my first beer at 18. “Drink up,” he said. “You’re a man now.” I did. I drank and drank. Soon I was drinking like my old man.

In college, I got into drugs. Smoking pot at first, then popping pills and dropping acid. After two years, I dropped out and opened a successful neighborhood tavern. By then, cocaine was my drug of choice. I made good money but not enough to support my addiction. I started selling drugs on the side. I told myself I was able to balance it all.

That illusion shattered the first time I smoked crack cocaine. It was the most intense high I’d ever felt. I couldn’t get enough. I was awake for days at a time, wired. I spent $2,000 a week chasing that ever-elusive high. I had to sell more and more drugs to pay for it. I started missing work. I was a mess. Still, I didn’t see what was coming.

On April 10, 1991, I left work for the day. DEA agents surrounded me in the parking lot. They handcuffed me, read me my rights. I knew it was over. I was 42 and facing up to 20 years in federal prison for drug trafficking.

この記事は Mysterious Ways の December/January 2021 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Mysterious Ways の December/January 2021 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

MYSTERIOUS WAYSのその他の記事すべて表示
Ivy Dishes
Mysterious Ways

Ivy Dishes

“My mom found a house for us to look at,” said my fiancé, Jon. “It’s in Richfield, not far from where I grew up.”

time-read
4 分  |
February/March 2021
The Duet
Mysterious Ways

The Duet

“Can you perform a hymn for us next week?” my pastor asked me after Sunday service.

time-read
2 分  |
February/March 2021
The Girl in the Dream
Mysterious Ways

The Girl in the Dream

Was this a church? The high, vaulted ceilings made it seem like one—almost but not exactly.

time-read
5 分  |
February/March 2021
News From Around Our Wonderful World
Mysterious Ways

News From Around Our Wonderful World

Liverpool, England Joanne Carr is hailing her son, Dougie McInerney, as her guardian angel.

time-read
2 分  |
February/March 2021
A Light in the Blizzard
Mysterious Ways

A Light in the Blizzard

I stepped on the gas and shifted into drive, then reverse, then back into drive again.

time-read
4 分  |
February/March 2021
Straight From the Fish's Mouth
Mysterious Ways

Straight From the Fish's Mouth

Florence, Italy. I’d been there before on one of those scruffy five-dollar-a-day youth-hostel jaunts through Europe, but now, just graduated from college, I was wondering what to do with my life.

time-read
5 分  |
February/March 2021
Divine Callings
Mysterious Ways

Divine Callings

Have you ever felt called to a purpose?

time-read
8 分  |
February/March 2021
Dad's Voice
Mysterious Ways

Dad's Voice

As I reached to turn off the lamp on my bedside table, my eyes fell on the card my brother Isaac had given each of us siblings on what would have been Dad’s sixty-eighth birthday.

time-read
3 分  |
February/March 2021
Ben's Answer
Mysterious Ways

Ben's Answer

It was midafternoon, and I was already curled up on the couch in the living room with no plans to move.

time-read
3 分  |
February/March 2021
A Doll's Hat
Mysterious Ways

A Doll's Hat

My fears around the surgery built all day.... God, please let me be as strong as my young patients are.

time-read
3 分  |
February/March 2021