For the first half of his life Jason seemed to be doing pretty well, other than some time spent in jail at the age of 20 for drug possession. He graduated high school with his class, got married, and started a successful construction business. In 2013 he got his master’s degree in history from Sam Houston State University, graduated with a 4.0 and started teaching classes at Indian Hills. It seemed things in life were coming together. He had the big house on the lake, a motorcycle, new cars and everything. However, unknown to most people around him, drugs and alcohol use had been a part of his life the entire time.
Jason started drinking around the age of 14 and was introduced to meth at 16. It wasn’t long until various drugs and alcohol became a part of his daily routine. After having a surgery, the drugs he used shifted to opioids which he was able to obtain prescriptions for through a rotation of doctors. He was highly functioning and hid his drug use from everyone, until his divorce rocked the already unstable foundation he had built.
The next nearly ten years became a spiral of drug and alcohol use, “When I look back on it, I’m just thinking if I saw myself 10 years ago, I would have never thought I would have done the things that I did.” Jason reflected during an interview, “You just keep going to the point that the things you’re doing now, 5 years ago you would have thought I’ll never do that. I’ll never be there. I’ll never get that bad. I’ll never not care enough to get to that point, and you look at yourself and you’ve done every one of those things and more.”
Eventually this lifestyle ended up in jail time with no bail and nearly every bridge burned. ‘I had hit rock bottom’s bottom’s bottom and lost everything,’ Jason said. He was looking at a potential 30 years in prison. It was also the first time his body had completely detoxed from drugs in 27 years. Tired of the way his life had been going and with nothing left he asked for a Bible. Jason had been to church growing up but it wasn’t until he hit rock bottom in a jail cell, that he really met Jesus, and he made a promise. “I said, Lord, if you get me out of this, you know, it’s all for you after this, I promise. So I made a deal with him, and I meant it.”
As soon as he was released, Jason was connected to The Well Works program through a friend. He was able to establish employment here and has been pursuing relationship with the Lord, taking any opportunity to share all God has done in his life. “You can’t put a limit on what God can do, you know, because there was a time where I, I thought I was hopeless, and I was complacent with that, and so I really have to keep that in mind, that God can reach anybody.”
Upon completing his time at The Well, Jason has accepted a job at Vermeer.’ While the rest of his future is being reveled by God one step at a time, it is clear that Jason is stepping into this new beginning a whole new person. ‘I felt like God said if you stay focused on me, I’ll take care of the rest, you know? I feel, like as long as I’m being a good representative of the Lord and speaking from the heart, for the first time in my life, I feel like I can be me. And I didn’t even know who that was when I when I walked through these doors almost a year and a half ago.”
