Just In The Nick Of Time

"We will be landing in Dallas in approximately thirty minutes. Flight attendants, please prepare for landing," explained the voice on the plane's intercom. I drifted again back to how I got here.

I was at Angela's apartment. I felt miserable having been up all night. I had an appointment with Dr. Thomas that day and would have to drive from Birmingham to Selma. This was something that I did not want to do. The easy thing would be to call and cancel or just not show up. One more time my responsibility was wavering. The devil had me in his grasp. But, something inside me told me I had to make that appointment. Probably it was for reasons of trying to once again cover myself. I could do it.

I made the journey of some 100 miles, suffering through the agony of my condition, but finally arriving on time. Dr. Thomas greeted me and escorted me to his office. I had been going to him because of my sleeping problems. The insanity, however, was I knew why I was having sleep problems. Our whole relationship was setup by my wife and was completely an appeasement to her. As I sat in Dr. Thomas's office, he looked at me and knew the problem. He told me to go home and get some sleep and come to see him again in the morning. He told me to bring my wife with me. Going home would not be an easy task, as I had been away for three days without calling.

The next day, when we arrived at his office, Dr. Thomas had another gentleman with him. This man was from the rehab center. They told me that I needed help and without help I would not be able to lick the drug addition. I told them that I could do it on my own. My wife agreed. We made a deal that if I did not succeed within a month, that I would agree to treatment.

Of course there was no way I could help myself. I was an addict. Addicts cannot recover on their own. Only turning it over to God will work. So here I was on my way to Dallas to Brookwood Lodge to find that out. One last time I thought, I rose to go to the bathroom on the plane where I pulled out my bag of cocaine and utilizing a spoon took a big hit. Remember this was ten o'clock in the morning. I had been up for three days doing drugs and giving my farewell party to my coke friends. This bag seemed to be bottomless. When I sat back in my first class seat, I finished off my Scotch, my last drink. Mrs. Hughes sitting next to me must have been amazed by all the drinking I had been doing that morning. As luck would have it she would be the one to sit next to me considering that she was one of my best friend's mother.

When we left the plane, I got to see her daughter, who I hadn't seen in years. What a moment. They must have thought I was a drunk. Bill from the rehab center greeted me. I told him I had to go to the restroom. Inside the stall of the bathroom at DFW's airport, I did my last line. I threw the bag in the toilet, where to my amazement it fizzed as it was going down. You know the insanity of addiction is so powerful. They did not search me and I was mad that I had wasted that cocaine.

I today reflect how God saved me from death. I had to make that appointment with Dr. Thomas. There was no denying. God knew I had enough and he pushed me in that direction. He knew about all the knowledge I would gain from my experience and how I would later develop the largest rehab company in Alabama, but that's another story. God intervened just in the nick of time and I have to remain grateful.

Brad Warren