Jennifer's Story: Picking Up The Pieces

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The following program is sponsored by Ron Meyers Ministries.

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It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Meyers. The Provider.

Ron Meyers: 0:25

Hello, my friends, it is so good to be with you today. I'm Ron Meyers and I am your host. My job is simple. I find Christians that want to share their story with the world. You know the kind of people that have had busted lives, broken pieces, looked like everything was fallen apart, but yet they found out who Jesus was. They went to Jesus, their whole entire life changed and I have the awesome privilege to meet them and share their story with you, to help you get a faith lift. Let me ask you do you have some broken pieces in your life that you just don't seem like your life's going to ever get back together? Well, I think after you hear Jennifer's story today, you will rethink that, because with Jesus, all things are possible and sometimes, friends, you just need to hear what Jesus did in the life of an individual just like you. No special training, no special courses. They met Jesus and their life changed forever. So, friend, here's this week's dose of hope.

Jennifer Emerson: 1:45

Hi, this is Jennifer Emerson and this is my story. I am a survivor of lots of trauma. I am a recovering addict and I had about a 10-year run off and on with addiction. It started with pain pills that I was prescribed to. I had a few things happen along the way that I resorted to abusing said pain pills, which morphed into a heroin addiction, and so that was a battle that I dealt with, like I said, for 10 years, off and on, and I recently I just made a year, on the 24th of January, of being clean and sober.

Jennifer Emerson: 2:27

I had been in and out of rehab during that 10-year period, gotten into some trouble as well, because that just kind of comes with the territory.

Jennifer Emerson: 2:35

I have been to jail and prison, so there are all drug related charges, and it was the aftermath of my abusing drugs and living that lifestyle. So on January 24th of 2023, I finally checked myself into rehab on my own, with my decision it wasn't anybody else's decision or ultimate, and that was given to me. I made that decision on my own. I went to Oxford, mississippi, where I didn't know anybody and so I couldn't leave, and when things got hard so I would actually stay and follow through, and which I did. I completed the rehab program in Oxford and I have been clean and sober ever since. Because of my bad choices and with drug addiction, I have made things in my life a lot more complicated than necessary, but the great thing about all of this is that I wouldn't have been able to do it without God, because when I finally gave it to God and pleaded for his will to be my will, that's when things started to change for me.

Ron Meyers: 3:38

What age did you start doing drugs?

Jennifer Emerson: 3:41

I started as a young adult just partying here and there, but it was never a daily occurrence. It was maybe like once a year. I would smoke marijuana or I would drink. I was really kind of having my sex together more or so in my early 20s and I'm having to recover from my later choices with drugs in life. But when I started getting into hard drugs I was about 33. That's when I got prescribed pain pills for a back injury. So from 33 to 43, as crazy as it sounds later on in life was when I actually got into the drugs. That changed my life forever.

Ron Meyers: 4:21

What is the fascination with drugs? Is it just you know um reality?

Jennifer Emerson: 4:28

Yeah, to a degree. Yes, With me there wasn't so much as a fascination, and it's really hard to explain to those who've never had or are fortunate enough to never have had to battle with the disease of addiction. With me I lost. The father of my 10-month-old had passed away suddenly. He was only 23, and he died on the operating table during a surgery that was supposed to save his life. So he ended up dying unexpectedly.

Jennifer Emerson: 4:59

At that time I was prescribed my pain pills for my back and at that point, when I started to abuse them, so I figured out it could kill emotional pain as well as physical pain With opiates. The hard thing about opiates is you're going to become an addict, whether you want to or not. If you take them consecutively, you're going to be physically addicted to them. So when you mix that emotional turmoil alongside the physical aspect of that dangerous drug, you have a deadly combination and you have a life-altering combination. And when the pain pills didn't do it anymore, that's when I found out other things like heroin and fentanyl to achieve the doling of my pain as I wanted to.

Ron Meyers: 5:45

Now, what was the final straw in your life?

Jennifer Emerson: 5:49

I might get emotional, but I had lost everything. I lost my daughter, my three-year-old daughter. I had lost my family unit and I was stuck in this house living in a bathroom shooting drugs and I just couldn't do it anymore. I was done. Yeah, I, literally I would say I would spend at least half of my day in a bathroom shooting drugs or on a miss. I knew I had outlived a couple of overdoses where I actually flatlined and died and clearly God was not done with me yet and I survived those. And I knew and like I just had a moment where I knew that if I didn't stop I wouldn't have another, I wouldn't have another chance that God spoke to me and told me that I needed to do something different because there's no way to live. And then my brother. I would say a year before I went to rehab not quite a year my brother had passed away from an accidental fentanyl overdose. And you would think that would be my breaking point, but it wasn't. I just, of course, killed the pain and relapsed when that happened.

Ron Meyers: 7:03

But now, today, you seem to have a love for Jesus.

Jennifer Emerson: 7:08

Honestly, my relationship with Jesus started when I was a toddler and my mother told me that I would speak the word of God at two years of age at church to everybody or anybody who would listen, and I didn't even know how to read or write or comprehend anything that anyone would tell me as a two-year-old. So my mom would tell me these stories of how I would just evangelize to all of these people, anyone who would listen, and it was speaking the word of the Lord. And so, you know, the enemy tries to take out the Lord's biggest soldiers, the ones who have a close relationship with the Lord, the ones who know him, and the enemy doesn't like that. And so I honestly think that he's trying to take me down, and God has, you know, fought back like God, like God does, and you know, the enemy never wins.

Jennifer Emerson: 8:06

I used to be involved at Trinity United Methodist Church. I was a youth leader in the youth group there. I mean, I've always been really engaged in my younger life with a relationship with the Lord, and then I got lost along the way, and I know that whenever, every time I try to shy away or pull myself or try to convince myself that I didn't need God. I've used battles, these battles within, mentally, emotionally. All this turmoil would really be present in my life. Well, I could tell that God was trying to send me a message that I was not doing the right thing, that this was not what I was supposed to be doing or this is not how I was supposed to be living. You know that I was supposed to be living for him and I, you know I made things a lot harder on myself along the way, trying to fight. What I knew was what was true and what was right.

Ron Meyers: 9:01

How is life for Jennifer Emerson today?

Jennifer Emerson: 9:05

I'm picking up the pieces, and when you do so much detrimental things to your life, people are impatient. They want things to change quickly. So I'm really learning a lot about patience. But life is crazy. I love being sober. I love having clarity. I love life. Looking through the lens of someone who has is not clouded by such darkness. I have a job at Cat Island Coffee Shop in Gulfport, which I love. I'm a barista there. I have a little apartment in Gulfport as well. That's my own, which has been a long time since I've had something that was my own. So I have a good relationship with my son, who's 23. And so I am regaining visitation and a relationship with my three-year-old that I lost in the aftermath of all of what happened last year. So everything is looking up and I have been blessed to be here. I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to go to rehab and actually be shown the right way and the only way to live which is clean and sober and with a relationship with the Lord.

Ron Meyers: 10:14

Someone out there right now that's listening to this, and they can't leave the drugs.

Jennifer Emerson: 10:19

Well, I will say this you can't do it for somebody else, you can't even do it for your kids. You have to have that moment in life when you're in the throes of addiction, when you are at the bottom, if you will to want to do it and I've been there so many times where I wanted to so bad but I couldn't. And the hardest part isn't getting over the physical aspects of addiction and the withdrawals and all the you know unfund things that you're going to have to go through it, fighting that battle within. And, honestly, the only way I have ever had success and this is the first time I've had success with trying to get clean is through a relationship with God. You have to give yourself to the Lord and you have to ask the Lord for his will to be your will and you have to surrender. That's the only way it can happen. It's the only way you will have strength.

Jennifer Emerson: 11:12

You cannot do it by yourself, but you know, as a someone who was literally speaking about myself literally trying to kill themselves, because I did not have the strength to face my pain and face my struggle. So I just did it inadvertently through drug abuse. If I can do it, anyone can do it because I was very, very, very bad off. There's no one is a lost cause. It's never too late. I'm 44 years old and I got clean and sober and it's the most wonderful way to live. It's great on the other side, so there is hope and there's people who want to help and there's resources available. So you just have to give yourself to God and allow God to bring you down that journey.

Ron Meyers: 11:57

Will you pray for the listeners right now, the ones that are struggling and need some help?

Jennifer Emerson: 12:02

Absolutely. Lord, please give anyone who is struggling with a disease of addiction and with any kind of struggle with the enemy that's trying to bring them down with addiction. Lord, please give them the strength and the insight and let them know that you are there with them. Soften their heart. Lord, please just take your hands and comfort them and allow them to see that the only way to have any kind of peace and freedom from this awful, awful disease is through you, that it can't be done just with the clinical aspect of it. That they need, that their souls need to have the freedom that only you can bring them more. And please just be with them more and let them know that everything's going to be okay and that help is available and that you will be there to guide them. Amen.

Ron Meyers: 12:58

Friends, right after the break, let's unpack what we just heard from Jennifer's amazing story.

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You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, Ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.

Speaker 5: 13:16

Does God speak to us today? If so, what does he sound like? Thundering roars, crashing waves, a booming megaphone? Maybe, sometimes, but maybe it's not quite as Hollywood, dramatic as all that. Maybe it's a little more simple. John 1027 says my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. In the midst of all the noise and questions, god is speaking and we can hear his voice. We just need to learn to recognize it. So what does he sound like? He sounds like love, like reconciliation, like kindness, wisdom, hope, truth. Do you know those sounds Then? Maybe you hear his voice more often than you think. Maybe you're being led by him more than you realize. Maybe God is speaking to you and you actually are listening. You just didn't know it.

Speaker 6: 14:22

His name is Willie Ames. He's a pretty imperfect guy. He sometimes doesn't change the oil in his car on time. He hasn't gotten around to fix the toaster his wife asked him to fix two months ago. He even missed church a few Sundays ago to play golf. An ordinary and perfect guy, that Willie Ames. But despite his imperfections he's got something really going for him. The guy loves God a lot, he loves to study the word, he loves his family and he loves to praise the Lord. Boy, does he love to praise the Lord? It goes to show that God isn't looking for perfect people to follow him. He just needs people who love him with all their heart. Someone who has a heart for God is more pleasing to God than someone who looks squeaky clean but has no real passion for God. The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins. So get the love part down. God can cover all the other little imperfections.

Ron Meyers: 15:43

I'm so glad that Jennifer is picking up the pieces in her life. There are times, aren't there, friend, that the whole world seems to be falling apart all around us and, as Jennifer said, she did the drugs at first to numb the pain. She had pain, physical pain, but then, when the father of her child died unexpectedly, she had a mental pain so she could take drugs and kind of zone out of everything. I think something else Jennifer said is so important that nobody can wish you off drugs, nobody can force you off drugs and nobody can threaten you off of any type of addiction. You have to be willing to say I need you, jesus, I need some help. And when you do this it begins the process.

Ron Meyers: 16:44

Because most of you, especially if you don't go to church maybe you've never stepped into a church you think, well, what am I going to do? Do I have to go to church? No, you have to just call upon the name above all names, and that is Jesus. Friends, I'm telling you I mean I've got the greatest job in the world. First of all, I've had an entire life full of all kinds of hell and addiction and abandonment and bankruptcy and just crazy things. I never fixed anything on my own. In fact, when I tried to do it on my own, I just made things worse. And then one day I got so sick and tired of being sick and tired I had no choice. I had to trust who this Jesus is, and one of the things that Jennifer told us is that Jesus will always meet us where we are at.

Ron Meyers: 17:46

It's a process, you know. Sometimes, friends, we just have to begin the process of wanting a change in life. You just need to know that you matter, your life matters, you have a plan, you have a purpose and you don't have to go through this hell all alone. Friends, picking up the pieces is not easy. Remember that nursery rhyme we learned as a child. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty together again, something like that. Well, jesus can put all the pieces together and you are a beautiful vessel created in the image of Jesus. Friend, you will smile again, you will laugh again when you do life with Jesus, because Jesus is for you and not against you.

Ron Meyers: 18:49

And when you bring Jesus into your heart, he gives you the freedom. That's the word. Jennifer used it a lot. It was freedom. You see, jennifer is experiencing something that all of us who get the hell out of our life experience freedom to actually be free from all these goofy thoughts, all these goofy desires, because Jesus has given us a new desire. He's poured his love in our heart and all of a sudden, we have this freedom and we actually want to do things for Jesus. We're not doing it out of a ritual or because of an obligation. We want to do it because we are in love with the one that set us free.

Ron Meyers: 19:34

And, friends, it's not a self-help course. I mean, there's not 10 lessons how to have a better life, five ways to have a better marriage. Listen, it all comes down to a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. That's the freedom Freedom not to rely on other people or other teachings, but rely on the teachings of our friend or savior, and that is Jesus. And now, friends, here's another crucial part that when you are picking up the pieces, you have to believe that God has a plan for you. You have to believe that you're not a piece of junk and you're not a mistake. And it doesn't matter what you're doing in your life. I don't care if you live a different lifestyle. I don't care if you've been doing drugs or you've been doing pornography or you like to go to the bars, it doesn't matter. Jesus wants a relationship with you. See, that's all I've ever discovered in life and that's what I promote through my shows. Is, the changes that came in my life were never by things that I try to initiate.

Ron Meyers: 20:54

I said, okay, I'll read this book. Five Steps to Become Free of Drugs Ah, didn't work. Five Steps for a Better Marriage Ah, didn't work. You know I couldn't do it. I failed. I failed on my own. It was just plain and simple. I failed.

Ron Meyers: 21:10

But with Jesus and trusting him, I said Jesus, my addiction's your problem, my lost is your problem, my lack of identity is your problem. So if we're going to do life together, jesus, I need you to teach me who I am, what I'm here for, and then empower me to become who you want me to become, my friends. That was over 20, some years ago, and I tell people now I'm doing things in life that I never even knew I could do, and all the things that I thought I would be doing with my life, I'm not doing them at all. And you know what the beauty is that? About that, I can't take any of the credit.

Ron Meyers: 21:56

Jesus wants to do life with you, show you what's in store for you and, just like Jennifer, begin picking the pieces up. And here's something else that's very important While you're going through this transformation in your life, just learn how to say thank you, lord, thank you for helping me, thank you for the life that you're going to give me. You know, friends, when we begin thanking God for what he's going to do in the future, we're basically prophesying to ourself, and what that means is you're agreeing with Jesus that you are loved, you are worthy, you're not here by accident, that God has a plan for you and you thank him. Thank him each and every day for what he's doing in your life today and what he is doing in the future. Friends, this is our time. Let's get busy living life with Jesus.

Speaker 2: 22:57

You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.

Speaker 7: 23:07

Hi, this is Kandy Anderson-Farris bringing you a message of hope. One of my favorite verses that speaks to God's forgiveness is found in Romans. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because, through Jesus Christ, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. No matter what you've done, jesus died for you as his child. You and I are forgiven.

Speaker 7: 23:42

There was a precious example, one of those that'll preach moments. That happened several years ago, when my twin grandbabies were just little itsy-bitsy things. Bodie had hit his sister, tegan, and she just stood him up, put his face in her hands and said look at me, what did you do to me? She said again what did you do to me? And he said I hit you. And she said that's right Now, are you sorry? And he said yes. And at that very moment she took him in her arms, wrapped him up and said I forgive you. While we were yet sinners, christ Jesus died for us. His grace, his forgiveness, his mercy is unfailing. He knew we were sinners, he knew we were depraved people, but yet he died for us and he takes us in his arms and he wraps us up in his precious grace. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and he is just to forgive us of all our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Remember today you are forgiven.

Speaker 1: 25:21

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Ron Meyers: 25:56

Well, friends, my time is up, and thank you so much. I do have an attitude of gratitude, an opportunity Right now. God has given me a platform to give you and anybody out there that will share their story, a platform to share with the world what God has done for them. Can you see the power, friends, when you hear the testimony, the eyewitness accounts of what Jesus did in the lives of all my guests? 99% of my guests never met Jesus in church. They met Jesus at the end of themselves. Friends rejoice, be thankful that you're listening to this, because God has a plan. God is getting ready to download some new material to you. Are you ready? Are you ready, just say Lord, I'm ready, I'm yours, let's do life together Until next week. This is Ron Myers, reminding you that I love you, jesus loves you, and when you give your heart to Jesus, you take the hell out of your life. Get the hell out.

Speaker 2: 27:15

get the hell out get the hell out of your life. Get the hell out of your life is underwritten by the Christmas City Gift Show. We invite you to come shop with over 255 vendors from all over the United States from November 8th through the 10th inside the Coast Convention Center located on the beach in Biloxi, mississippi. You can find more information at ChristmasCityGiftShowcom. Thanks for listening, and if you would like to share your story of what God has done in your life or listened to previous episodes, please visit our website, thepromoterorg. Join us next week for another episode of Get the Hell Out of your Life Real stories, real struggles and real hope.