A Story of God’s Faithfulness: From Beauty to Ashes
“To all who mourn, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes . . . In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.” (Isaiah 61:3)
A Story of God’s Faithfulness: Mike Harden was 17 years old when he joined the Marines.
He spent 11 months, 28 days, 8 hours and 31 minutes in Vietnam, before accepting an assignment in Washington D.C. as a Presidential Guard for President Richard Nixon.
Despite this prestigious appointment, his life was spiraling out of control. Introduced to drugs and alcohol in Vietnam, he had come home addicted.
“My drug of choice was ‘Yes!’” he said, shaking his head in exasperation.
At 22 years old, Mike’s honorable discharge was followed by eight years of chaos, including the loss of his marriage and family.
“I wasn’t homeless,” he said, “but I was living on the brink.”
It was 1980 when Mike finally got sober and met Christ.
“When I came to know Christ,” he said, “it was a miraculous deliverance. He invaded me in a miraculous way.”
Immediately, Mike’s drive to know God led him to networking throughout Atlanta. Instead of attending AA meetings, he attended every Bible study, faith-based business meeting, and weekday worship service he could find, bringing his new wife Beth with him everywhere he went.
“Anywhere I could learn about Christ, that’s where we were going,” he said. “I knew there was a calling on my life, something more than just going to church and all of that.”
He began studying the book Search for Significance, which he found transformative in that it helped him learn what it means to find one’s identity in Christ. But as he was learning about his new identity, he also learned that his 14-year-old daughter (from his first marriage) had become addicted to drugs.
Mike said, “It made me ask the question: Can I love someone in addiction?
I was no longer having a love affair with drugs; I was having a love affair with Jesus and I didn’t know if the two things could live together.”
Mike began exploring this question in meetings with his daughter while she was in treatment, helping her understand she was living outside of her identity in Christ. Already, he had been helping men in addiction. Together with two friends (they called themselves “The God Squad), Mike was serving out of Mt. Paran Church of God, ministering to men in addiction.
“We went everywhere,” he said. “Out into the streets, into hotel rooms … We saw many miraculous things in those days.”
In the midst of his daughter’s recovery, Mike received an offer to buy a house and five acres in Cumming. His brother helped him secure the loan, and he moved his young family onto the property that, today, is No Longer Bound. Word got out and, immediately, men began showing up, asking for help.
A Story of God’s Faithfulness: Creating a refuge for men in addiction was hard work.
Always hard. Over and over, Mike talked about the lying and deceitful nature of men in addiction.
“They will spin you around and spit you out,” he said. “But also, there is no greater love than when an addict finds his freedom and leans into God.”
Mike began witnessing great success from his early graduates. One man, who had been homeless for seven years, graduated from No Longer Bound, then “got a job, bought a car, and bought a house,” he said with pride. Another man accepted an entry level position with General Motors and was promoted three times in 90 days.
It was affirming to see his men living out what they learned at No Longer Bound, both within their families and in their workplaces.
Over and over, men were experiencing success, excelling in their new fields.
God gave Mike a verse from Isaiah:
“ . . . the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed . . .”
The passage ends with “In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.” Reading the passage aloud, Mike shared stories of No Longer Bound graduates —Mark, Tom, Brandon — who are now living “as mighty oaks that the Lord has planted.”
It was a daily battle to stand up a fledgling nonprofit, and Mike rarely had the resources he needed.
“Sometimes, there wasn’t enough food for the men. Sometimes, there wasn’t money to pay the electric bill. But God continued to provide,” he said.
Items were donated he could sell. Food came from surprising places. Eventually, No Longer Bound established such a consistent supply of donated food; so reliable, in fact, the team started a food ministry called God’s Storehouse.
“We began inviting the community in,” he said, “handing out 30 to 70 boxes of food a week to families in need.”
Trying to create a dependable stream of revenue, Mike and his team built a greenhouse to sell pansies to the community. They sold firewood. No Longer Bound started accepting donated cars for resale, then the team opened a thrift store on campus to sell donated clothes.
Over time, Mike acquired the land around him that makes up the eight-acre campus that is now No Longer Bound. And when he could find them, he pulled abandoned houses onto campus on wheels to create space for more men.
“Raising money for operation is the hardest thing,” Mike said. “No Longer Bound’s business model sprung up from within. We were the first recovery program with businesses.”
When asked if the need for money was the hardest challenge, he said the hardest part is always the men who don’t make it.
“Early on, I told God I would take credit for the men who made it, but He had to take credit for the men who didn’t. But He told me, ‘I can take credit for both or you can take credit for both.’ So, I committed both groups of men to Christ. I have peace about both groups now, because we introduce all men to Christ.”
Asked what he thinks about the idea that helping addicts is dirty work, Mike said, “That’s true. It can be. But open your Bible and see what Jesus was doing. He lived amongst the people who needed Him the most.”
One of Mike’s greatest joys over his thirty years in ministry is the family members who have been changed because of their fathers’ transformations. People still come looking for Mike to thank him. He’s even had grandchildren seek him out to thank him for how their lives have been impacted by their grandfather’s time at No Longer Bound.
“You can make a mistake thinking your work is the men on the campus,” Mike said. “People ask, ‘How many men are you serving?’ But that’s not what you’re doing. The men who come through No Longer Bound go out and impact the world.”
Mike’s prayer for No Longer Bound going forward is not about his legacy but it’s about “The Legacy”
— that the organization and community would continue to set men and their families free from addiction.
“The legacy of No Longer Bound should always be about saving the next guy up,” Mike said. “[The staff and supporters] aren’t just helping old drug addicts get sober. They’re helping generations, both upstream by the healing of a man’s parents and downstream by impacting his children.”
“When we started No Longer Bound, the goal was to take a message beyond campus to the world. The goal shouldn’t be about growing the number of men you run through the program, but rather, growing the number of people whose lives are impacted. You are raising up world leaders there. If you throw a stone into a body of water, those ripples impact every other body of water that it touches.”
Don’s Sermon at Midway United Methodist Church
On Sunday, April 24, 2022, Midway UMC invited the men from No Longer Bound to lead their opening prayers, calls to worship and a few men shared their testimonies from addiction to Christ. Click the link above to hear Don’s story.
Reflections on Graduating from Treatment – Michael
Michael L’s entrance into No Longer Bound 13 months ago was, essentially, a plea deal.
His other options could be considered shock therapy.
“I was either going to prison, or I was going to die,” he indicated.
Michael graduated in January, but has remained on campus as an intern in the Resident Tech department. His drug-addiction odyssey features influence and abetment from, or through, sources from which you’d expect the opposite:
- First his older brother contributed by inviting a 14-year-old Michael to join him and friends in the family’s basement to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol.
- Then, unwittingly, his surgeon prescribed an over-abundance of pain-killing opiates following a knee repair, enabling Michael to over-indulge.
- A court-ordered rehab stint connected an 18-year-old Michael with some deplorable mentors: older, more seasoned drug users who planted a desire for heavier drugs that would emerge after a drug-free interlude of about nine months.
- Treatment in drug court, an alternative to incarceration, although completed successfully gained Michael a female companion, whose relapse may have precipitated his own – with tragic consequences.
Michael’s first drug bust came as a high school senior, somewhere between the football scholarship he turned down in hopes of landing an offer to play baseball, and foregoing his senior baseball season out of resentment for a coach he believes turned him into the law.
Some of Michael’s reflections,
in his own words.
Reflections on Graduating from Treatment: The 10 years before NLB
The 10 years between high school and No Longer Bound included ruptured family relations, homelessness, drug dealing, brief periods of sobriety, lock-ups in county jails, escalation into methamphetamines and heroin, and the aforementioned barely survived drug overdoses.
“I found myself down in south Florida treatment hopping. From one treatment to the next, getting kicked out, trying another one. That was tough. I never had a stable place to live, never had any stability in my life at all. It was hard to live like that.”
An NLB grad then dating Michael’s sister suggested No Longer Bound, and the grad’s mother helped get Michael to Atlanta, while an attorney persuaded a judge to give a year-long, faith-based program a chance.
“At first, I went through a lot,” said Michael. “I actually came in fresh off of drugs, so I had to detox. I’d say the first two to three months were probably the toughest for me. I didn’t know anybody; I wasn’t sure how to acclimate. But the thing that stuck with me was I knew I couldn’t leave because I’d have a warrant out for my arrest.”
A pinnacle moment occurred when…
Michael fulfilled a class assignment by writing a grieving letter to his deceased girlfriend, then reading it at her grave site while accompanied by a counselor and classmates. He described the episode in a social media post last October:
The night before, I sat on the stool during house church and asked for prayer. TJ prayed, ‘God take him by the right hand and lead him where he needs to go.’ Austin prayed, ‘Be not afraid, because that’s what God tells people in the Bible when something big is going to happen.’
prayed for help and guidance, making it known I wasn’t even sure if God was listening or out there.
next morning, standing in the cemetery, the engraving on her grave marker said,
em>For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you. (Isaiah 41:13)
at campus, Austin wrote me a letter saying “… I know God heard us last night and heard you today, because I prayed for you Be Not Afraid and TJ prayed that God would take you by the right hand and guide you.”
was in shock, realizing God was doing something for me I could not do for myself. This was enough for me to know, without a doubt, something is out there listening to us and that it is time I allow it into my life.”
Apparently, God proved Himself to a once-doubting Michael.
“I would say the peak at No Longer Bound is establishing a good relationship with God, and having counsel around me to help guide me do so. Once I wrapped my head around that, I really just sold out.”
Michael will apply his life experiences in a Philippians 3:13-14 type of way …. forgetting what lies behind … pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Reflections on Graduating from Treatment: Two-a-Days
Offering encouragement at his graduation, Bill Eubanks, one of the senior recovery specialists, put the heart-wrenching assignments that brought about Michael’s transformation into perspective for the one-time high school football star.
“It was like two-a-days,” said Eubanks, referring to grueling preseason football training, “and now it’s game time.”
Your financial supports helps NLB continue to transform lives.
In many instances, the transformation ripples
not just throughout this life but for eternity.
A One Year Program: To Whom It May Concern
In January 2021 I was a few planned steps from killing myself.
By the 19th I was putting my head on a pillow in No Longer Bound, in their one year program. If they couldn’t fix me, they said God could.
I came in as a drunk who no longer had the will to fight, and I was told I was dumb or crazy for choosing a year-long program for my first try. The thing about me is, I don’t do things half-heartedly. When I drank, I drank everything. If I smoked, I smoked it all. When I ruined my relationships, I ruined them completely. And when I burned bridges there wasn’t even ash left for the wind to blow.
Did I need a one year program to help save my life? Absolutely.
I need more. Because I still am not ready. Given the opportunity, I would go back to day one again if needed. I want to be in a community that is responsible, where accountability and transparency are the goals. And I do not have the social skills or the transparency to go on my own way. I do not have the tools in place.
I have pains in my life that hurt me and hurt everyone around me. And I have issues I cannot fix. I know what I once did to help myself. However, it is only more pain dressed up in a nice bottle found at the liquor store. Alcohol nearly killed me and it is still waiting for me so it can finish the job.
I cannot go home. And I cannot be trusted to keep myself healthy.
I cannot trust that I won’t accept the permanent outcome I was willingly pursuing 149 days ago.
Thinking back, I was a walking, at times, stumbling, sometimes crawling, mess of a man. Often times finding myself lost, literally and figuratively, angry, confused, and in a constant need to be as drunk as possible. Drinking was me. Drinking decided when I would talk, who I would talk to, who I would be with, when I would be happy, angry, or sick, when I would work, when I would sleep, what quality sleep I would get, and how much money I would have. The fact that I had a problem for so long without getting help and changing disappoints me to this day.
I could lie and say I came here for myself, but I won’t.
I came because I was afraid of where I would end up if I killed myself. And I came to save a relationship with a woman. I came to save relationships within my family. However, I am staying for myself. It’s ok to be selfish. I was selfish in addiction more than I care to admit. But now, I’m not ashamed of how selfish I am willing to be. I am willing to do what it takes to get healthy.
I was mad at the world because when I was eight, a man chose to abuse me. And I was angry because a drink in a bottle made me feel better until it made me a complete idiot. I was mad because every relationship ended because I would disregard their feelings and well-being. Every time I chose to put a bottle to my lips, I was agreeing to one day say goodbye to everything and every one good in my life. As long as I had my drink I could be completely vile and pass out being in peace. I might regret it in the morning, but I would be drunk a couple of hours later, and it would cease to matter.
But I could not love myself, let alone anyone else. I could not respect myself enough to understand what it took to be a decent human being. The concept of living as a proper man was foreign to me. I was, and remain, broken in many ways when it comes to showing and receiving healthy love. It is something I have struggled with since that day when I was eight.
I was angry at God for taking my daughter.
And I still am. I am angry when I think about laying on her mother’s stomach, feeling her kick and talking to her. And I become angrier when I think of no longer feeling the kicks or any movement at all. I was mad when, without warning, my daughter was taken. And I was mad at myself for everything I have ever done in my life, as well as the things I was too cowardly to attempt. I was angry God woke me up in the mornings when the amount of alcohol I consumed would have killed other people.
I am staying because I am tired of hating myself and the world around me. And I am learning that I actually like people, and I like what they like about me. I like that I am a man worth knowing. And I know that I have a lot of work to do, and I know that this is the place to do that work.
I will be here, for the rest of this one year program, and beyond.
Because I am not leaving. I am staying. Because I am stubborn, and God made me that way. And I do not want to return to the man I was. I do not want to stay stagnant where I am, and I will do what it takes to continue healing. For the time being, I will stay where I am. Until the day I can say that I love myself and the people God puts in my world, I will put my head on a pillow here every night, and I will sit in this dining hall every morning.
I was a jobless, disappointing pothead, alcoholic willing to hurt my family.Willing to hurt myself physically and emotionally to escape the feelings that crept up through the cracks. I was a man with pain and fears I have carried since I was a child. Because I was unhealthy and thought love included hurting the people you love because it is their job to love, and support you through all the b.s. you pull. And I thought God was a mean cloud man that did things to hurt the people in situations they could never handle, and one day He judged them for the mistakes they made.
I’m here because none of that is correct.
And I’m here because I was told this place fixes people.
I am here because I want to be fixed.
And I am staying because I’m not done yet.
-Austin