11/07/2025
FREEDOM FRIDAY
Jackson Caviness
Men of Excellence
07/23/17
My name is Jackson, I'm 23 years old and my life started pretty normal, I was brought up in church, we moved to Mississippi when I was 8, I felt like I needed to get saved not too long after getting moved in, I realize now that I didn't fully understand what being saved meant so I had Jesus in my head but not in my heart, right after that I lost my grandmother, and not really having any friends she was the one I shared everything with and at the time all I knew was that she was gone and I felt like God had taken her from me, at that point I began to shut out my family and the world around me, I started drinking alcohol when I was 15, at 17 I was also taking pills and smoking w**d when I turned 21 I was introduced to m**h amphetamine, I was instantly hooked, not even a month later I was using needles and at that point what had been a slow fall for the past 8 years became a complete free fall I lost my dream job I lost friends and I was so miserable I just wanted to die I was done with life and done with everything, but I ended up in jail and my parents came to visit me and they asked me if I would be willing to go to Teen Challenge, they said it was a yearlong program at first I didn't want to go because I only had two months of jail time, but it was at that moment that God spoke to me and said "If you don't go, you’re not going to make it much longer and you know where you’re going when you die" and at that point I finally realized that hell was far much worse than the pain I felt on earth so I decided to go and every day I was there it was not easy, honestly it was the hardest thing I had ever done but I asked God to help me through one day at a time, I'm back home now and I have absolutely no desires for any of the drugs or alcohol from my past, I give God all the praise because only God has the power to change the human heart, I now help with the youth at church and sing in the choir. Just remember God doesn't see who you are but He sees who you can be in Him!
There is always hope...that hope is found in Jesus Christ.
