Ep. 89 - God Turns Your Mess Into Your Message with Cheri Garcia
Ep. 89 - God Turns Your Mess Into Your Message - Cheri Garcia
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Founder of Cornbread Hustle - staffing agency for second changes, people who were in jail or overcoming addiction find meaningful employment.
Cheri was very involved in sports in high school, pitcher on the softball team and cheerleader. She grew up taking private lessons for all her ambitions. She had good grades and did well in school, but had a rebellious streak that was very attention seeking. I hung out with all the “bad guys” and one day was introduced to a drug that would help me “lose weight and get good grades”.
As a 17 year old, senior in high school, it only took about 30 days of me using this drug for me to get kicked off the cheerleading team, the softball team, no longer be the news anchor for our high school, and lose a dangerous amount of weight.
I began using the drug everyday for 2 years while all of my friends did normal things that high schoolers do, I became a drug dealer.
I got evicted from an apartment that I had moved into for drug dealing and arrested many times for other things that happened as a result of the drugs.
After those two years, I picked myself up and got clean. I started chasing my goals that I had before. I remembered I loved cheerleading.
“One way for you to know if you are starting to spiral down a dark path or move toward an addiction is usually when you start losing interest in the things you always love, is a warning sign.”
I gained interest in those things again and relived the years that I had lost. I worked really hard to get a job in a newsroom as a journalist. I pursued all those goals. However, because I did not peel back the onion and get into real recovery, the void did not get filled correctly. It got filled with competitiveness, achieving success, and searching for validation from everyone around me.
It came to a point where it didn't matter how much success I achieved.
While all of the success started to not work, I turned to alcohol. But to me, it was okay because I was no longer a meth addict. And everyone around me was drinking.
I started the agency for second chances in the midst of my alcohol addiction. 2 years into that agency, I was handcuffed in the back of a cop car (3 years ago now) for a DWI in broad daylight.
I still drank for a year after that, but on Christmas Eve I decided I was going to give myself the gift of sobriety that Christmas. That was 2 years ago and God really stepped in. I didn't know that was the last time I would drink.
I stepped out of that addiction and found myself in Christ. That’s the hard work. I can do all kinds of things. I can create a multimillion dollar company, I can invent a project, and I can go on national television, but what I could not do was face my own insecurities and work through where they came from and how I can address them.
So on that New Years Eve, I pulled into a church parking lot. They were worshipping inside and I had so many judgements about these people. But the pastor got up and said “I have never done this before. But we are going to worship everyday for the next 7 days. For the first 7 days of the year. So come back tomorrow and the next 7 days”.
And I thought it was the dumbest thing, but I knew if I went, that would be 7 days that I wouldn't drink. And in those 7 days, the spirit got me, transformed my mind and heart.
The song Come Alive Dry Bones, made me realize, I was dead. I had been dead.
About a week went by and I realized I had not been gripping my steering wheel trying not to stop at the liquor store.
I felt as if i was supposed to look at my Bible. I thought I was going crazy. I thought I was going through withdrawal. But I went to my Bible and said I am going to open it and if something sticks out to me, I am going to believe this is you talking to me.
And I opened the Bible and pointed my finger at Proverbs 20.
“Wine is a mocker. Wine is a brawler.
He who is led by it is led astray.”
I was so angry. Because now there is a higher power, telling me I can't drink. From that moment, I surrendered to the Lord and everything changed. I got baptized. I changed my company into a faith based company.
I learned that I couldn't do it for others until I changed from the inside out.
I am two years sober and God has been with me every step of the way.
The one thing that we cannot do, is fix our own brokenness.
We look to fill ourselves, but we are filling our brokenness with other things, not Jesus. Which continues to leave our space empty.
“The only one who can actually fill our brokenness is Jesus himself”.
The hard part is doing life without a substance. It’s not so hard to not do the drug but to rebuild your life without the coping mechanism that I was used to.
What would have helped me and I believe other people, is if we had education and awareness of how good the drugs do make you feel. And how seemingly happy alcohol can make you.
We're told not to do alcohol or drugs, but then when we try it with a friend in private, it feels good. And we think “these people just don't want us to be happy”. So we are just shutting out the people who say “don't do it”.
All the giddy moments that you have in your life, the school dances where you get to dance with a boy. Those substances ruin those moments because nothing compares to how they make you feel.
“If I could go back in time and know how happy meth and alcohol would have made me, I would have never tried it so I could be content with my natural state of mind and my God-given ability to have joy”.
If it is never described as good, it feels like you have been lied to about them.
The reason I didn't want to be present was because I wasn't achieving the things I wanted. And I didn’t realize that all the things I wanted when I was drinking were not happening because the drugs and alcohol were standing in the way. I thought the drugs and alcohol were the solution. I didn’t want to be present BECAUSE of the desire for drugs and alcohol.
Even if I lost a ton of customers and lost followers, nobody could take away my relationship with God or my sobriety. I needed to share my truth because I suffered in silence for way too long. But I believe that God gives me the strength.
I have such structure around my recovery. If i put anything in front of my recovery, i will lose all of the rest of it. I got to the gym every morning, I am in the word, connecting with God every morning. I go to recovery meetings and call my recovery mentor. I am sure to put myself first and love myself in the way that is most difficult for me in saying no to people and setting boundaries.
I have to make sure that I am filling up my cup before I am pouring into other people. If I don’t walk the walk, I will relapse. If I try to pour from my empty cup, I will resort back to my old habits.
Every single day I have to work diligently on my recovery. And if I don't, I will see warning signs that tell me to put God even more first and be vulnerable with the people who care about me.
Rapid Fire Questions:
What are you loving right now?
How everyone got into the Christmas spirit despite the hard year of 2020. Showing people that self-love and happiness are important.
What are you listening to right now?
Sarah Jake Roberts Podcast - they are very motivational and scripture based. As well as Jennie Allen
What motivates you?
Seeing results of our employees changing their lives. Transformation through other people, as well as my own transformation
What is the best advice you have been given?
Don't take advice from other people whose shoes you don't want to live in. We take unsolicited advice from people who aren't walking the life we are trying to live in. And that can create a lot of doubt in our own walk and faith.
