“I almost got kicked out of the program many times. I had a problem with setting expectations on people and when they didn’t meet those expectations I would lash out. 

My first aha! moment didn’t come until about eight months into the program. One day, I just woke up and I felt at peace. I stopped fighting, and my attitude changed. The anger and frustration that I had within me just settled. I was able to be transparent about my past, and everything that’s happened to me. I had learned to be still and think things through before approaching a situation.

The thing with Christ is he works through people. It’s about connection. That’s all Christ was doing. He was connecting with people. It’s looking at his life as an example, and if you boil down what it is, it’s building relationships, ones where you’re willing to die for your friends, and that’s what he did. 

No one is too far gone. Let’s just take where I was before… Homeless, technically living in a trap house, using drugs every day, jails, prison, all that. And now, I’m married. I had my first son eight months ago. I have a beautiful stepdaughter who’s four.

The fact that I’m sitting here in this position is huge, I’ll be 37 in three weeks, and I just never thought that this would happen. My parents thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to die, and eventually I just gave up and thought that was what I was going to be forever. Then I had an opportunity to do something different. 

Everybody has hard times, your hard times might just look different than mine. Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol do a lot more damage, but I mean, there’s shopping addiction, gambling addiction, and those people drive Lexuses and go to work every day, but they’re still struggling in life. But if you can take away the judgement when you see a guy smoking meth, and just look at him like he’s a human being and try to understand, that can make all the difference.”

Zach Hunt is the Columbus Director for The Refuge, a faith-based nonprofit that provides a safe place for men to process, address, and overcome the underlying issues fueling addictive behavior. According to a third-party survey of their alumni, 66 percent had remained clean, sober, and free from the compulsion to drink or use drugs since completing The Refuge.