Latest / Mental Health Matters for Christians / Ep8 Lisa Daggs on Addiction, Shame & Finding Freedom in Christ
Transcript
- 0:00I just, I started dabbling in things that when I wanted to
- 0:02numb myself, you know, these things help me not feel and I
- 0:07would choose them over feeling too much like I was arrested
- 0:11four different times, OK. And the last time I was
- 0:14arrested, and thank God, the final time, at that point, I had
- 0:17up to $1000 a day Rock cane habit.
- 0:27Hey everybody, I'm Christine. Welcome back to the Mental
- 0:30Health Matters for Christians podcast, where we take a look at
- 0:35powerful transformation stories to give you hope and insights to
- 0:40help you get unstuck and experience more of the freedom
- 0:44Jesus promises his followers. In today's episode, I sat down
- 0:49with country music singer Lisa Dags, and she unpacked her
- 0:54journey with years of alcohol and drug addiction that
- 0:58eventually landed her in prison before the Lord intervened and
- 1:03before she got into recovery. Today, she uses her testimony to
- 1:08encourage and challenge others who struggle with substance
- 1:12abuse and addiction. Let's get into it.
- 1:16I know you have a heart for helping people who've been
- 1:19through hard things and who may struggle with addiction because
- 1:22you walked out of that. And, you know, we talked about
- 1:24faith and mental health on this show.
- 1:27And so before we get into the the part of the addiction part
- 1:30of your, you know, can you just give us some of your background?
- 1:33Like who are you? For those who don't know who
- 1:36Lisa Dags is? As someone who loves sometimes
- 1:41to a fault, I love the Lord. I'm very grateful, girl, for
- 1:45what he's done. I was raised in a a Christian
- 1:50home after my parents divorced. My mom became a Christian after
- 1:53she married my dad. So things changed in his life
- 1:57quite a bit, you know, And they divorced when I was 10.
- 2:02And that was devastating. I didn't even know there was a
- 2:05problem. I never heard him argue.
- 2:07So Lisa was a, was, was a little girl who was the youngest of
- 2:14three, the only girl, but never felt like she used daddy's
- 2:18little girl. I never remember sitting on his
- 2:20lap. Later in life, he came to the
- 2:23Lord at one of my concerts and things changed, you know, and,
- 2:26and I was able to lead him to Christ, which is awesome.
- 2:28Wow. My brother who was a heroin
- 2:30addict at 11:59. So everyone I know his life.
- 2:35Wow. It was, it was, it was, it was
- 2:37pretty tumultuous and it was, you know, we were at the swim
- 2:41team in the Cabana Club. And so we rode our bikes all
- 2:44over the place, you know, and we just did what we're going to do
- 2:47and be home for dinner, kind of the thing.
- 2:49So yeah. So you mentioned I was never
- 2:52daddy's little girl, is I? I assume you said that on
- 2:55purpose because that may be part of something that drove you.
- 2:59I mean, do you think that set you up to look for some kind of
- 3:02male affection or something later?
- 3:04Oh, I definitely, as I got older, I needed, I chose men who
- 3:10needed me kind of a thing, yeah, so that I could fix them, like.
- 3:14Tell me emotionally, I don't know, unavailable man or
- 3:16something like that. Oh, you're rescuing like, right?
- 3:19Kind kind of rescuing people who needed me and then I fix them to
- 3:24kind of how I wanted, thought they should be or whatever.
- 3:26No, no control that she's there. Then you know, the relationship
- 3:32would typically fall apart. So I don't know really where all
- 3:35that stems from. It just needing to be needed,
- 3:38wanting to be needed, wanting to be loved and when you you know
- 3:43it's very important fathers that are listening is that your
- 3:46relationship with your daughter is huge because that will shape
- 3:49her idea. It has to be healthy, you know,
- 3:53and and boundaries and and treat her differently than you do your
- 3:59sons. You know, because she's your
- 4:01daughter and you're going to set her up to choose someone who is
- 4:05healthier for her. So it's a big.
- 4:07Role dads absolutely no I I I. Dads are a big role.
- 4:12It's longs are a big role. I know, right?
- 4:14Don't you know? Both, yeah, it's just different.
- 4:17Well. Yeah, that's kind of how we
- 4:18planned. It I know that's how the Lord
- 4:20designed it, right? And when when either 1 is not
- 4:23available and depending if you're a, you know, a daughter
- 4:26or a son, it has a different impact.
- 4:29Yeah, well, there's there becomes holes in your life,
- 4:31right because they're not being filled.
- 4:32My mom was never my mom wasn't amazed you would love her She
- 4:36because she smacked right on the mouth.
- 4:37She saw it and that's how she greeted everybody and she was a
- 4:41a a very gentle giant in in the word in her Christian walk.
- 4:48Yeah, she that per meetings at my house every Friday night and
- 4:5260 young people 18 to 28 would end up in our, what, 15 by 15
- 5:00living room, all having a big old prayer meeting.
- 5:03At least it was down at the river at the kegger party going.
- 5:06Oh, Lord, I can't even go home, you know.
- 5:08Oh, so you? So there would be all the youth
- 5:10group happening at your house, but you'd be somewhere else.
- 5:12Yeah. And why is that, you think?
- 5:17Are we are we talking teenage years?
- 5:19I guess? Right.
- 5:19Yeah, it's teenage years. Teenage years.
- 5:22I just, I started dabbling in things that when I wanted to
- 5:25numb myself, you know, and those became really more important
- 5:30than following my mom's advice or following her walk or
- 5:35following her counsel. These things help me not feel.
- 5:40And I would choose them over feeling too much, you know, And
- 5:44also a lot of people that came to those permians would call her
- 5:48mom. And I'm like, man, she has one
- 5:50daughter, You know, so Fast forward to I have one daughter.
- 5:55And that's all I've had is one daughter.
- 5:56She's 25. And so you you had.
- 5:58Siblings though. Oh.
- 5:59Yeah, I have two older brothers. Right.
- 6:00She had one daughter, but other people call her mom.
- 6:03And so how does that make you feel as a child, like they're
- 6:05calling her mom and not as? Important, you know, not, not
- 6:08very valued. Right, because she was mothering
- 6:11a bunch of other people. Yeah.
- 6:13So I was jealous. OK, I'm gonna get down to it.
- 6:15I was jealous. Yes.
- 6:16Like you have one daughter, you know, you're only mom to three,
- 6:20you know, great. My two brothers and myself.
- 6:22So when my daughter Faith got real involved in school in the
- 6:26theater and and cheerleading and and the kids would come over, we
- 6:30had the hang house across the street from the school.
- 6:32Oh, I love you. Can I call you mom?
- 6:35And I said no, but I'll be here for you.
- 6:37I'll be here in the all around and anything you need, I'll be
- 6:41here to talk to you about. I am here for you.
- 6:43'Cause you didn't want your daughter to think why are they
- 6:46calling? Her, her mother, when it hurt me
- 6:48so it was suddenly that I changed.
- 6:50Good for your life. But it was good 'cause I didn't
- 6:52want her to think that I have one daughter.
- 6:54Yeah, you know, I, I can be motherly to you.
- 6:58I can, I can stay in the gap. If you have an issue, you don't
- 7:01think, you know, of course, to the point of hurting themselves,
- 7:05I say something, you know, Yeah, of course.
- 7:07That's that's standard protocol in in what we do and.
- 7:12Mental health kind of things, yes, but yeah, but it just
- 7:14because because of your childhood and that you felt
- 7:17rejected by other people taking your mom as a as a kind of a
- 7:20mom, you're like, OK, I'm not going to do that.
- 7:22I was. Resentful, you know, I was
- 7:24resentful that when I was done partying on Friday night, I
- 7:27couldn't just go to my bedroom, you know, because it was like
- 7:29too many people in the house, you know, it's like, wow.
- 7:32And they're loud. It's like, can can you shut the
- 7:36front door that you did? You all know the screen doors
- 7:39open. It's a hot summer night in
- 7:40California, you know, because the whole neighborhood can you
- 7:44hear? So you resented the youth group.
- 7:47What did you resent, do you think?
- 7:49I think I resented the time and the attention, but here I kind
- 7:55of ran from it. I I wasn't it's it's a as we
- 7:59both know now, after what we people know your story, I'm
- 8:02sure. And I came from a, a story of
- 8:05brokenness as well, and drugs and alcohol filled that void for
- 8:09me for a season. Sin is fun for a season, right?
- 8:13But there, you're going to get burned.
- 8:15That's in the Bible. Moses going to get.
- 8:16Burned. I'm just here and tell you,
- 8:18yeah, just if you haven't started, don't.
- 8:21Yeah. Because it doesn't work out.
- 8:22Yeah. I mean, here's the thing though,
- 8:23if sin wasn't fun, we wouldn't be tempted to do it.
- 8:26It burned your hand and scarred yourself the first time you
- 8:29touched the stove. You probably wouldn't touch it
- 8:30again. Exactly.
- 8:31So it's just slow creep? Or wouldn't it call it a slow
- 8:34fade and that's the way the enemy to bring you in in a slow?
- 8:37Fence is a destructive horizon, right?
- 8:40And initially it's fun and well. I'll tell you.
- 8:44Well, we're talking about there's a female and there's
- 8:46male. Well, females menstruate, yes,
- 8:49yes. And so when I had cramps, my mom
- 8:52had said much, tried a little bit of this Burgundy wine, you
- 8:57know, 'cause it'll probably help your cramps.
- 8:59Same day as y'all for slang. Guess what?
- 9:01I was like boom y'all like this stuff I like I've never heard.
- 9:06Of wine as a a remedy for cramps?
- 9:09I never heard of that. Well, it worked.
- 9:13Yeah. For a while, y'all, For a while,
- 9:15right? But you know.
- 9:16It was that did that. I mean, were you already
- 9:19struggling with any alcoholism? I was.
- 9:21Only I think, you know, we we say life is not easy really, for
- 9:26I don't think life is just a. Cruise No for a picnic.
- 9:29Right. No, it's not.
- 9:32We have to work on things. We, we have to realize come to a
- 9:35place in our life. When we realize that, you know,
- 9:38the only person we can change, of course, is ourselves.
- 9:41We have to come to the bottom. The bottom was the beginning.
- 9:44That's yeah, that's the name of one of my songs on the the
- 9:47bottom was the beginning. And I want to get to that, but I
- 9:50want to back up for saying, as you said, you were numbing as a
- 9:52as a young person. So if you're raised in a
- 9:55Christian home, what do you think you were numbing from?
- 9:57Like what did what was the pain that you were numbing from?
- 10:00You said you want Daddy's little.
- 10:01Girl, I was, you know, I don't remember having much of A
- 10:04connection with my dad. I had a good connection with my
- 10:08mom when we were one-on-one, or I mean, I was a great little
- 10:13girl, you know, I was, I, I wanted to be with my mom all the
- 10:16time. We modeled together.
- 10:18We did have a relationship, but I guess like just at times, I, I
- 10:24held that resentment. And you know, there's a song I
- 10:28wrote called holes because we all have them.
- 10:30And it says holes in my pockets with him.
- 10:32Lenny fell through holes in my heart where love wasn't true.
- 10:35Holes I remember and holes I forgot.
- 10:37Some were important, some were not.
- 10:39But that holes have changed my life, made everything all right
- 10:42with the holes in his hands, you know, because that's really
- 10:45like, had a lot of heartaches been knocked down, seeing the
- 10:48sunrise from the cold, hard ground.
- 10:50This world has rubbed me the wrong way.
- 10:51And all I got to show for it's holes, you know?
- 10:54Wow, that's good lyrics. Yeah.
- 10:55So I think we we all get shot up somehow, right.
- 11:01From different things. Bullying, gender confusion.
- 11:07I remember I came back from a recess and one of the girls I
- 11:12was in, I was in grammar school and I was one of the girls, my
- 11:16best girlfriend was playing some kind of hand clap game with
- 11:20another girl. Like I pushed the other girl
- 11:21aside and did I not shoved her and like, got aggressive but
- 11:24pushed her away. Yeah.
- 11:25Which shouldn't have been. But my 4th grade teacher pulled
- 11:28me up to the to the front of the class and picked me up off my
- 11:32feet and slammed me up against piano and said, how do you like
- 11:34if I do it to you? I'm thinking, wow, you know,
- 11:37today that'd be a little bit of abuse, but you know, just there
- 11:41were, I guess I always wanted that blue ribbon price.
- 11:48OK, I always wanted the 1st place and I, and I feel like I
- 11:52did everything I modeled. I was on the swim team, I was on
- 11:55the dive team, I all these things and it seemed like I
- 11:59always came in with a red ribbon.
- 12:01Which is the red ribbon? Is that second place OK?
- 12:04A little bit of an overachiever. I've got, you know, and this and
- 12:06now if I could just pin this to my head, then I'm somebody, you
- 12:09know, if I have a blue. Ribbon man.
- 12:11So red wasn't good enough and and what did what did you make
- 12:14red mean? The red ribbon.
- 12:18I don't know that I ever really thought about that.
- 12:21Just not quite enough, right? And so isn't that true?
- 12:24Ironic that you can actually look on YouTube the song I would
- 12:27call You are enough and we had 64,000 views just in two weeks
- 12:31on YouTube because I think a lot of people feel that way.
- 12:35Why did he leave me? Why did she leave me?
- 12:38Why? Why wasn't I enough for him not
- 12:40to stay? Why wasn't I enough for her not
- 12:42to cheat? Why wasn't I enough for whatever
- 12:45him to take care of me? Why wasn't I enough for him not
- 12:47to cuss at me and beat me? Why wasn't I enough for the
- 12:51feeling for him not to, you know, rape me?
- 12:53Why wasn't I enough for whatever happens in that childhood?
- 12:56Yes, him to touch me or her to touch me or whatever yes.
- 13:01So I think that yes, foundationally, if you can get
- 13:07it when you're young, you're going to save yourself a lot of
- 13:09hurt. Get what?
- 13:10Get that you are enough. God made you just the way you
- 13:16are and he loves you and he wants to heal the heal and feel
- 13:23those holes that only he can fill with his love.
- 13:28And when we search, he can talk to gosh, remember MTV, where are
- 13:32they now? All of them did the same thing.
- 13:35All of them rose to fame on drug addicts, Alcoholics, and and it
- 13:39beat them up to a pulp. And then a lot of times they
- 13:41come back to the Lord. And you don't have to do that.
- 13:45Even when you hear stories like Christine's or mine, you don't.
- 13:48You don't have to go through the pain sake.
- 13:52Spare yourself the pain. That's really I've been trying.
- 13:55I've been in full time ministry 36 years.
- 13:58I was facing 3:00 to 5:00. Wait, let's let's get to that.
- 14:01But just so you're basically saying don't grow up like we
- 14:04did. We're always searching and
- 14:07making bad choices because I want to get to like the choices
- 14:10you made. That got to the point where you
- 14:11were facing three to five years in prison.
- 14:14So title me there. Just I don't think it's just the
- 14:16thing where you can go, OK, I'm going to just take her word for
- 14:19it. Right.
- 14:19I feel like people have to learn from their own mistakes, but if
- 14:23you could learn from other people's mistakes, I think you'd
- 14:25be better off. Absolutely.
- 14:26We know you'd be better off. Right, we got some of us have to
- 14:29learn the hard way. Right, right.
- 14:32We're, we're thick, we are a thick headed and I'm expert.
- 14:35I'm walking through really the art of letting go as we're
- 14:40having this discussion and it's been something that's been going
- 14:42on for about 6 months. Letting go of my daughter,
- 14:45letting, letting go of trying to help God, you know all those
- 14:49things. And it's not, I haven't arrived
- 14:52yet, y'all, but I know, I know a little.
- 14:54I know a little. I know a little, yeah.
- 14:56You've been through some. Stuff.
- 14:58So if you can learn anything from what I'm saying, you know,
- 15:02that would be the joy of my heart.
- 15:04Yeah, so first of all, you started, you drink a little wine
- 15:07to get rid of, to help with your cramps.
- 15:08Was that your first alcohol? And that I can remember.
- 15:11Do that set you on a course of like OK I need to.
- 15:13That is warm and yummy. Yeah, I like the way that went
- 15:16down. Right.
- 15:17And then how do we go from alcohol to a cocaine cocaine
- 15:20habit? I think that sin is it doesn't
- 15:22matter what the ISM is it like we say we taste it and then you
- 15:29want a little more and a little more and a little more and it
- 15:32opens doors for you to do things that you never expected to get
- 15:37to that place before. If you thought I've never smoked
- 15:40a cigarette or I've never taken a hit of a joint or I've never
- 15:43done, I've never had a severe and all of a sudden you're
- 15:46facing three to five years. I mean, there's things that
- 15:49happen in and even with sexual addictions or whatever, it's all
- 15:56an ISM. Doesn't really matter if it's
- 15:58food or shopping or what we're talking about.
- 16:00And ISM like alcoholism or whatever isn't that takes you
- 16:03away from God. Yes, that takes you away from
- 16:06your purpose. Yes, that takes you away from
- 16:09what you were called to do. He made us in his image and for
- 16:13me to fight. I've known my purpose,
- 16:15Christine. Now, for I didn't know it at the
- 16:18time when I made a deal with the Lord, which we can get to at the
- 16:22end of my running, but I didn't know that I would really be
- 16:26telling my dirt for as long as I have.
- 16:29But I made a promise. Yeah, well, what were?
- 16:32You and he did his part. OK, and you were running and you
- 16:35know you were running. I had an all girl band.
- 16:38We were having fun. We were all in Tahoe with.
- 16:40Was this a Chris? This wasn't a Christian band.
- 16:42This is preview story. OK.
- 16:44So, and that's what you want to be a rotted.
- 16:45Dags with touch of class and it was all girls and we had text
- 16:49tails and short skirts and high heels and.
- 16:52So that was the life you. Were living.
- 16:54Pursuing, as I mean, well. I wanted to be a singer, yeah.
- 16:57And so I was singing in all the Nevada casinos, Tahoe, the whole
- 17:02area. There's a lot of them up there.
- 17:05And with that life, is that where is it?
- 17:06Was it like a party life that came, you know, a rock star?
- 17:09Yeah, probably my worst, my my worst section of hours I worked
- 17:15was in Reno and it was the 11:00 PM till 3:00 in the morning.
- 17:20Yeah. But sometimes we have the 2:00
- 17:22to 2:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon and 2:00 in the afternoon.
- 17:24Playing to your band. All the girls.
- 17:26So when you're walking home to your whatever hotel you're
- 17:30staying at after the gig and it's 3 in the morning and you're
- 17:34feeling invincible because you, you're all snorted out or smoked
- 17:39out with coke or you're has so much champagne and you, you, I
- 17:43just do a 360 every now and then thinking that as long as I can
- 17:46just see what's around me, I'm going to be fine.
- 17:48I mean, it was called the grace of God with the grace of God.
- 17:52So how for how many years were you pursuing?
- 17:54Like, I'm going to be a rock star singing and then drugging a
- 17:57party. And how many years would that?
- 17:59Was OK. It's kind of, I've been 3036
- 18:02years clean and sober. Congratulations.
- 18:03Thank you. That's 1189 Boom, boom.
- 18:07No. What did I take that from?
- 18:08Yes, I can give it up, but I'm not going to.
- 18:11I'm just hard headed enough, right?
- 18:14So I was singing first solo was H3 and probably in the church,
- 18:20right? It was in the church.
- 18:21They pushed the piano bench up to the pulpit.
- 18:24Mike and I sang a little song called I love to go to Sunday
- 18:26School. And I think my brother, they
- 18:29call it Dag's Day. My my dad sang in a trio.
- 18:31My mom sang in the choir. My brother rang the bell.
- 18:35I had a solo, you know, and just growing up my oldest brother.
- 18:41So I have two older brothers. Yeah.
- 18:43And that's 18 months older and one that was 11 years older.
- 18:47Oh, wow. And so he's saying OK.
- 18:49And so he was always in a band and I was just enamored.
- 18:53Had beautiful like Merle has smooth, smooth voice, but didn't
- 18:59have a lot of self esteem and his my dad and he fought a lot
- 19:05growing up and but I just melted into his voice.
- 19:08And I think and we always had and we were California.
- 19:12So I mean, I don't know. I got to Nashville, start
- 19:14singing country stuff and with Bill and Gloria Gaither, which
- 19:17is Southern gospel and yeah, but I was more raised on like Dusty
- 19:20Springfield, Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach in old Throwback Sammy
- 19:29Day was Junior Rat Pack, Paul Williams, that kind of Andy,
- 19:34Andy Williams. So my mom was like, how I didn't
- 19:39get the country. So yeah, I did.
- 19:41I I packed up this thing and wanting to sing to bring it all
- 19:44together and tie in the question that you asked me is at one
- 19:47point in my life I thought I need to go to Nashville.
- 19:49I need to be a singer. This is what I want to do.
- 19:52And I came, I went to Nashville and I was there about 6:00 or
- 19:56seven years working a place called tgi Friday's as a
- 20:00bartender and singing different places and singing.
- 20:05Haven't we had a four piece girl band there as well?
- 20:08But none of my dreams really came true.
- 20:11A lot of competition in that town, yes.
- 20:15And. And the drinking and the using
- 20:18continued and I started dealing cocaine across.
- 20:21Oh, bar. OK, Probably better money than
- 20:23TGI Friday's, yeah? It was, but like I said, there's
- 20:28a price to pay. Sure, you know yeah, I'm not
- 20:30advocating to be no dealer. No.
- 20:32Well, here's a here's a nice story for you because when I'd
- 20:34work with all have a female shift working in all three
- 20:37girls. Yeah, so that I could use too.
- 20:39We sort. I was always caring and I'd be
- 20:42like, I'll just tap them and see.
- 20:45I won't say their names, but it'd be like, hey, stall 2.
- 20:48And it's like behind on the floor, behind the toilet, on the
- 20:54concrete. Oh, was the mirror and a straw
- 20:57for them? Oh, you would tell them where to
- 20:59go get. In the back, if I wanted to go,
- 21:01sure, I hit a better. OK yeah.
- 21:03I mean, is the hell. That's just disgusting to think
- 21:06about that right now. I mean, yeah, Do you know what I
- 21:09mean? Yeah.
- 21:09So that's how you service your clients right In the restaurant,
- 21:14while you're, while you're. While I'm working, right?
- 21:16And so if they came in and they wanted to buy some, I'd usually
- 21:21already know freehand and you know beforehand and I would put
- 21:26their whatever amount their order into a Bevan app and I
- 21:30would just basically you go here.
- 21:32Can I get you today? And in the nap, yeah.
- 21:34And it is a. Napkin was there steps or else
- 21:36I'd be spinning them. If they're not ordinary, spin
- 21:39them and spin them right till they're right all in front of
- 21:41you. I was really good that what it
- 21:43did and they're pouring behind the back, you know, the whole
- 21:46thing. Oh.
- 21:46You could do all that pop. Those with plug them in down the
- 21:50bar. Yeah, I remember that the other
- 21:51bar is under. Me, yeah, I don't know the name
- 21:53of it, but we're. It is the same thing.
- 21:55It was a whole Friday's hoopla. You know, bartender, they asked
- 22:00for something and you, you spin the top, you pop the, the pour
- 22:04spout on it and then you, it was a long bar.
- 22:07So you just, you just Chuck it down there.
- 22:09They'd grab it by the neck and then go the glass behind and it
- 22:13was pretty much a show. Was fun OK for a season.
- 22:16Yes, for a season I I like that you qualify that.
- 22:19So then she go from a drug dealer to behind bars.
- 22:24Yeah, real bars. Yeah, like like I was arrested
- 22:27four different times. OK, speaking go Wilker to go
- 22:30back to the hard headed thing. Yes, go for it.
- 22:32So yeah, they took four times and the last time I was arrested
- 22:36and thank God the final time was November 11th, 1989.
- 22:40And at that point I had up to $1000 a day.
- 22:42Rock cane habit rolled back to my high school years and mom
- 22:46finding a couple joints in my pocket or it's some loose weed.
- 22:49That was probably only 7% back then.
- 22:52You know, it's pretty dangerous right now.
- 22:54Really does eat holes in your skull so and that's when we're
- 22:58doing too much cocaine and you're snorting it and you have
- 23:00the Nosebleed. It's because you penetrated your
- 23:02membrane in your head. Well, I just want to let you
- 23:05know that you know little little information, FYI, but.
- 23:10A little warning, right? Yeah, but she would say she got
- 23:13the the the joints out of my pocket.
- 23:16And of course I was holding for somebody, you know, they're not
- 23:18mine. Oh.
- 23:19Your mom, OK. Yeah, yeah.
- 23:20And then she took him to school and my brother and I got called
- 23:22in and we had a cop to it and she's like this is going to lead
- 23:25to her drugs. And I'm thinking she doesn't
- 23:27know what she's talking about. She doesn't really she talking
- 23:29about OK ledge $1000 to be a rock cocaine at the final using.
- 23:34And I was facing 3:00 to 5:00 and I had an all girl abandoned.
- 23:37We're going overseas to sing to the Department of Defense
- 23:40military over overseas. Korea, Japan, Australia.
- 23:47Tour Lisa Dags of The Touch of Class.
- 23:49Finally, the dream was about to unfold.
- 23:52Oh my gosh. And that's when you go to jail
- 23:54and that's when I get busted and they take another front person
- 23:57with my band and they went and I stayed, went to rehab.
- 24:01So 60 days clean and sobers when I gave my heart, my life back to
- 24:04Christ. Something about I heard
- 24:06something about did you find a a Bible somewhere or like what?
- 24:10What exactly happened? Well.
- 24:15It wasn't I You didn't find a Bible.
- 24:17I didn't find a Bible. No, I left my I left my purse at
- 24:22a bar, OK, And I'd been up for 10 days.
- 24:25What do you mean oh for 10 days in the.
- 24:27Doing drinking. Oh, and hit.
- 24:28Awake for 10. Days, days smoking cocaine, not
- 24:31drinking. OK, not a pillow the whole time,
- 24:35right? Wow.
- 24:36So I'm stay, I'm at, I'm partying this night at a local
- 24:39bar and I leave my purse there. Well, there's some folded up
- 24:45little origami grams of cocaine in it.
- 24:48And I was going to a 49er game the next day and I went back and
- 24:52like, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna still up my purse at the bar.
- 24:54And I went to the bar and he said we even picked this up from
- 24:56the Sheriff's Department, and that's what I did.
- 24:59Wow, are you so serious that emoji would?
- 25:04Exactly. And I'm like, oh heck, to the
- 25:06know what? So the they gave your your purse
- 25:10to the cop. They called the cops.
- 25:12So now is there a worn out for your rest or something?
- 25:15Because. I'm so I'm up 10 days, so no
- 25:18sleep. You can imagine how kind of
- 25:22crazy that was, right? And I had my little Toyota
- 25:25Celica and I'm driving. I'm, I'm living at someone
- 25:28else's house and I'm in my mom's neighborhood and I'm driving
- 25:31around and I'm trying not to look over and I see the cop car
- 25:34at our house. I see the teal leather purse
- 25:36that I left in his hand. He's walking up to the doorstep.
- 25:39I'm thinking, Oh my dear Jesus. Oh my, Oh my God.
- 25:42I was, I was tripping. I was tripping hard.
- 25:46So he walks out to. You, you know, I'm driving
- 25:48around seeing this cop go up to my mom's store and then Carrie,
- 25:52she'll go, I'll take it for her. He goes, no, I want to give it
- 25:54to her. And so he walks back to the car
- 25:58and he's sitting in the car. And finally, Christine.
- 26:00Oh, yeah, I'd, I'd already seen him like 6 or 7 times.
- 26:05I've already driven by 6 or 7. So he's trying to arrest you and
- 26:09you're trying to go home and you can't.
- 26:11Well, I wasn't living with, but I saw that was my address on my
- 26:15I said, so you went to my mom's house and the address was there
- 26:19and I ended up just pulling right up in front of him and
- 26:22getting out. Really.
- 26:24I said, I think you're looking for me.
- 26:27I think you're looking for me. What do you say?
- 26:30And so he grabs my license out of the teal blue leather.
- 26:35You know, I remember, I remember details and he looks at the
- 26:41license, looks at me, looks at the license, looks at me.
- 26:45Mind you, I've been up for 10 days.
- 26:47Right. You probably don't look as good.
- 26:48Yeah, he goes. You look like hell.
- 26:50That's exactly what I said. You look like hell.
- 26:53And I'm like, thanks. And then we talked for about
- 26:5730-40 minutes and I was sharing my story with him and yeah, I
- 27:02gotta quit. Da, da, da, da, da.
- 27:03Yeah, that's my. Is this your purse?
- 27:05Yes. Are these your drugs?
- 27:06Yes. Those are the questions he asked
- 27:08me. And leaving a purse overnight
- 27:09somewhere I could have said no, There's no way they could prove
- 27:13that I did, you know? So it was only 5 grams, $500
- 27:17worth. And that's a felony, right?
- 27:20It was felony. Yep.
- 27:21I don't think it'd be today. I think they just started to do
- 27:24that. And they said, yeah, anyway.
- 27:25But yeah. But yeah, it was quite the
- 27:28journey. And my sweet mother, you know,
- 27:31got a call. So I called her.
- 27:33She said, honey, I told you you weren't supposed to drive
- 27:35because I'd had DUI's before that.
- 27:37I'm like, go, honey, this is so much more than that.
- 27:41I'm think, you know, but I I sat in that jail cell and there was
- 27:46a lot of people in there rocking back and forth picking scabs.
- 27:49And I'm thinking this piety, you know, I don't belong in here.
- 27:54What am I doing? Any.
- 27:55Oh, well, I was supposed to be on tour and you know, I sing and
- 27:59you know, we all that, you know, and I'm like, I was the last one
- 28:04in there. Everybody else had bailed out
- 28:06and by myself. Oh, wow.
- 28:10And I just had a little talk with Jesus and then, you know, I
- 28:14don't how did I get here? How did I get here?
- 28:19And it was that still small voice like he whispered, wasn't
- 28:25audible, but I knew it was him. And he just said compromise
- 28:30because of your compromise. Do you see your consequences?
- 28:35Then I was like, well, see, if you Get Me Out of this mess this
- 28:41time, I promise you. You said this.
- 28:43Yes, I promise you I'll never quit telling people what you did
- 28:47for me. I can't do three to five.
- 28:49I can't do this, you know? And I still probably was holding
- 28:51in my heart, to be honest. I want to go on tour too, you
- 28:56know, I mean my dreaming finally came true.
- 28:58Traveling all over, being the lead of an all girl band.
- 29:01That's fun. But I went to rehab and 60 days
- 29:07clean and sober. I gave my heart and my life back
- 29:09to Christ, said do you have all of me?
- 29:13You know, I have to give up my dream of ever singing again.
- 29:15Ready. I have to give you everything.
- 29:19What? Why?
- 29:20Because what was behind the dream of ever?
- 29:22Singing. I was doing it.
- 29:23I did. I had my hands all over.
- 29:25It it was for your own like, yeah, I don't know where the red
- 29:28glory. Yeah, glory, glory.
- 29:31OK. Yeah, I guess what was it
- 29:34definitely wasn't for his, right?
- 29:36Yeah, you know, yes. Plus everything that we were
- 29:39doing so that you do when you're high.
- 29:43So what was the road to recovery light for you?
- 29:46Well, I got to go to rehab and they got to go to Korea, Japan
- 29:50and I was in a route. I was in a house that had out
- 29:55out houses, not not out houses like you have in the South, but
- 30:00other houses that had twin beds. Everybody had a twin bed.
- 30:04There was a five person detox and 15 women.
- 30:10That was a lot. And there were rules and you had
- 30:15blackout for 30 days, no phone calls, no visitors.
- 30:20And you had to do 90 meetings and 90 days.
- 30:24And you had to work the steps. You had to be up in a certain
- 30:28time for devotions. You know she was a Christian
- 30:30rehab. I was I was going to go to Teen
- 30:33Challenge, OK, but I was high when my mom took me there and I
- 30:37didn't remember meeting Joan Costa, who who was the head lady
- 30:44of the women's teen talent. And we by this, I was about four
- 30:49months clean and sober and I thought this big to do that we
- 30:52were having at a huge AG church out on the on the West Coast and
- 30:56she was in charge of the Teen Challenge women's house.
- 30:59And I said yes, we had AI had a radio show actually, and I had
- 31:03her on as a guest. And I said, I don't remember.
- 31:05We I met you for the first time at at Capital Christian Center
- 31:09at the Karen share where we we clothed, we had a guest and we
- 31:13let them go shopping and all the women who bought fine, fine
- 31:16things and and let him just pick out a couple of outfits.
- 31:19Let the down down to our guest, our guest that we bought a
- 31:22ticket for this brunch and fashion show.
- 31:25I said, it's really nice meeting because that wasn't the I'm on
- 31:27my show called reality check recovery talk on the radio on
- 31:30the fish. She says, Lisa, that wasn't the
- 31:33first time we met. And I was like, yeah.
- 31:38And she reminded me. I was sitting across from her
- 31:41desk at Teen Challenge, and my mom brought me in.
- 31:44I don't remember it, so I wasn't ready.
- 31:50But I think when you come to the end of your running and you're
- 31:54so exhausted and you have no more strength left, man, it's a
- 32:00good place to hit your knees and just say, man, I'm already down.
- 32:05I might as well about an hour or about later, right.
- 32:08So that's what I was doing when I pulled into that cob is bow
- 32:11now just what it what, what, what do you got?
- 32:15You know, I really thought he was going to let me go for a
- 32:17while. He didn't.
- 32:19He was because. He talked to you for 1/2.
- 32:20Hour, he said. Oh man, because I got away with
- 32:23a lot and I was arrested three times before that knock for one
- 32:26was a drunk, wet, reckless. So it was under 8, under 21, it
- 32:31should be a DUI and then it was a DUI, then it was a DUI with
- 32:35possession, then it was a possession for sale.
- 32:37So they did mark it down to a misdemeanor.
- 32:42I just don't have my Maya Second Amendment rights back yet.
- 32:47Oh, the right to bear arms, Yes. OK, but so so how did you end
- 32:52up? You have you're willing to give
- 32:53up your music because you were like, you wanted to do things
- 32:56God's way, right? How did that come back in your
- 32:58life? Six months clean and sober.
- 33:00I was at the church. I did 200 hours community
- 33:05service. I had a healthy fine for my
- 33:07arrest and had four years formal probation.
- 33:12So I had community service of 200 hours to do, which I was
- 33:15going to do at the DUI school and 100 of them was going to
- 33:19split it, 100 at DUI school and 100 at the church.
- 33:22I ended up starting at the church and I did all 200 hours
- 33:25at the church that I left to go to Nashville to be a big star.
- 33:28I came back and I did community service.
- 33:32Yeah. So God rebuilt my foundation and
- 33:41I, you know, those of you who have to push papers, man, I feel
- 33:46ya. I was the administrative's
- 33:48assistant assistant. So everything basically that sat
- 33:51in cubbies of all the other pastors secretaries that they
- 33:55couldn't get an answer to ended up on my desk.
- 33:58Yeah, it was your community service.
- 34:00Yeah, it was my community service.
- 34:02But all right, so talk to me about how your your music came
- 34:04back. So thank you for bringing me
- 34:06back. That's all right.
- 34:07I'm, I'm well, I thought I'm shiny.
- 34:08I, I got shiny stuff. Well.
- 34:10I was thinking, well, maybe she sang for 200 hours.
- 34:12As chevers, well, I've sang for a lot longer than right, but but
- 34:16there was a thank you for asking and bringing me back home.
- 34:21Just have to kind of last on me. Back in Lowell, Lundstrom was a
- 34:25name, a family name. He and his family and special
- 34:30guests made-up their team. So they had an Alto and a
- 34:34soprano and his wife and he traveled and their son played
- 34:38lead guitar and their other son did computer work and we were on
- 34:44a big bus. Well, they were looking for an
- 34:45Alto because his wife wanted to be with her daughter, their
- 34:48daughter, as she had her first baby.
- 34:50And so the pastor's wife said, did you see that little girl
- 34:53down front? She's in Alto.
- 34:54So went just to Vacaville, for those of you who know where,
- 34:57Sacramento and Vacaville towards San Francisco, just about 45
- 35:01minutes. And I auditioned that night and
- 35:04I was on the road with them for six months and I only had six
- 35:07months clean and sober. So I went on the road, I did
- 35:10tour and I shared my story and that's how it started.
- 35:14And I did my first CD with them. And then I did one with word
- 35:17with John and Dino Elefante that were with Kansas and and then I
- 35:21did one with another Cheyenne Records, which had a connection
- 35:25with Bill Gaither. And then I sang a song on the
- 35:27Gaither Homecoming and I sang on over 25 of those.
- 35:33And I've just not had a day job, Christine, in 36 years, I've.
- 35:38This has been it, Telling people my story and keeping my promise.
- 35:43Have I been perfect? No.
- 35:44Had there been rough times? Life is hard yesterday.
- 35:48And then I lost my dad. I lost my mom.
- 35:50I lost my brother to heroin. I mean, he hadn't hit a needle
- 35:52in 35 years or so, but it slowly crept back into his life.
- 35:57And I, I helped him die, you know, it just was horrible.
- 36:00Had to take him every Friday to get his liver drained.
- 36:02He'd look like he's about 7 1/2 months pregnant and 16 yellowish
- 36:06green liters of fluid that they would take off his stomach.
- 36:10And but I led him to the Lord before he died.
- 36:13And he was just a waste. You know, just when he said I
- 36:16wasted my life, I just cut deeper than a knife, you know,
- 36:20there's a sis. You're living my dream, you know
- 36:23so. He said, Sis, you're living my
- 36:24dream. The singing part 'cause you were
- 36:26singing for the Lord now. Well, not maybe living the dream
- 36:29of making a living at doing music, right, Right.
- 36:34Making a money because he had. You can look up the psychics and
- 36:39you can hear their music. That was his man.
- 36:41Yeah. The psychics, Yes.
- 36:43Yeah, it was. It's a wildlife.
- 36:45My dad had a drag boat. We were at the races every
- 36:48Saturday. And his Chrysler boat is on a
- 36:53hundred 110 mile per hour on the river.
- 36:56It was called the Psychic. He put that on it, too.
- 36:59So yeah, it was a interesting background.
- 37:04All right, I all right, so hold on.
- 37:06I want to cause. Can I ask you when you know,
- 37:10'cause you cultivated this life for a a while now, a while and
- 37:14then now you've been clean for 36 years.
- 37:16So what do you do when cravings or intrusive thoughts or shame
- 37:22resurface? What's the first thing you do?
- 37:26I try to acknowledge it, I try to figure out what it is and
- 37:33there are times I let see those Those aren't thoughts from the
- 37:39Lord, right? So I already know OK, that was
- 37:44messing with me. But there are times I take the
- 37:46bait and I might get depressed a little bit or a little self
- 37:50doubting, but I usually can pull myself up from the bootstraps.
- 37:55I mean, knowing what I love to do is put on worship music if if
- 38:00things, if I'm uneasy, if I'm scattered, which happens quite a
- 38:05bit, I if I could put on instrumental.
- 38:11It has to be instrumental because I know all the words to
- 38:14all the songs and that's not rest.
- 38:16OK. It has to just be low.
- 38:20But not instrumental like you wouldn't.
- 38:22Because if I listen if if, if a instrumental version of Amazing
- 38:26Grace starts playing, I. Just well, I do that too, right?
- 38:28But you. Mean just like classical or just
- 38:31instrumental music that you they're just not like
- 38:33necessarily attract to like words.
- 38:35And so there's no door helps you.
- 38:37OK, no words. OK, that helps me.
- 38:40I guess. I usually and that I usually end
- 38:42up singing along, you know, being the singer in the song.
- 38:45Sure, OK, But I find that worship music just completely
- 38:50changes the atmosphere and devil's not going to be like
- 38:54messing with me. And we're here, you know, I
- 38:58forgot my husband and I remarried Love.
- 39:00And gosh, we've got a great marriage, absolutely adore each
- 39:03other, and we couldn't be more opposite.
- 39:06It's wonderful. We're best friends.
- 39:07We were best friends first. I highly recommend that you know
- 39:10best friends first because then there's no secrets.
- 39:13It's great advice. How long you been married?
- 39:17You said 8 1/2 years less. Unfortunately, we had spouses
- 39:22that didn't honor the marriage bed.
- 39:25That's the easiest way. That's it.
- 39:27You had a previous marriage, Yeah.
- 39:28Yeah, but what was your question?
- 39:31Well, I was asking what do you do when you have cravings or
- 39:33intrusive thoughts? And you said worship.
- 39:34You know what? You.
- 39:34Think and and worship music is good now, but if you're really
- 39:37at the beginning of your journey of these cravings and you're
- 39:40trying to quit, you know, think it through.
- 39:44What did the last drink or the last drug or the last sexual
- 39:49relationship or the last binge do for you?
- 39:54Did you feel guilt and shame and ugly afterwards and dirty?
- 39:59Because that's the that's the enemy's plan, right?
- 40:02So if you think it through and say I don't want that result
- 40:07because that's what happens every time, you know, we get
- 40:10tricked because he's a good trigger.
- 40:13He wants to steal everything that he can from us, our joy,
- 40:18our purpose, our our our life. He destroy it still kill us.
- 40:26I mean and and destroy. So yes, what can you tell me?
- 40:32What role has honest community played in your recovery and how
- 40:35can someone begin to build that if they feel isolated?
- 40:40Honest community. Well, I'm a storyteller, but I'm
- 40:46not a liar, you know? And it's like, I don't really
- 40:53know how to not be honest anymore, which is kind of a good
- 40:56thing. We can't hide behind something.
- 41:00It eventually is going to come out.
- 41:03I think I would surround my don't surround yourself with
- 41:06yes, people. Surround yourself with people
- 41:08who are going to call you out on your stuff when you're not, when
- 41:12you're not doing what they know your purposes.
- 41:16You know, your people that you trust around you.
- 41:18You don't want people that are always oh, yeah, go, go, go.
- 41:22Yeah, you know, you need someone to challenge you.
- 41:25Like a yes person. You're saying you don't want
- 41:27that. You want somebody who will stay,
- 41:30has your best interests in mind, right?
- 41:31Yeah, yeah. You're kind of you seem a little
- 41:33snappy today, or edgy. Or hangry.
- 41:37Hangry. Yeah, like as an.
- 41:40Angry. I've been angry before and not
- 41:45the best of me came out, even in my Christian Yeah.
- 41:49What would you say to someone who feels that God can never use
- 41:52their story because of their own mental health challenges or
- 41:55their addiction history? Just look at.
- 41:57Us. I know, right?
- 41:58I know. What can I tell you?
- 42:00I mean, I told you how bad I was, and you don't even know the
- 42:05half of it. You got to get the book
- 42:06regardless. It's no turning back regardless.
- 42:09That is the way the name of it is.
- 42:10No, No turning back regardless, OK.
- 42:13And because everybody likes to read other people's junk and,
- 42:18you know, dirt, you know, you do.
- 42:21So go ahead and just get it. And it's a really fast read if
- 42:25you're not a reader. But you know, if he could use
- 42:27someone like me, he can use he can use you.
- 42:30You just have to, like I said, you just got to bow.
- 42:34The world has nothing to offer you.
- 42:36Any temptation that you have that is not of a good thought is
- 42:40not from the Lord. You can pretty much say if, if
- 42:43if you're getting tempted to go sleep with someone that's not
- 42:46your wife or your husband, that's probably not from the
- 42:49Lord, Don't do it. Take it, you know, stop or if
- 42:54you're going to go get drunk or you're going to go whatever it
- 42:57is, that'll be awesome. God is a God that doesn't lie.
- 43:01God is a God of justice. God is a God of purity.
- 43:05So he's going to tell you to do the good things sometimes that
- 43:08you don't listen to, like maybe go talk to this one person and
- 43:12you keep filling that tap on your head.
- 43:13He's going, you really, I need you to go see this person I want
- 43:17and then you don't do it. And maybe they pass like, you
- 43:22know, so if it's a good thing, don't argue with the Lord and
- 43:27say, is this you? Is this me?
- 43:29Is this you? Is this just?
- 43:31If it's good, just go do. It meaning like good for you.
- 43:34Good for you, good for them. And sometimes, though, it's a
- 43:37hard thing and that's why we don't want to do it, you know,
- 43:40that's. True, that's true.
- 43:42But but then I would rather be on that side of the hard side of
- 43:46doing it than not doing it and disobey and then not have an
- 43:50opportunity because the opportunities taken, sure,
- 43:55that's not that's not a place I want to be.
- 43:57Yeah. So yeah, sometimes doing the
- 43:59right thing is doing a hard thing, but it's always worth it.
- 44:04I I agree with that. It's it's not easy.
- 44:07Yeah. I mean, what what is the secret
- 44:09to 36 years of sobriety? Don't pick.
- 44:11Up. Just just don't pick up.
- 44:15There's times I go out with other people.
- 44:16You know, the women, they'll have a glass of wine.
- 44:18It's really funny now because we used to fill it up, you know, to
- 44:21where there was like this was at the top of the wine glass and
- 44:23now that there's that much wine in it, I'm like, why are you
- 44:28even drinking that? And what's that going to do?
- 44:31It's expensive too. But anyway.
- 44:33But but what? You just said what?
- 44:35What do I do? I.
- 44:36You know, like at 36 years of sobriety, don't.
- 44:38Pick up, but so I was going to say I have done this before.
- 44:41Let me just and it'll go like this and it must be the the oily
- 44:45legs come down a glass and just be ah, say in jewelry out for
- 44:50me, you know, because they haven't crossed the line to
- 44:53addiction as far as I know. So if you can have that much
- 44:57wine and you can leave some in it, I don't think you're an.
- 44:59Alcoholic. You know, yeah.
- 45:02So it's just choosing to say no and knowing that if I picked up
- 45:08and started doing cocaine, I'm going to wake up a really hungry
- 45:12bear that has been in hibernation for a long time, and
- 45:18it's going to have an appetite that I'm not going to be able to
- 45:21quench. Maybe not the first use, maybe
- 45:23not two weeks into it, but I've heard enough stories of people
- 45:27that have relapsed that have gone way beyond what they
- 45:32thought was their bottle almost every single time.
- 45:36And so think it through before you do it.
- 45:40Think it through. Is it worth it?
- 45:42No, I'm going to tell you right now, no, it's not.
- 45:45Didn't you say your brother had some spray and then he.
- 45:48Well, he didn't do heroin, and then he quit drinking beer, and
- 45:52then he quit smoking. But then Hep C came raging
- 45:58through his. Body I don't know Hep C.
- 46:00From sharing a needle. Oh, wow.
- 46:02Oh, hepatitis. Hepatitis.
- 46:04Hepatitis. OK, OK.
- 46:06So he never had a season like years of sobriety?
- 46:09He had yeah, at the end of it, I think, like the damage is done.
- 46:16Oh, kind of a thing. So no less God was to heal him
- 46:19of that, you know. But yeah, it, it came back to
- 46:22bite him in the butt and it was unfortunate.
- 46:26It is fortunate that I had a chief hepatologist that was on
- 46:30my show that knew me, that was willing to give him the try, the
- 46:34treatment that they came up with for, for healing Hep C and I
- 46:39just couldn't get him to the hospital there.
- 46:43Yeah, it, it was just a sad kind of shut in kind of whatever else
- 46:48it was. It was sad, but it was a lovely
- 46:52person with a really just a heart of gold, a good soul,
- 46:57beautiful voice, childless. I appreciate you sharing your
- 47:03story. Thank you.
- 47:04And I love that you you want to keep people from going down the
- 47:07path you went down. Bottom line is you know.
- 47:12You're going to fulfill your purpose.
- 47:14Find out what that is. Ask God.
- 47:16He'll show you. I hope that your purpose is
- 47:21something that you love to do. I sure didn't know that my
- 47:24purpose of saying that I'll never quit telling people what
- 47:28you've done for me and what I did bad would last six years.
- 47:31Yeah, that was a promise you made, right?
- 47:33God, if you Get Me Out of. Going to prison?
- 47:35Yeah. And I know your story.
- 47:37You know what I thought? You know what I thought at
- 47:39first? I if I go, I'm going to have to
- 47:42find the biggest, baddest girl in there and have her protect
- 47:46me. I thought I was like a person in
- 47:48prison. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 47:49My. Oh, my gosh.
- 47:50I don't get beat up or yell. I don't, you know.
- 47:53Yeah. I don't want to be there.
- 47:55Oh God. Please.
- 47:56This sounds like you mean you made a deal with it, with him,
- 47:59and he and I didn't make a deal with the devil.
- 48:01He took you up on it. He's like, all right.
- 48:02He said OK. See if your hand is an easy no,
- 48:05but has it been worth it? Absolutely.
- 48:07Yes. Absolutely.
- 48:08To see a life change or to have a teenager call you and say they
- 48:13heard your song on the radio and they're about to take their life
- 48:15and they didn't because they recognize your voice.
- 48:18I could quit. I mean, that's that's a.
- 48:20Win, you know, but I've been able to witness literally
- 48:24thousands and thousands of people surrendering their life
- 48:27to Christ, and there's no highlight that.
- 48:32Well, that's really good, yeah. There's no high.
- 48:34I mean, I just got goose, but. That's way better than
- 48:36artificial high, yes. To really see the light come on.
- 48:41And I have a young girl, God Girl is a song I have out right
- 48:45now and I have these bling shirts.
- 48:48There's there's, I have a YouTube channel, all that stuff.
- 48:51But I'm going to wrap this up if we can.
- 48:57There was a girl who is being baptized.
- 48:59She'd waited hours to have her face painted at this Christian
- 49:04carnival type thing and it was her turn that they were doing
- 49:09the baptisms and she was next to get her face painted and she
- 49:13told her grandma know if this is the only shot I want to go
- 49:16baptized. I want to go get baptized she
- 49:19said, but you're next she said, but I want to go be baptized and
- 49:22on their way over she said, why do you want to be baptized so
- 49:25bad? She said Because I want to be a
- 49:27God girl like Lisa, like you don't want to be like me.
- 49:34But that is just sweet. That is sweet.
- 49:39That's gorgeous. It's beautiful.
- 49:42Yeah, it makes me, makes me want to cry because I know how far
- 49:46I've come. Yeah.
- 49:47And the other thing, Kristen, when I asked him, was back into
- 49:49my heart, my life. I had been raised in the church,
- 49:51right? And I had that resentment and,
- 49:53you know, whatever. Now I'm doing what my mom does,
- 49:56picking up broken people. Everywhere I go.
- 49:59I I find all the broken ones. They're the ones I love the
- 50:02most. And that's what she was doing.
- 50:06But I mean, I had a really good thought there for a minute.
- 50:09I am definitely a squirrel. I'm sorry, I just what a legacy
- 50:13though. I mean that story.
- 50:15You know, I was just doing what she did, you know, laying on
- 50:17people. And one thing my mom definitely
- 50:23was, wasn't a secret keeper. And I think that that's what we
- 50:26could all work on a little more. Don't tell someone else's story.
- 50:30It's not. It's not your story to tell.
- 50:33I think we could all learn. I shot it.
- 50:36Well, I must say thank you for telling your story though.
- 50:40Well, I promised him I would, and I didn't go to prison.
- 50:43I didn't go to prison. I had a healthy fine, four years
- 50:46for probation and 200 hours community service, and I should
- 50:50have been in prison. Thank you, Jesus.
- 50:52So I've been in touch. All the women's prison singing,
- 50:55sharing my story. They have two that were only a
- 50:58couple miles apart. Went in there with Chuck Coulson
- 51:01when he was live. A personal Yeah.
- 51:02Prison fellowship. I've been in Folsom Prison with,
- 51:08oh, someone that you would know, Chan.
- 51:13Francis Chan. Oh, I like.
- 51:14Him yes we went in on Good Friday and my husband and I sang
- 51:19like because he lives all Easter type song yes because of I'm a
- 51:24Good Friday and you know right and you know what I sing with
- 51:27Gaither. They wrote that I do not, and
- 51:29that's why all that that just came.
- 51:31Yeah, they wrote because he lives and he touched me.
- 51:34So many songs in the hymnals. Wonderful people.
- 51:37All right, well, I'd like to wrap up a show with the rapid
- 51:40fire questions and I know that you you've already chosen which
- 51:43ones you want to answer. So here we go.
- 51:46You ready? I think what's a Bible verse you
- 51:48return to again and again? Psalm 4133I waited patiently for
- 51:52the Lord. He turned to me and he heard my
- 51:53cry. He lifted me on the slimy pit.
- 51:55He set my feet upon a rock, Gave me a firm place, place to stand.
- 51:58He put a new song in my mouth. I hymn a praise to our God.
- 52:01Many will see in fear and put the trust in the Lord.
- 52:04So good yes. What's 1 spiritual practice that
- 52:08always re centers you? Well, getting in the word I I
- 52:17started reading. The other thing is the what
- 52:21centers me is having worship music on centers me.
- 52:26I don't do the whole I clean the house like this.
- 52:29What do you mean like like all over the?
- 52:31This is to be there though I could do 10.
- 52:33Miles, like a tornado, is what you're saying?
- 52:34Like, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's not like put
- 52:36all the stuff in a pile because that goes in that room.
- 52:38No, take it nap. So worship music is a good thing
- 52:43for me. Center me.
- 52:44And then I've read through the Bible three times in the last
- 52:48five years. Have a great five day reading
- 52:50plan. I love, love, love it.
- 52:52It's not going from Genesis to Revelation because I poop out
- 52:55around Habakkuk and Leviticus and.
- 52:58That's where I struggle. I'm like, come on, when you read
- 53:02this, it's just called 5 day reading plan and you have
- 53:05Saturday, Sunday off, but you get to the whole Bible.
- 53:08So I'm going through my mom's Bible, one of her the six that
- 53:11are completely broken and I'm reading one of her favorite book
- 53:15was Isaiah, which if you knew that there are as many chapters
- 53:19in the Old Testament in Isaiah and as many chapters and in the
- 53:22New Testament in Isaiah. So it's kind of like the whole
- 53:26Bible is wild. Wait, I'm so lost.
- 53:29There's this many shot. Same amount of books as the Old
- 53:32Testament and the New Testament combined.
- 53:34Oh, 66? Yeah, that's how many chapters
- 53:37there are in. Isaiah OK, I remember And so
- 53:39kind of some of it is old, old school yesterday and then the
- 53:43new, the new wife when Jesus came to down the cross for us
- 53:47that we could go live with him because of his sacrifice on the
- 53:50cross for us. So I'm reading and why reading
- 53:53everything that she notated and I'm reading it along with my
- 53:57Bible and I'm underlining. I'm learning from her even
- 54:01though she passed away seven years ago at 93.
- 54:06And I was in bed with her for four days as she was passing.
- 54:10And it was the hardest yet the most beautiful thing.
- 54:18Yeah, we were very, very close. Very, very close.
- 54:20When I finally came back to the Lord, she traveled with me a
- 54:22lot. Oh, well, that's great.
- 54:24Yeah, on the road. All right, next question.
- 54:28What boat, besides the Bible shaped your spiritual journey
- 54:31the most? In the beginning it was a a
- 54:32book. They call it the.
- 54:34Big book, the big book, that Big Blue book, OK, because it gave
- 54:38me the how it works, the honesty, the open mindedness and
- 54:42the willingness. And then the steps.
- 54:43I, I urge any Christian to do the steps, do the 4th step
- 54:47because it's a whole list of your resentments, whole list of
- 54:49your fears and a whole list of your sexual conduct, your sexual
- 54:52conduct and it will clean house for you.
- 54:56I mean, what's not great about feeling lighter and not carrying
- 55:01secrets that have been buried or resentments.
- 55:03Just I highly recommend that for any anybody, right, especially
- 55:07any believer. Just do do 123, you know, became
- 55:12we came to believe, you know, we came, we came to and we came to
- 55:16believe, right. And that our life was crazy and
- 55:20and said unmanagement, unmanageable, and then made a
- 55:23list of all the all the resentments we earned.
- 55:25Yeah. And yeah, clean house.
- 55:29It's good. So yeah, big book.
- 55:31What's a lesson you learned the hard way?
- 55:34I fought the law and the law one.
- 55:37There's a song in that song in. That I'm dating myself.
- 55:41But yeah, you know, I thought I could outrun out sweet talk out
- 55:45AB singing my AB CS through all the stops that I've had.
- 55:49And several of them worked, four of them did not.
- 55:52And I learned my lesson that you know what?
- 55:55And I know there's a lot going on in our world today.
- 55:57We don't have to go red or blue, but I just.
- 56:01I'm not going to be one that's going to mouth off to a cop.
- 56:05I'm just not because they have a job to do.
- 56:07Not every cop is good, not every person is good.
- 56:10We, no, it doesn't matter red or yellow, black or white, We all
- 56:15are sinful in nature. But I respect authority.
- 56:21Are you ready for your last one? OK, all right, here we go.
- 56:24What's one thing you know God is calling you to right now?
- 56:28Go and tell and make disciples. And I thought it was going to be
- 56:32the last. It's going to be called the Last
- 56:33Call Tour. I thought I was going to be 26.
- 56:35But I've been doing a lot of things.
- 56:36And that's why I'm down here in Florida.
- 56:39I'm joining Moms for America and there's a big luncheon and I
- 56:44sing for it. I sang at the 20th anniversary
- 56:47with John Rich. And I've been doing a lot of
- 56:49things for for our country. I love America.
- 56:54This is Tom. This is Tom.
- 56:56This is, I love America, it is the land of opportunity and my
- 57:00dad served in World World War Two.
- 57:03My brother served 22 years in the Army, my nephew served in
- 57:06the Army as well, front lines of Afghanistan.
- 57:10I have a Lieutenant Colonel friend of mine I've known for 35
- 57:13years. I just, I love first responders.
- 57:17I have respect. And so I just say just stay home
- 57:22and love on your kids, man. Just stay home and love on your
- 57:24kids or find something. Put on some worship music,
- 57:28instrumental and dance. Dance around like nobody's
- 57:32watching. It's a lot better than getting
- 57:33out there getting all messed up. Lisa, thank you so much for
- 57:38stopping by and for sharing, unpacking your story with me and
- 57:44just being an advocate for people to to get to know God and
- 57:48to also deal with whatever's going on in your mental health,
- 57:51your addictions, you. Have that dopamine and that
- 57:53serotonin. I just just don't pick up, don't
- 57:55do whatever that thing is that is calling you something when
- 58:00you're not living for the Lord and you're you got 1 foot in
- 58:02that one foot, one step over the line.
- 58:07Something, some ISM is your thing and don't let it call your
- 58:11name anymore. Try to turn it around, shut it
- 58:14off, hit your knees, ask Jesus to come into your heart and
- 58:17He'll change your life forever like it did mine.
- 58:19Like it Idris? And mine, yes, I thank you God.
- 58:23Bless. Thank you.
- 58:24Thank you.