Hope When Someone You Love Battles Addiction | Robert Ruesch

David W Ebel: Welcome to the God Says Yes Podcast. You are welcome here. Welcome to another episode of God Says Yes. I'm your host, David Ebel, and after fifty plus years of ministry, I still have a ⁓ a love for people and a burden to help those that struggle. And at some point or another we all struggle. It's not an ⁓ something that happens just to some people. But ⁓ whether whether we've we've struggled because of pain or problem, whether someone's done things to us or we've done things to others or however, it's easy to feel Like you want to just kinda step step back a notch and and not be as involved. And then y you step further back and further back until you're you're not involved with the Lord like you used to be. Or maybe you never got to know him. You and ⁓ you you you're you really need hope. That's what this podcast is here for. We're here to br encourage, to build up. It's a place where you can you can be yourself. And ⁓ no judgmentalism here, we're we're here just to love you. So ⁓ I'm grateful you're here and I hope that something we we say or do will be a huge blessing to you because that's our prayer. So ⁓ I'm I have with me a ⁓ a a good friend, Robert. And Robert, your last name is Roosh. Roosh. I wanted to make I didn't want to say it wrong. So so Robert, we're grateful you're here, and ⁓ I'm I'm excited to hear what God is is gonna do with this. So welcome. ⁓ would you would you tell us who you are so we're not talking to just a stranger? Well, I'm I'm one of God's servants. Let me say that first. I've ⁓ I've ⁓ been a writer for ⁓ many, many, many years. It's ⁓ I feel one of ⁓ one of the skills that God gave me in calling, along with being a speaker. And so I was raised at a place called the YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park. Now when you when you hear YMCA, you you think of about a whole bunch of guys running around looking for the swimming pool. ⁓ most YMCAs that would be true. But this YMCA has its own zip code. It's located in Estes Park, Colorado, on over three thousand acres with eleven lodges and over three hundred cabins. They serve four thousand meals a day times three. when they were at capacity. My dad took over the camp in nineteen fifty and was there until nineteen eighty one. That was my back my playground and background and et cetera was the Rocky Mountain National Forest. So during that time I got to meet quite a few people, some that are very interesting, but what grew me as as a spiritual person was meeting the individual students that came in there in the summertime for college. ⁓ in seventh grade I had already written or had written, had read Atlas Shrugged, nineteen eighty four, Dr. Shivago, because that's what they were reading. And so, you know, my reading maturity was a little bit higher than the usual seventh grade kid that was, you know, reading comic books. Actually I never thought comic books were that funny. I just kind of read them and thought, well that's cute. But so over the summertime that we would spend there, it was it was quite interesting because families would come in for a week or two weeks stay. And so you'd make these friends and then they'd be back next year. Now over the time since the YMC of the Rockies has been established since nineteen ⁓ seven, there have been more than eight generations that have come there vacation and their kids have worked there. So it's quite a legacy. So from that, you know, we had a lot of different dynamic speakers who come preach on on Sundays for us, which was really kind of great. And I learned from them a a lot of different philosophies. I I learned from the the the founders of the Fellowship of Christianity athletes which had their first conferences and the YMCA helped bankroll. at the YMC at at Estes Park in in the early mid fifties. And so, you know, I I met different people. one of ⁓ Paul Anderson, who was which was the world's strongest man, and literally he was, ⁓ lessons that he taught. And so, you know, my background was unique from most people. Winters in in Denver, Colorado, summers in Estes Park, Colorado. What What more blessed childhood could you possibly have? And So I have a question. We we always ask the simple question up front. Who were you before Jesus? Lost. That's the easiest way to say it. ⁓ I was just a kid in school and fortunately I had an incredible pastor that ⁓ I was with throughout the the wintertime. Reverend Perry from Scotland and he had a Scottish brogue that he talked with. And he kinda befriended me 'cause my dad was gone a lot, doing what he needed to do, which was okay 'cause I had the grace for that. And ⁓ through Reverend Perry he led me to Christ. And this happened in eighth grade. And I can remember going forward in church. And here's the thing, David, it was so cool because I just went forward and the look on his face was almost angelic when I accepted Christ. Now when he baptized me, I saw that same look. I love it. Now years later, myself and several of other men that were good friends, we traveled to Israel together together, and a good friend of mine baptized me again in the Jordan. River, because I asked him to. And when I came up, Mark had the same look as Reverend Perry, the same angelic smile. Now that's not coincidence. That's God working. That's that's a God wink. And so before Jesus I was just kind of lost and roaming around after I met Jesus. Then I started to ask myself, well, who am I gonna be? What am I going to do and how am I going to do it? And going to a Christian college 'cause I graduated in sixty four. so we went through the trauma of President Kennedy's assassination and and Martin Luther King's etcetera and and so in college I was in the the choir and we would toured every year and we go to these churches and I would always walk around the sanctuary after we got everything set up and the rest of the choir was down eating, I was I would go down later, and I would say, Lord, is this my church? Is this where I'm supposed to be? And I never heard an answer of it in the affirmative. But what I did hear is, you will do what I ask you to do if you would be willing to do it. And I said, What is that? And from that I just heard within my soul, you will write You will try to bring people to Christ. Whether you bring them to Christ or not, that is up to them. But you will try. You will present that message. So that before Jesus, I was basically black and white. After Jesus, as in photography, I was in Technicolor. I was codachrome. I love it. And that's when your life changed. And now we pick up to the story you were telling us before. and the Not n tell us about your life after you re w after God really sunk his y his love into your heart and and changed you from the inside out. What did that what did that look like, feel like? Tell us about it. It was it was not comfortable, but it was comfortable. ⁓ Jesus says that the world will hate you and I had friends that were n not religious and so I was little Bobby Two shoes a lot of times and but yet When they would do things that were outside the morality and theology of Christ, it felt uncomfortable to me. Whereas before it was like, yeah, we'll just go along with it. But now it's different because when that Holy Spirit enters into you, you you get a life direction. It's not a feather a against a train or a feather against a a ⁓ a tank or an oil tank or It's it's a huge shift in who you are and what you are and how you're going to be. And so my life started to to look like, you know, I needed purpose. I didn't know exactly what that purpose would be. But over the years, over time, I discovered that. I think some some people they they get a divine purpose right when they accept Christ. Other times Christ says, I'm gonna put you on the shelf 'cause you're benched right now. You don't need to be on the playing field. You know, you we we need to work with you a little bit. But I always felt that writing was something I could do to reach the the lost and the unlost, that I could through through his words and my writing and putting them on paper. That I could reach people's hearts. And I believe I've been able to do that. Amen. Now, with that in mind, the you you went to you were at the the Y Camp a lot. ⁓ Career what did what did you know, you your life has been changed, but tell us what what do you do now? I'm retired now. ⁓ basically have been retired for several years. ⁓ let me let me step back a little bit in time. During high school, ⁓ I met I met my high school sweetheart. She had already met me by looking across kind of part of the school grounds and telling her girlfriend that she was going to marry that guy, being me that guy someday. Someday took twenty-five years, but we did get together. And we started ⁓ a graphic arts company, which we had for seven years. We were the first company that ever did digital processing of photographs for newspapers, et cetera. And when we were fifty-five, we sold the company and went into mission work. of which we were in for over twenty years. We placed chaplains into RV parks across the United States. And so ⁓ that you know, we I quote, fired myself from that in twenty two, twenty twenty two and ⁓ ever since then have been been writing. ⁓ but we were blessed to be able to be retired, to be able to self support ourselves in mission work for over twenty years straight. God is you know given us an incredible career. So, in answer to your question, you know, my life was was planned by God a long time before I knew that. All of ours are, if we accepted it. And one of ⁓ was finally getting back with my high school sweetheart. We dated our sophomore year, didn't our junior year, a little bit our senior year, then I went off to college and kinda did my thing and She did hers and then we combined two families together. And so between the two of us now, Barb had four children, I had one, and ⁓ we have lost one. ⁓ has been promoted to heaven. That's our disabled son Shane, who had C P. And watching him pass from from earth to glory was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, David. It was just as a medic, because I've been a medic, ⁓ obvious because of working in rural areas where there wasn't a lot of medicine, so I picked up my medic my medic degree. But seeing him pass into glory was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. This nonverbal Christian that spoke louder than anybody else in the world as he was passing away, and I want to share this, he raised his emaciated hand, looked up, got this Chestercat's smile on his face, a tear dropped down from his eye, and his hand went and he exhaled on earth and inhaled in heaven. That's incredible. You see, David, th there's realtors say there's two lo there there's only one thing location, location, location. Jesus says, Yes, that's true. Heaven or hell. I have seen people pass away that did not have that look. And I've seen people pass away that have that look. And I am more than willing to have that conversation with people saying, Hey, there is a supernatural realm out there. And as you pass you will know which way you're going. There's a a film that's out there that has been out since the nineteen eighties, Ghost. And it's not a Christian film, but the theology in it is so crystal clear. The the Bible talks about how the that the hell was not made for man but for the devil and his angels. And so God doesn't send people to hell. He that's why Jesus was sent so that we would never have to go there. Jesus shed his blood so we could be forgiven and there would be nothing that would hinder us from heaven. But for for those that don't accept that gift, then that's the unfortunate other only choice. But the spiritual warfare that comes from the the the the world that that is not impacted by Christ. He doesn't want us to pray and doesn't want us to read and doesn't want us to trust and doesn't want us to heal. Doesn't want us to have a life with joy. He wants us to he He wants us to be miserable. If you go back and and read the four gospels, especially the first three, ⁓ Matthew, Mark, and John all jump from the crucifixion to the tearing of the curtain. And that happened when Jesus said it is finished. The curtain was torn from the top to the bottom. Just as when Jesus came out of the tomb, he didn't fold his napkin or his cloth, he laid it there, which was tradition to say, I am coming back. Absolutely. And that's that's why God didn't doesn't want anyone to to not have a relationship. He's he's he's he's paved the way through Jesus, so we can all have the promises of God fulfilled in our lives. Exactly. And that's what I try to write in my books, and especially the last one, The Long Road Home, which is about my daughter and her addiction over thirty plus years, and her saving grace and her going from victory. victim to victory. Amen. Well this is this has been a ⁓ a special interview because your perspective is is ⁓ not like everybody else's, it's your own story. And I love that. I love the fact that you're that you can share from a completely different vantage point. But God is is the same. His love is the same, his mercy is the same, his his love for mankind is the same, and his w his willingness to to love us into a change. And love us into a new life, and love us into healing. And you know, you know, that's why the podcast says God says yes. It's not God is a yes man, but yes, God wants to heal us, yes, God wants to bless us, yes, God wants to change our lives, yes, he wants to do beautiful things. And that's that's your story. Yes. God is wants us to be in love with him so he can love us back. Well, see, we God never lets go of our hand. We may let go of his. I I like to use the analogy that there was a married couple sitting on a bench seat in their their vehicle and there was a young couple in front of them in another car and the gal was ⁓ sitting close to her her boyfriend and the wife in the car behind the married couple turned to her husband and said, ⁓ look, they are so close together. Isn't that wonderful? That's just beautiful. And he turned the husband turned back to the wife and said, Honey, I haven't moved. Have been moved. That's powerful. When I was a when I was a young convert, through there was a ⁓ a song that came out that said, Yeah, if Jesus seems so far away, get guess who moved. Right, exactly. I still remember that to this day. When you said that it brought back that memory instantly. Well, Jonah was in the stomach of the whale and cried out and that's a pretty serious place to be. Yeah. I mean, he's gonna go to Nineveh, this great city that is, you know, the fashion capital, the you know, the capital of the world. He's gonna go in there smelling like whale barf and telling ⁓ Hey, you guys goofed up. You know, talk about opposites. But yet he convinced them that they did. So the most unlikely person can be used in the in the most highly likely situation. We just have to be willing to be there. And I want to do that with my writing. I want to do that with my speaking to people, saying, Hey, the you know, cowboy up, become a, you know, use your theology. Right now the the the main question I think people need to ask and they don't and I think it's ⁓ it's a lot on Christians is if we were ships, are we a cruise ship or a battleship? A cruise ship goes from port to port that is safe, comfortable, and happy. And in a cruise ship you get to eat off the buffet. So if you're a cruise ship Christian, then you're picking stuff off the buffet. ⁓ you know, just dessert and just this. If you're a battleship Christian, you do not go to safe ports. You go to where the problem is. You go to where the challenge needs to be solved. And you are not eating off a buffet. You are eating quickly to get back into battle. That's what we are. Are you a cruise ship or a battleship Christian? Me, I prefer to be the second. I want to be the battleship Christian. I want to bring the conversation around. And I will do that when I'm talking to individuals. in line somewhere and say, How is your day? How are you doing today? And they'll look up and say, Well, thank you for asking. I'm having an okay day. I said, Well that doesn't convince me on a scale of one to ten. Well I'm a five. What can I do for you? You know, people in retail that they get beat up all the time. We should lift them up. Beat up's one thing. Lifting them up's a different thing. I agree. I I've made it my my ministry business to find a way without being f you know, not faking it, to find something good to say to everyone when that serves other people. Because many of them i this i they don't even hear thank you. They they hear the complaints, they don't hear the affirmation. And and every soul deserves love. Well, I I think when you go out and and the wait staff comes over and th they give you their their quick spiel, Hi, I'm so and so and I'm gonna be your your your server today. And you know, so you know a little bit about them, their name and that they're probably rushed. But what I love to do and I will tell you that I forget more often than not sometimes, is to say, Well, I'm so and so and ⁓ this is my order, da da da da da And before we eat, we're going to pray. How can we pray for you? Now this happened in a ⁓ a restaurant once. We were sitting there, it was down in Arizona, and it was ⁓ in a retired community, so everybody was rushing to to to get their favorite piece of chicken at the restaurant, so the place was packed. And the waitress stopped and tears started coming down her eyes, and she said, Please pray f for my fiance. He is over on a mission that I don't know about, and I don't know if he'll come home, and I am so scared. And we said, Okay, we can do that. And she stood there. Then we realized that she wanted to be included in the prayer. Now this noisy restaurant, I don't know if it was just my ears that just took things out, but it became very quiet. As the eight of us at that table gathered around the ninth person and prayed for her and for her fiance, that things would be safe. Now whether he came back or not, I do not know. But I know that it helped us and it helped her too, because she became softened instead of harassed and harried about all the work that she was doing, and her demeanor changed. And that not only did the ripple effect for us but for everybody else. She was the the rock in the puddle, and everybody else was on the shore and they felt the impact of that rock going in the puddle because it had ever hit every other table that she was serving. Absolutely. We we don't know what people go through. We have no idea and in the culture we live in it we're t we've been trained to be take w take care of me and move on. Take care of me and move on. Mike sort of micro microwave life. Thirty seconds in, thirty seconds in, thirty seconds in. But when you when you realize that people are humans and they have feelings and they have experiences and they have challenges, and you ask God to help you be sensitive to it, some of the most powerful ministry you'll ever do isn't behind a pulpit. It's it's behind someone in line in the grocery store. It can be anywhere you want. And I I think that just to be available is Yeah, and we have to be the Christians that the that the o that the non Christians read. We're the Bible that they read. And so we need to be the big print. I agree totally. Couldn't have said it better. Thank you. So as we move to the next piece of this, there's always a golden nugget that we ask for. That's the piece that people can mull over and chew on and c and meditate and pray about for the so that after the podcast is done, the the ministry continues. What would you like to share with us that would be something we could take with us from this podcast and apply to our lives? Well let me go back ⁓ to when we traveled across the United States in our R V. In twenty years we traveled over three hundred and sixty thousand miles placing chaplains into campgrounds. They really only wanted to be placed in the wintertime down in the south. For some reason they didn't want to be the chosen frozen up in Minnesota. You know, in the mid So but as we would travel, I would see these signs. They were yellow with black. lettering on them and they would be put up on a pole somewhere, ⁓ a light pole or electrical pole or t ⁓ a telephone pole, whatever. And it always said, trust Jesus. And it's the sign seems to come up about the same time that we were worrying about something, whether we're gonna make our next stop, et cetera, et cetera. So my golden nugget is two words. Trust Jesus. Now Senator Bill Armstrong that became the head of Colorado Christian University always said, and this is the last words I heard from him before he passed away, and it goes right along with it. His last words that I heard him say before I before before he was promoted to glory were Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That is about the best three part sermon one can have. So my golden nugget is trust Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Goodness at it better. That's just where what needs to happen. Now for those that are struggling, who maybe they they've been sitting on the side of the road watching life go by, almost like either they don't feel worthy to get back in, or they they they've been hurt enough that they're they're not sure they want to get back in because of the pain. Remember that Jesus didn't do it to you. Situations, people do those things. We are not those situations, and we're not defined by our past. We're defined by what we choose. So when we do choose to seek Jesus, we're asking God to tell us, I love you, but we we need to give him room to do that by opening our heart. Forget about the people who've hurt you or how you've hurt people, forget about the failures, and just say, in spite of those things, I don't like my life. Jesus, I want you. I choose you. And when you do that, that gives God room through his Holy Spirit to take. control in your heart, to love you from the inside out and to begin a wonderful work of change. Like he like he's done for ⁓ to for Robert, like he's done for me. He what he'd love to do for you, whatever you're going through, whether it's little or big, whether it's it's tiny but it drives you crazy, or whether it's it's horrendous in in in in and you don't even know how you're going to get through it. The same Jesus deals with us as personal relationships. And he meets you where you're at. And he loves you the way you are. And he has compassion for you like you've never met anyone have compassion. He created you to love, he'll always love you. You can't do something wrong enough to lose his love. It his relationship with you is not performance based. How we respect him is to perform in a way that makes him brings him glory and makes him proud. But he doesn't force that on us. It's a ri it should be a reflection of how much we love him. So as we give him more room in our life, we change from the inside out, and then the reflections can happen supernaturally, even though it just seems just like a natural change. Exactly. And when I wrote well, when Jenny and I Jenny and I wrote the book about her addiction that's in the first person, I when God said you need to write this book, it was like, Well, you've got to be kidding me. But then I realized that it wasn't my book, it was his book. And the first three books that I wrote were only training for this book. And that is in fact the reason that probably and I don't want to brag about that, but I'm very very thankful that the book has won an award, you know, of excellence. And I trusted Jesus when I had to interview Jen on some tough, tough subjects about her addiction. And so the bottom line story on that, ⁓ David, that you the rest of the story is Paul Harvey would say is that Jenny is now nine years alcohol free, close to four years drug free, and literally a w a week a week from now, she will be moving into her own place. She has been living with us for the past three years. So finally as eighty year olds, we're gonna be at the nesters. Because this fifty one year old Is reaching her maturity of age and in in her maturity also. So Well Jes Jesus met with her when she was ready. And when she was ready, she changed because she allowed Jesus to give her the victory. She she she already was Jesus paid the for the price for that victory long ago. He finally was able to to to to manifest that in her life. And now she's walking in faith. And she doesn't even She doesn't even need mom and dad to help her now. She needs just Jesus and she'll be fine. Yeah, hopefully she'll help us. Well ⁓ no, you know, she doesn't leave you. She just doesn't need you. We need to come needing each other instead. Exactly. Which is what it should be. So ⁓ thank you for opening your heart and your life to us. ⁓ you're more than welcome. It's my pleasure and honor. Thank you for having me on. Well this is this is an important podcast because we we we deal with not only just people who come on and they just want to tell us their story and that's it. But we have people like you who open their hearts and tell us deeper stories, more about themselves. And and that's important too, because we are all different. So our audience is going to speak, witness and connect to different guests. And so you're going to be the one that somebody needs for a divine appointment. who who's going through what you're going through or has gone through what you've gone through. So you're going to be able to speak to them directly through God's help, through his anointing, and make a difference in their life 'cause you are there for them as God prearranged. Amen. Well said. So at this point we're gonna I'm gonna close this in prayer, give a challenge, and then ⁓ Robert and I are going to wait for Riverside to finish its ⁓ magnificent upload and ⁓ then we'll move from there. So let's Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you for the privilege for the to be here. Lord, we're grateful for all you've done. We ask that you'd anoint this the what we've said and done to impact the lives around us. Make a difference for eternity in each life in Jesus' name. Amen. Robert, I for almost forgotten and I don't want to forget your books. normally what we'll do is we'll ask you to pick the f your favorite or most powerful book. And tell us about it and then and and then your website where they can see all your books. Okay. ⁓ I think ⁓ my most powerful book is the last one I wrote called The Long Road Home, A Family's Journey Through Addiction. And it talks about the thirty plus years that my daughter was addicted because of the abuse from her stepdad. I was a single parent ⁓ for most of her life. And she Anything that she could swallow, sniff, or basically shoot up, she would do. And my prayer throughout all those years were protect and keep her safe, Lord. And he did. And so that book is available on Amazon. It can be ordered at Barnes and Noble or if you want, I can do a personally signed copy by writing me at my email, which is Robert Nruch at gmail dot com. And I will send you a ⁓ a a JPEG file of the cover of the book. And so my website is the same, Robert Nrush dot com. And so those are the ways to contact me. I'm very happy to virtually speak to any group that is going through an addictive problem, any individual, and say there is hope that there is you do not have to be the victim. There can be the victory. Amen. Amen. And with with that in mind, my closing remarks are always the same. You want to know God? Seek Him. You want to know Him better? Seek Jesus because Jesus said He was the way to God. So you you can know of God in a f like a postcard, or you can give your heart to Jesus and let Him work in your life, and then you'll experience the love of God from the inside out as He custom made you for that love. Trust Him. Give Him room in your life. And watch what God will do when you give him the role. This has been the God Says Yes Podcast with David Evil. To connect with David, email him at GodsaysYespodcast at gmail dot com. You can get his latest book, When the Doctors Say No, God says yes at Amazon.com.