I was drunk: Christian and drunk. They just don't go together. But that's what happened. And the next day, obviously God had honored those prayers and healed me of alcoholism.

I couldn't imagine, you know, God having a plan for my life. I thought I planned my life out.

I was trying my best not to drink. I'd go a day or two, and I just couldn't stand it. It kinda got around that 'Hamilton got religion.' So for about a year, it was the most miserable time of my life because I was secretly still drinking. One night I came home, after about a year of this, and I woke up the next day and the desire was gone.

My life and my plan wasn't very good, but at least it was my plan. It got to that point that I just couldn't stand it any more.

My dad was a good man but an emotionally absent father, and so I had to look for that male attention somewhere else, and found it in a brother-in-law. He just happened to be an alcoholic.

I have no clue who that old Jim was. God has certainly transformed me into a different Jim.

Memory calls us back, Mystery draws us forward.