Spin-Off Episode with Alex Johnson - Sobriety, Healing and Freedom found in Christ

One of my favorite places to connect with couples is Instagram because you get pieces and glimpses of someone’s story and a good read on their heart.  It’s always fun to connect further and get the whole story.  Alex’s Instagram page was just that for me.  Her page is bright, uplifting, points to Jesus and I just love her heart and the power of Jesus at work in her life. Alex hosts a YouTube channel where she boldly shares her journey with Jesus and what He saved her from.

I’ve been wanting to do spin-off episodes to get to the heart of the testimonies, to go a little deeper, and to bring you the “wife’s” perspective in marriage to the table as a majority of our listeners are female/wives themselves.  

I’m so grateful Alex decided to stay on with me to do just that.  We heard from her and her husband in episode 29, but I’m excited I got the chance to chat one on one so you can hear more of her miraculous testimony.

10 years sober

Alex recently celebrated 10 years of sobriety. She shares the celebration is more to glorify God and what He’s capable of doing. When you first get clean, you can’t even think that far ahead, you shouldn’t. It’s a moment-by-moment, step-by-step process.

Alex shares with us how issues started in her upbringing. She was raised in a loving, smart, driven family. Her mom is an attorney, her dad a nuclear physicist. She was raised Jewish and knew about God, but was always jealous about Christmas being celebrated and wanted to be able to do that too.

Self-esteem issues stemmed from being raised this way, she always felt really different, went through a season where the family was really poor, while mom was passing the bar, she dressed like a tom-boy, and shares how she always felt ugly and insecure.

When she discovered alcohol at a young age, she found it gave her confidence. This developed into cocaine use at age 14, by age 15 she was in a correctional facility, and those addictions turned to a heroin and crack addiction. She said weed and pills were always involved too. She shares addiction is a super vicious cycle of feeling shame, continuing to disappoint family and friends.

“The only way to break free is truly Jesus.”

Before knowing that, she didn’t feel she had any hope….this caused her to get into the adult industry which even became a form of addiction. That lasted for 5 months and it was another way of numbing pain. “It was my way of saying “screw you” to the world….to run from the emotions.”

saved by grace

One day at her community college, she walked in high on heroin and crack, and people were handing out bibles. By God’s grace she walked up to them and the next day she went back (that was God), she told one of the girls her story, opened up to her, and this girl presented the gospel to her, no one had ever done that before. Even though she had gone to church a few times, and thought Jesus sounded like a really good idea she felt He wasn’t for her because she felt too far gone. But this girl said, “You’re wrong. Jesus really did come for you to live a new life” and Alex shares, “Someone telling me that made me think….maybe she’s telling the truth. I was so desperate at that point for help so I prayed the Lord’s prayer, asking Jesus into my heart.”

The next 2 months were still a struggle, she was still using yet this girl was texting her, telling her she believed in her and was praying for her. But Alex felt she couldn’t do it, she wasn’t strong enough, but she got down on her knees and said, “God if You’re real, I need Your help. I want to get sober but I don’t know how to.”  She smoked her last bit of drugs, called a sponsor who met with her, and has been sober ever since! God met her there and answered her desperate plea. Truly a miracle!

It was then that she opened up Scripture, and the floodgate of light opened and it began to heal her heart. She spent 11 months focusing on God and herself, changed her number, got off social media, God began healing her in church and through AA and that’s when Dallas came back into her life.

We emphasize how much community has to come right after surrendering to God. The enemy makes you think we need to hide in the shadows. “Bring it out into the open so it can get abolished. Zero possibility, or very low probability that you can get through something really hard on your own. God uses people to help us.”

business, ministry and safehouses

Alex was called out of going to med school and called to get her Master’s in Business instead. She always cared about charity ideas, one of the main reasons why she wanted to be a doctor…to provide for charity needs, but God called her to trust Him with this new direction. She found herself in a season of depression during this time but once she shifted her attitude and became grateful for the season, she had the vision to start a clothing line in which the proceeds would go to safehouses (Rapha House) and sex trafficking awareness and suicide prevention. 

We chat about how God takes us full circle and takes the most twisted parts of our story and redeems them.

God sent her on a mission trip to Cambodia - to minister to women who’d been rescued out of sex trafficking. Women at the Christian- based safehouse were so happy and full of life, knew the Lord and talked about being redeemed and beautiful children of God. Little girls, women. They were so happy to be out of that life.

You can connect with Alex on her Instgram and watch for her Bible studies and encouragement on her YouTube channel . You can also learn more about the human trafficking epidemic on next month’s episode. I will be interviewing a couple who are advocating and on the front lines of this very real, very important fight.