From the Apartment Floor to a Life Restored: Jeremy’s Story
For nineteen years, Jeremy Rathbone ran from a God he had known since childhood. On the floor of a San Diego apartment, that race finally ended, not in defeat, but in surrender. Jeremy had known Scripture since he was five years old, but when his parents’ marriage shattered around him at age ten, something inside him shattered too. What followed was nineteen years of addiction as he tried to fill the God-shaped hole in his heart. At his lowest moment, alone and out of options, he cried out to God. Instead of condemnation, he was reminded of a promise his mother had written on his lunch bags as a boy. Jeremiah 29:11. Plans for hope and a future.
For nineteen years, Jeremy Rathbone ran from a God he had known since childhood. On the floor of a San Diego apartment, that race finally ended, not in defeat, but in surrender. Jeremy had known Scripture since he was five years old, but when his parents’ marriage shattered around him at age ten, something inside him shattered too. What followed was nineteen years of addiction as he tried to fill the God-shaped hole in his heart. At his lowest moment, alone and out of options, he cried out to God. Instead of condemnation, he was reminded of a promise his mother had written on his lunch bags as a boy. Jeremiah 29:11. Plans for hope and a future.
That moment became the turning point. Jeremy called his mother the next morning and said simply, “I’m done.” A week later he was at San Diego Teen Challenge, beginning a new road that would lead to restoration, ministry, and a life built around serving others. Today he continues to share that same hope with people who are still fighting the battle he once faced.
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