{"id":21796,"date":"2026-03-11T11:48:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/how-gods-mercy-helped-this-pilot-through-addiction\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:12:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:12:56","slug":"how-gods-mercy-helped-this-pilot-through-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/addiction-and-recovery\/how-gods-mercy-helped-this-pilot-through-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"How God’s Mercy Helped This Pilot Through Addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes in church I glance over at my wife and still can\u2019t believe how fortunate I am. Then I look down at our twin girls, five years old, and their little sister, a year old. Every time I look at them, I\u2019m overcome with gratitude, and I think, This is more than I prayed for\u2014a beautiful wife, three darling daughters.<\/em> But I never deserved them, never deserved any of what I have, not one bit. God, how merciful You are.<\/em> That thought comes to me a lot, more so than with most people. For the truth is, if it had not been for God, and for the faithful prayers of my parents and sisters, I most likely would be dead, or at least in prison. That\u2019s what I really deserved.<\/p>\n

Today, 11 years after my old life ended, I still get flashbacks and feelings of revulsion. And regret. A lot of regret. Even though I\u2019ve given my life to the Lord and I know I\u2019m forgiven, I can never forget that night back in October 1981 when it all came to a head. I remember looking at my wristwatch… It\u2019s almost 10:00 p.m. By now I should be dead drunk and fast asleep. But after 12 hours of drinking<\/a>, down to the last bottle of Jack Daniel\u2019s in my friend\u2019s liquor cabinet, I\u2019m still wide-awake and alert. A shiver runs through me\u2014and not just because of the chilly autumn air. I\u2019m holed up in a condominium outside of Atlanta, hiding from the law. The feds have been looking for me for eight months. They arrested the guy I was working for. On a tip they\u2019d come to the airport in Mississippi just after I flew us in from Colombia. I managed to get away, but they got my name. Now I\u2019m tired and I\u2019m scared.<\/p>\n

I think of my parents and my two sisters down in Florida. They must be worried sick. If only I could call. But it\u2019s too risky. I know they must be praying… I\u2019m a pilot. I\u2019ve been in love with airplanes ever since junior high, when I had model planes hanging from the ceiling, sitting on shelves, everywhere. I\u2019d got my pilot\u2019s license while in college majoring in aerospace technology. Then in the mid \u201870s I landed a job flying for a small company out in Arizona. But the company went under and I was unemployed. I kept hanging around airports, but there just didn\u2019t seem to be any jobs for unemployed pilots. Money got scarce and the bills were piling up.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I was offered a quick $5,000 to fly down to Mexico in a rented plane to pick up a 600-pound load of marijuana. Since I\u2019d smoked a little pot myself, I said okay. The job turned out to be easy\u2014until I went to collect my pay. \u201cHere\u2019s five hundred,\u201d the boss said. \u201cYou\u2019ll get more as we move the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day he gave me $1,000. Then later another $1,000. When he asked me to go on another trip, he still owed me. I told him so. \u201cYeah, I know,\u201d he said, \u201cbut as soon as we get some more product, I\u2019ll pay you in full. In fact, I\u2019ll give you another thousand as a bonus next trip, \u2018cause you\u2019ve been so patient waiting for your money. What do you say?\u201d<\/p>\n

That was how it all started. From then on, despite the risks, I was hooked on the adventure and the cash. Although the boss always held a little bit back, I got paid regularly, enough for me to begin living it up. Wanting to get out of the business before I got busted, I moved back to Florida, where I had grown up. But Florida had become the country\u2019s main port of entry for marijuana, and soon I was back into running drugs<\/a>. I began to live in the fast lane: allnight parties, expensive clothes, antique cars, a waterfront house, a sailboat. My family was not impressed. I recall the time I bragged to my older sister, Marcia, \u201cThis is the life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean all the parties?\u201d she responded. \u201cAll the drinking? Is that what life is about?\u201d I can still see the fear in her eyes. \u201cDavid, you need to get your life right with Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here in the condo I check my watch again: 10:30. I lie down and gulp some Quaaludes. They usually knock me right out. But 10 minutes pass, then 20…This is crazy, scary. I\u2019ve downed enough alcohol and drugs to knock out an elephant, but I\u2019m still awake. And I keep thinking of Mom and my sisters, and those prayers…<\/p>\n

The guy I worked for made bail and was already putting toget her new drug deals. On a prearranged day I called him periodically from a pay phone in Fort Lauderdale. \u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d he said. \u201cI got the best lawyer. He thinks he can get the whole thing thrown out on a technicality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat am I supposed to do till then?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, Dave, I\u2019ll send you another twenty-five hundred. Don\u2019t lose your cool, okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-five hundred…never the full amount. It\u2019s just like always. And if he gets convicted, I\u2019ll get nothing. I lie here wondering, is this the way it ends? I can\u2019t bear the thought of my family\u2019s having to visit me in prison. Mom, Dad, Marcia, Ellen…if ever I needed your prayers, I need them now.<\/p>\n

I used to make jokes about those prayers, especially after a close call. For instance, there was the time my plane, overloaded with gasoline, had an engine failure and crashed on the runway. The plane didn\u2019t explode and I walked away without a scratch. And the time in the mountains when I got lost in the fog without any radios: I could have slammed into a mountain but flew out of the soup in one piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s all those prayers my family is saying for me,\u201d I\u2019d said. We all laughed.<\/p>\n

Even this last time, when our plane was so overloaded with Quaaludes that I couldn\u2019t get the nose up\u2014I\u2019d finally jammed the throttles so far forward I thought the engines were going to come apart. Yet we made it. Was it their prayers? Why would God protect me? I\u2019m not laughing now. Why doesn\u2019t He just wipe me out like a cockroach?<\/p>\n

I ponder that for a moment. Despite the alcohol and the drugs, I\u2019m still thinking pretty clearly. I just can\u2019t understand it. My life, that is. All those times I could have been killed…but wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Like the time a year ago. I was piloting a twin-engine 10-passenger Aero Commander out of Haiti. We\u2019d had the fuel system fixed several times. Then secretly we took out all the passenger seats and put in an extra fuel tank\u2014actually a huge rubber bladder filled with 100 gallons of aviation gasoline. Taking off from Port-au-Prince, we arrived at Colombia\u2019s Guajira Peninsula at dusk to pick up 2,500 pounds of marijuana.<\/p>\n

The shipment wasn\u2019t there. So we waited. And waited. Finally, as darkness fell, our contact ran over. \u201cThe army intercepted the truck! Get out of here\u2014now!\u201d<\/p>\n

We took off in the dark without the drugs. An hour later, cruising at 13,000 feet over the Caribbean, heading for Florida, we began to lose power in one of the engines. I knew immediately what it was: the fuel system. \u201cI\u2019m going to have to leave on the auxiliary fuel pump,\u201d I told my copilot.<\/p>\n

But by 11:00 p.m. the pump had burned out and the other engine was acting up. Far below us were 20-foot swells; if we were forced to ditch, the plane would break up. We would die. I flipped the radio to the international emergency frequency.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one\u2019s answering,\u201d I said to the copilot. \u201cI\u2019m heading back to Haiti. But we\u2019ll have to blow the plane. Can\u2019t let \u2018em see it\u2019s been outfitted to haul pot.\u201d<\/p>\n

We were steadily losing, altitude. We were down to 5,000 feet and losing the radio navigation signal. In the dark we could miss Haiti completely. Then, up ahead, we saw lightning flashing. A thunderstorm. \u201cThat\u2019s Haiti!\u201d I cried.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou sure?\u201d the copilot asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. This time of year, thunderstorms form over land.\u201d<\/p>\n

After landing on the runway, the copilot unhooked the extra fuel tank and sprayed gasoline inside the cabin. \u201cJump!\u201d I yelled as I tossed a burning match in. There was a tremendous explosion. I found myself lying at the edge of the airstrip, half my hair burned off, my flight jacket melted. A group of soldiers was running at us, shooting. They must have thought we were an invasion party.<\/p>\n

The next morning we were set free by an official we\u2019d paid off earlier. But I kept thinking, We ought to be dead. It must be those prayers…<\/p>\n

In the Atlanta condo I try to fit it all together. It\u2019s as if something is holding on to me, and the only thing that adds up…<\/p>\n

Marcia\u2019s words keep pounding in my head: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get right with Jesus.\u201d<\/em> How can I, after all the things I\u2019ve done? I\u2019ve run from God for so long, but now…now…Is it too late? Can even a drug runner be forgiven? I feel as if I\u2019m coming apart inside. I can\u2019t stop the tears. \u201cGod!\u201d I cry aloud, \u201cGod, do what You want with me! Do something! Anything!\u201d<\/p>\n

A short time later I turned myself in to the federal marshals. That was 11 years ago. Tears still come to my eyes when I recall all that happened. A lot of people think I got off easy: five years\u2019 probation and a $10,000 fine. From a human perspective they\u2019re right. But God is merciful. When I repented, when I got right with Jesus, I didn\u2019t get the punishment I deserved. Instead I received total forgiveness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But I can never forget the harm I did, and I know I have a responsibility. Especially to kids. These days I often speak in churches, and I counsel and pray with those who want to get off drugs. I do it out of gratitude. And I keep telling myself I\u2019m here because of only three reasons: God loves me, Jesus died for me, and my family kept praying for me.<\/p>\n

This story first appeared in the September 1992 issue of <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes in church I glance over at my wife and still can\u2019t believe how fortunate I am. Then I look down at our twin girls, five years old, and their little sister, a year old. 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