Jim used to wander downtown Denver with nothing but a suitcase filled with clothes. His mind was dulled by alcohol, and his heart was heavy with despair.

Today, Jim has chosen to work close to the same streets he used to wander drunk. Every day, Jim sees men struggling to overcome addictions, just like he did. But he isn’t afraid; he knows that his heart and his life are in a new place, and he has the support he needs to stay clean and sober.

As a teenager, Jim used drugs and alcohol to act out against his father. What began as a ploy for attention soon became addictions that gripped Jim firmly in their power. When Jim moved to Denver a few years ago, he knew he really needed help. He tried several different long-term recovery programs. Every time he graduated, he relapsed. “I realized I had nothing in my life to look forward to,” Jim explains of that bleak time.

A court ordered Jim to try the Mission’s long-term New Life rehabilitation program. Jim didn’t think that it would actually help him—but, because he wanted to comply with the court order, he entered as a program candidate downtown at the Lawrence Street Shelter. There, he saw many homeless men and women coming in for meals and shelter. Their tired faces reflected his own struggles back to him and helped him see how dark his life was. “It was a pretty humbling experience,” Jim says.

In December of 2005, Jim entered Phase I of the New Life Program and moved over to The Crossing, the Mission’s newly acquired building on Smith Road. Jim’s work therapy coordinators could see that he had experience in maintenance work. They recognized potential in him, so they asked him to help refurbish and rebuild the old, broken-down building. Jim relished the task and took special pride in it.  He says of his work therapy opportunity: “It was a chance for me to kind of take focus off of my problems, to basically help me help people out. That part of the work therapy was really valuable to me in taking my thinking off of the bad situation I was in.”

Along with life skills classes and counseling, work therapy helped prepare Jim for life after the program, and also helped strengthen him in unexpected and wonderful ways. While on work assignments, Jim built an important and pivotal relationship with Bob, who was a plumber and his maintenance supervisor. This man’s quiet example had a powerful effect, as Jim worked alongside him. “Bob is a very devout Christian,” Jim says. "He’s been very instrumental in getting my life turned around.”

After graduating from the New Life Program, Jim was hired as a maintenance coordinator with another Denver nonprofit, where he now finds himself in constant contact with men battling addictions. “I tell them, ‘You can succeed,’” Jim says. Following Bob’s example, he wants his actions to speak louder than his words. “I have thirty months of clean and sober living. They see that you can do this, and that there is a way to get out of all your problems and situations.”

From left to right: Members of the worship band Cornerstone, Rod Graves, Fleet Parsons, and Jim McMillan, play music at The Crossing’s Graduate Barbecue.

Today, Jim feels he’s been given a new lease on life. Besides finding joy in his job, Jim is especially enthusiastic about playing in a praise and worship band, Cornerstone. Playing guitar, he loves moments when the audience participates in the music, too. He says it lifts up his soul. Through the Mission’s Postgraduate Program, Jim mentors Fleet, the drummer in the band. Jim knows the importance of surrounding himself with people striving for sobriety, like his band members. “They are people who are Christians and trying to do right in their lives,” Jim says.

“Being in this program allowed me to realize that Christ is always there for me,” Jim says. “I had actually turned my back on Him, and chosen to ignore Him. My thinking at the time was, What does He want to do with me? He was way too busy to even have anything to do with me. But, I came to realize He does have a plan. Going through the program has been nothing but blessing.”