Meet Jack
Phone 563.355.7585
jack@jackcarey.com
“…Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world…”
I believed that Sunday School song included me. My folks started taking me to church in Kenosha, Wisconsin when I was three. Twenty-three years later, when overwhelmed with loneliness and suicidal thoughts, those assuring words echoed inside my weary soul like a small shaft of light in the midst of terrible personal darkness.
From the colorful hills and rugged backwoods of Wisconsin, my life’s journey has included thirty years in the broadcasting industry, singing performances for Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan, and an overwhelming, miraculous return to fellowship with Lord Jesus, after nine years ‘on the run’. (If you know about the return of the prodigal son in Luke 15…well then you know about me.)
A nagging war with adolescent behavior and low self-esteem would not have its grip broken until the last five or six years. In my twenties, I was a dismal failure as a husband and father, disguised in the trappings of career-radio success. The devil suggested alcohol and as my ideal escape route. Inside me, Father God’s still, small Voice quietly replied, “…you can come Home and start again…I’m here for you”.
Adultery shredded my first marriage, and led me into criminal behavior. I did all I could to replace “Jesus Loves Me…” with Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild”. I became addicted to using people. Then March 3rd, 1976 — that was the bottom of my dark hole. A mountain of evidence led prosecutors to predict victory. I was lying to everyone.
What happened? A redeeming miracle–that’s the only words I have to describe it! When I chose to obey Job 22:21 — “…agree with God and you will have peace at last…”. I confessed to God the failure I had become, asked for His forgiveness, and truly believed He wanted His ‘wandering son’ home with Him. I was amazed at the peace I felt for the first time in years.
The court acted mercifully toward my confession. My sentence was quite lenient. I came west to the Quad Cities (Interstate 80 at the Mississippi River) and began life again. Over the past few years have I ventured further into His Biblical Truth about being set free from sin and (as a subtle ‘life-style’)–to live in the daily freedom of God’s Powerful, Wonderful Grace available to you and me in the person of Jesus Christ, the LIVING Lord!