If you’ve been to Grace Oviedo, there\u2019s a good chance you’ve seen Brett Sinnicki greeting worshipers or passing out the offering baskets. Brett always has a smile on his face. But few know his current pain -\u2014 or his troubled history.
\n“I struggled with addiction for a long time. Mostly with alcohol, but the alcohol would lead to drug use,\u201d Brett says. The 48-year-old began drinking in the sixth grade, and was an alcoholic by his sophomore year of high school.
\nBrett grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey, just outside of New York City. He graduated from high school in 1988 and found entry-level work at a foreign-exchange bank in Manhattan. It was Wall Street in the late 1980s: Bon Jovi and The Boss blared out of boom boxes, the stock market made millions for many, and drugs flowed freely on street corners and in corporate conference rooms alike.
\n\u201cMy supervisor introduced me to cocaine,\u201d Brett recalls. Eventually, he began going to work mostly for the after-work parties. \u201cI was in some very dark places. I hated the addiction, but I didn’t want to give up the lifestyle.\u201d
\nDespite his demons, Brett met and married his wife, Jessie, in 1994. She soon realized the depths of Brett\u2019s addiction. The two would go out with friends and Brett would drink heavily, only to stop for more beer on the way home. Jessie would refer to this as \u201cthe one-man party\u201d after the party.
\n\u201cI never knew when to stop,\u201d Brett says. And as a result, he became\u00a0depressed, and the only salve for that was another bottle.
\nIn 1996, Brett’s stepson Javy was 6 and his daughter Arielle was born. At 27, he was working two jobs, making his work week too full for drinking more than a couple beers a day. But the weekends were different: a constant party from quitting time on Friday through Sunday night. Brett stayed in a binge-induced stupor the entire time.
\nWorking diligently at two full-time jobs to support his family, Brett convinced himself he had earned the right to enjoy his weekends. Although the family appeared to have it together on the outside, Brett was falling apart. Year after year, Brett\u2019s addiction progressively worsened.
\nIn 2007, Brett was at his lowest, hiding stashes of liquor around the house and passing out drunk in his living room. He felt like he had no one to turn to for help. \u201cI was at the end of my rope,\u201d Brett states. \u201cI believed in God, but I didn’t know Him at all.\u201d
\nOne Saturday night, Jessie drove the couple home after an evening of drinking with friends during which Brett had passed out, completely drunk, on his hosts\u2019 kitchen floor. But Brett was still looking forward to more drinking, and asked Jessie to stop at a convenience store to pick up a six-pack of beer — but she uncharacteristically decline to do so. She had had enough.
\nBrett remembers little from the\u00a0remainder of that evening. That Sunday morning, however, is forever seared into his memory.
\n\u201cI woke up on the bedroom floor, and the burden of addiction was lifted.\u201d
\nIt was nothing short of miraculous.
\nAt that moment, Brett no longer had any desire to drink. He knows that, somehow, his decades-long ordeal is finally, and completely, over. \u201cIt’s unexplainable, but I remember it as vividly as if it were yesterday.\u201d
\nBut Brett had no explanation for the sudden change, so he walked into a\u00a0local Alcoholics Anonymous meeting looking for answers — something he had never done before. He walked out with even more questions, but noticed a church across the street and decided to see if he could find answers there the following Sunday.
\nThe words coming out of the pastor\u2019s mouth that next Sunday morning changed Brett\u2019s life: You are no longer dead in sin, but rather alive in Christ, if you believe he has redeemed you.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
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The words coming out of the pastor\u2019s mouth that next Sunday morning changed Brett\u2019s life: You are no longer dead in sin, but rather alive in Christ,\u00a0<\/i>if you believe he has redeemed you.\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n Brett realized that he now belonged to Christ. \u201cIt started to make sense. The pastor talked about being born again in the Spirit and God working and living in you.\u201d Brett began to see that what had happened to him the past Sunday was a work of Jesus. \u201cThat had to be it,\u201d he realized. \u201cHow could I wake up a changed person with no desire to drink? I get chills every time I think about it.\u201d
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\nWhile Brett no longer struggles with addiction, that doesn’t mean his life is without challenges. In May 2010, he shattered his ankle in a work-related accident. He was unable to walk for two months and is permanently disabled because of the pain and lack of mobility.
\nA year after the accident, his son\u00a0Matthew came into the world. Brett was hospitalized soon afterward due to Crohn’s Disease and could not see his unvaccinated newborn son, which was devastating. He again battled\u00a0depression. “That week long stay was as dark as my days of addiction,” he says. “Thank the Lord for his Word and my Pastor who came everyday to pray with me. Without God’s Word and prayer who knows where that would have led me.”
\nThrough his pain and struggle, Brett learned that following Christ is not about health, wealth, and everything going right, but about knowing more of Christ and becoming like Him in the process. “Believers who are not grounded in the gospel can easily be misled and fall away from the church when life falls apart,” Brett says. “The goal of the Christian life is not health and wealth \u2014 the One and only true blessing is Jesus Christ.”
\nAt the AA meeting all those years ago, the facilitator told him \u201cYou have to change your life.\u201d
\n\u201cBut I didn’t change my life,\u201d Brett beams. \u201cGod did.\u201d<\/p>\n
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