He Couldn’t Stop Drinking Until This Happened

Rob Condley’s medical tests made it plain: “I had several tests that showed that my liver was, was way out of range from where it should have been and that, that this was creating some serious health issues with me, but I just was not able to quit,” he said.  

Rob Condley’s battle with alcohol was killing him. Raised in a Christian home he was never much of a partier.  Then at eighteen, he entered the Marine Corps, eager to serve his country, Rob soon found himself immersed in a way of life entirely new to him.  

“Once I got into the military, you got a bunch of young people, that like to party and have a good time. I think I was more just trying to fit in.  It's just kind of what you did. It was what built the tightness of the people that you're around. I guess you could say,” he recalled.  

Between deployments he married and had a daughter. Sadly, it didn’t last, now his drinking wasn’t just social, it was a way to deal with his problems. After several years of military service, he accepted a recruiter assignment in Boise, Idaho, leaving his daughter in another state.  

“With me being on recruiting duty and the hours and the work that it was, there just wasn't any time to actually be able to see her and go see her out of state or even have her come visit because I just didn't have the time off work.  That kind of created that feeling of emptiness almost when everybody else that I worked with got to go home to their families every night and see them. And then I would just go home by myself. Eventually it got to the point where, where I could drink and forget about that,” he said.  

His nightly trips to the bar quickly became solitary drinking at home, attempting to drown out the loneliness.  “It made me not think like, not know, not be aware of what was going on around me. Just kind of it just made me kind of numb to everything,” he admitted.  

By 2019, 31-year-old Rob had left the Marines and married Amanda. The two started a family and his life was looking up. Although he wasn’t alone anymore, by now, his drinking had taken over.  

Amanda remembers, “There were nights where it was just like, you know I'd get him a bottle after dinner after the kids would go to bed, and then it would be gone by the next morning. And I'd realize, well, that was a lot to intake in one night.”  

Rob recalls, “When I had started a new job, I kind of hid that fact that that I drank because this was my first job outside of the military.

And that's when it kind of started seeming to me like, okay, this is a little bit weird. Not everybody drinks. This is this is outside of normal,” he acknowledged.  

Amanda would often find Rob passed out and unresponsive.  

“She had taken a video of it and showed me the video, and I was like, wow,  how am I being a good dad and a good husband at that point?” he wondered aloud.  

Amanda thinks back, “I felt like a lot of the, the house and family rested on me because our kids were young when that was happening, all the nighttime care, if there was any issues or bad dreams or bed-wetting, that was always solely my job and there was no help. It was okay, dad's asleep. He's done. So I guess at home it kind of felt isolating.”  

Convicted he needed to change, Rob attempted to stop drinking time after time.  

“I knew that it wasn't good financially. It wasn't good for my health, wasn't good for our family. But at the end of every night when it came time, once kids were in bed, it was, okay. Well, it's time to drink. I can quit a different day or I'm quitting in the future,” he admitted.  

After so many failed attempts he realized he needed help. When some friends invited them to church, Rob and Amanda agreed to go.  

“Just getting back into church,” says Rob, “even just that one Sunday and feeling what it was like to be back in church, that's really what was a huge moment in our lives that led us back to God.”  

The couple started going every week and both rededicated their lives to God. However, Rob still couldn’t control his drinking until one Sunday, a sermon challenged him to ask God for help.  

“I was out in my garage, and I just asked God. I said, ‘can you help me with this addiction? Can you help me not desire this alcohol anymore? I know I don't need it, and I trust you to help me.’  As soon as I had finished praying, I kind of had it in my head like, okay, tonight I'm going to think about this when - when it comes time to drink, I'm going to think about, you know, continuing to pray to God and ask him for - for helping me when that feeling starts coming on that night. But then that, that feeling never came that night,” he said.  

Amanda smiles, “It seemed like just overnight he was just like, I'm done. And it didn't. It wasn't like a, oh, one day down, two day down. There was no countdown. It was just all of a sudden he gave it to God,” she marveled.  

Rob amazed said, “I had realized, I haven't drank in like three days.  I knew that that this was this was God helping me was because there was absolutely no detox, no feelings, no - no jitters, no shakes, nothing at all.  And ever since that moment, the desire, the thought of it has just never been present in my life again,” he explained gratefully.  

Today Rob and Amanda are grateful to God for freeing him from his addiction and enjoy the blessings of answered prayers.  “I know we wouldn't be anywhere near where we are now.  

His health is improved. And just our whole family dynamic and our goals for life as we grow together have just bloomed and gotten greater,” she said.  

“When I look at how God was able to help me with alcohol, I mean, that that was all Him. Putting my faith in Him that He was going to remove that burden from me.  

And it's all because when I asked Him for help and had faith that He would help us – He did,” he concluded.