What if the substance that you told yourself was “the safe one” was quietly leading you to the exact same place as the one that took your father’s life?
I’m Anna Moore Bradfield. In this episode of God’s Power Stories, I sit down with Ryan McKinney, the founder of the 143 Movement and the CMO at ActsSocial. He’s the host of the ActsSocial Podcast, a 24-year-old who has already lived through more than most people twice his age.
Ryan lost his father to a drug overdose in 2016. And in the years that followed, he told himself a story so many of us tell: that alcohol and marijuana were different…safer, more controllable, and a “better path” than what took his dad.
Ryan takes us through how that rationalization quietly built a life he couldn’t fully control, culminating in one terrifying night just after high school when he drank himself into an alcohol overdose, alone in his kitchen. Though he doesn’t remember most of what happened, his mother does. Their dog, Angel, wouldn’t stop barking at 4 a.m. So, Mom came downstairs and found Ryan unconscious on the floor. Paramedics got him back. If Angel hadn’t barked, if his mother had ignored her, this conversation would not exist.
That night changed him, but not all at once. Inspired by his mother’s unshakeable, sober, joy-filled example through her own losses, Ryan built the 143 Movement out of love and positivity long before he fully surrendered his life to Christ. It wasn’t until a night in the fall of 2024—high, alone, and unexpectedly prompted to open his Bible—that everything shifted. He opened to 1 Peter and read about the devil prowling like a roaring lion. Something broke open in him that had never broken before.
We talk honestly about the “it’s different with me” rationalization that keeps so many people stuck, about sin as a spectrum rather than a hierarchy, about the courage it takes to speak truth into someone else’s life even when it’s uncomfortable, and about why Ryan believes no one is ever too far gone to find their way home.
Key Takeaways:
- “It’s not as bad as…” is a dangerous rationalization. Comparing our struggles to someone else’s worse ones doesn’t make ours safe. It just delays us from facing them.
- God can reach you in your lowest, haziest moment. Ryan was high the night he felt prompted to open the Bible. God met him there anyway.
- Sin isn’t measured by visibility. Ryan points out that Jesus confronted the religious leaders as much as anyone else. Sin comes in many forms beyond the obvious ones.
- Open rebuke is better than hidden love. Sometimes loving someone means having the uncomfortable conversation, not just praying from a distance.
- You are never too far gone. Desires can change. Addiction can lose its grip. The closer you get to God, the more your heart’s desires actually shift.
Key Themes:
Addiction and recovery · Rationalization and self-deception · Faith and sobriety · Divine intervention · Accountability · Grief and loss · Sin without hierarchy · Coming home to Christ
Who Will Benefit:
Anyone minimizing their own struggle by comparing it to someone else’s, parents and loved ones of someone in active addiction, young adults navigating faith and temptation, and anyone who has ever believed they were too far gone for grace.
You’re never too far gone. Take one step toward God, and He will carry you the rest of the way.
I’m Anna Moore Bradfield. This is God’s Power Stories.
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