Eden Rising: Tyler on Addiction, Redemption & Rebuilding Faith-Driven Community | The Recovery Vow

In this powerful episode of The Recovery Vow Podcast, Eric sits down with Tyler, the visionary founder of Eden Ranch—a luxury homestead community near Dallas-Fort Worth designed to reconnect families with faith, health, and sustainable living. What started as a dream to build better neighborhoods has become a mission to restore both people and the planet through God’s design for community.

Tyler opens up about his powerful story of addiction, including a near-death experience from a meth overdose and years of alcoholism that led him to complete surrender. He shares how God redeemed his life and inspired him to create Eden Ranch—where faith, wellness, and connection come together to cultivate real freedom and purpose.

This inspiring conversation reminds us that recovery isn’t just about getting clean—it’s about restoration, stewardship, and living in alignment with the way God intended.

On This Episode:
How addiction and redemption shaped Tyler’s vision for Eden Ranch
Why intentional community is key to lasting recovery and joy
The connection between faith, health, and healing
How slowing down and returning to God’s design restores peace
Practical ways to live more intentionally and purpose-driven

Connect with Tyler and Eden Ranch:
Website: edenranch.com
Instagram: @edenranch

Connect with us:
Socials: @‌RecoveryVow
Website: http://recoveryvow.com
Email: recoveryvow@gmail.com

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• Transcript

  Hey, thanks for joining me on the Recovery Valve podcast. Today I have got uh someone that I met while I was in Miami, Florida here with me, Tyler. Now Tyler's from Texas, but he is working on a huge project that um it fascinated me when he was telling me about it uh in Miami, but [music] I want to go right into it. So, this is my friend Tyler. Tyler, thanks for coming on the podcast. Hey, thanks for having me. Let's just get into it as quickly as we can. Absolutely. What is Eden Ranch? Well, Eden Ranch, that's um start to finish. Where did the idea come from? So, Eden Ranch is really a luxury golf luxury homestead community. So, if you imagine a luxury golf course community and instead of having golf in um in your backyard, so a lot of golf course communities will have homes surrounding them. And so we're we're building a community very similar to a like I said a luxury golf course community but instead of a golf course in the backyard it'll be a functional farm agriculture really a community that can bring people together and uh there often times I've been in development my whole life real estate development and construction and often times it's well it's it's generally the norm to build subdivisions where you have where you you know where developers will try to punch as many homes as you can on a certain piece of property and that's and that's wonderful. That's, you know, that's that's just the way we've done things. But is there a better way? And so when the pandemic hit, I guess in 2020, um we at the same time, my wife and I were looking for, I guess, the uh the dream that so many people have uh that's often on social media of who else, you know, you'll see a common post of something to the effect of who else wants to get their best friends together or their family, buy buy some acorage, have uh have some cows, some chickens, homeschool your kids, and get out of the system, so to speak. And that became really a a prevalent thing during the during the pandemic when when our [clears throat] food supply became when we started having serious food supply challenges. Uh if you recall going to Whole Foods that used to have great produce, all of a sudden it was not so great. Um I don't think that's fully recovered still to this day when you're Yeah. I remember uh going going to certain restaurants and you'd order like a this has not a whole lot to do with what you're talking about, but you order a Philly cheese steak sandwich and they would they would be they would have any onions or peppers and I'm like why? And they're like because of shortage. Yeah. And I'm like there's a Whole Foods next door. They're like they don't have any. Yeah. Or tomatoes or lettuce or whatever it may be. I mean, and the average I don't remember the exact amount of hands, but I think it's uh see don't don't 100% quote me on this, but I think it's over 70 hands will touch a piece of produce by the time it's consumed on average. So, from the time it's picked to the time I mean there's a lot of things that h hands that touch a piece of produce uh during this whole supply chain from field to consumption or food to plate. Um, and we have largely missed over the last many years where people used to have gardens. That used to be the common place, right? Yep. So, if you remember grandpa and grandma or at least mine uh and many others, you'd have grandpa and grandma would have a garden. They'd have a root seller. They'd have some chickens. That used to be the norm and we as we begin shifting, you know, into more suburbia, you know, all of a sudden it was I need it's the Amazon mentality, right? I need it fast. I need it now. and people stopped really learning those skills. But there has been a really a serious push uh and a movement really where people are wanting to get back involved uh with with their food. And I think that's really important. It is important. And um [clears throat] here's here's what I'm trying to figure out is those people that want to, you know, have less hands touch their food. [clears throat] Are these same people going to be the ones that farm their food or in a community like this, you will have a group that comes in and there's still people that touch it or process it? Does that make sense? Like a little bit deeper on that. And so imagine if you're if you're so Eden Ranch is in FL, Texas, just a few miles away and just a few miles north of where we're filming, where we're meeting today. Um, so we're roughly 15 to 20-minut drive from the DFW airport. Of course, you can go out and buy land, you know, hour or two hour way from a metroplex and find a lot of dirt. That's, you know, that's great. However, the people that really still have lives or businesses that need to be around a metroplex, it becomes really challenging for folks to be able to say, "Hey, I want to buy even 10 acres." 10 acres in a metroplex is hard to find. And if you do find it, it's generally, you know, the the cost of that land is generally it generally is expensive to say the least. So, when you can look at things at scale, when we we bought like the roughly 330 some acres um 15 minutes north of the DFW airport, which really there isn't any large pieces of land anymore like that. So, we're very thankful to be able to have uh found that piece of property. We got it from an older gentleman, a man named Charlie Cummings, who's now with Jesus. Um but he was a an old oil field guy that had had the property for a number of years and um no he had not he had not successfully sold it to anybody although a lot of people tried most there's a lot of folks that tried getting it but our our vision was a little bit different. Our vision was instead of just trying to get as much acreage you know get as many homes per acre as we could now we're also it sits within an area called the conservation development district. So, where you have to have an average, you know, you have to have a certain density and you have to have green space. Well, before uh kind of backing up a little bit, before I bought the property, I went to the town um town manager who was with Mr. Cummings. I said, "Hey, we're involved with this documentary called The Need to Grow um or or what's highlighted in that in that documentary." So, Michael Smith is a star of the film. Rob Herring helped was the producer of it. Incredible film. Um so, I'd encourage anybody to watch it if they can. It's on Amazon. Um but what Michael did in that documentary was take a system where was was he he built and developed a system where he was taking wood waste and turning it into a bio stimulant essentially a fertilizer and with through that process he was built he was making electricity and in the film it high it it talks all about that so he'll you can go get in all the details there but when I looked at that I thought really that is something that is needs to be expanded on we have to get that out out wherever it can be. And so, um, when we were looking at at Eden Ranch, we thought, well, if we have this green space and we have to use it rather than just letting it set and people do nothing with or god forbid the town, uh, which is often common place where a town will get a park dedication will get something and what they do with it, they'll spray it with Roundup or they'll spray it with pesticides and all the normal things that they do that um that are involved with, you know, just general practices of maintaining open space. They cut it, they spray it, they you know it it it impacts wildlife habitat, it impacts our pollinators, it impacts I mean there's very few things that are positive in any of that system. That system in my opinion is broken. Yeah. Um so you told me a little bit about that when we were in in Florida. Just your thoughts behind I think you asked me how [sighs] how often I play golf and I told you and you're like you know do you ever like lick your golf ball to clean it? I'm like well depends on how you say that. I mean, I lick my thumb and I wipe it off and they said, "But or you said, but then you you're licking all these chemicals and stuff." Yeah. And I think the people are going to watch this be like, "Why does Eric have Tyler on here about recovery?" Right. Zero to do with recovery. I don't care. Yeah. But what you're saying is is people when they get on this side of recovery, they're living life. Their brain is going to open and they're going to want to hear different things. These things that may start sparking their interest. Yeah. living clean, living healthy, living off the land. People go in these different directions when they choose recovery. And so that's why you're here. I just want you to know that, too. Well, thank you. Sometimes I don't know why I'm places, but you're here for a reason today. But whatever Jesus has me, that's where I want to be. So, tell me this this ranch that's close to DFW. Um, where are you at in in the are you like phase one? Have you cleared land? Have you started on the first house yet? Where are you at with Eden? Yeah, thank you. So, we are just waiting for our final talent approvals. We've meet we've uh so when you're going through development and entitlements for getting something approved, you you go through a number of different tweaks before you can get uh which is a one of probably one of the largest challenges in America when it when it comes down to housing is small municipalities or towns make it so difficult on developers where it just takes time takes a lot of time and resources and so I don't know the exact number but there is a substantial amount of cost tied up in our housing costs these days that is directly related to entitlement process. That should not be the case. um you're talking sometimes you mean for example if you were to go buy something say it's say it's $100 but you have to wait three or four years before you could do something with that your cost on that $100 or $1,000 just pick a number you have carrying costs you have all of the costs that go into it your engineering all all of that and I don't mean to maybe this is will be included in this or not but um that's a serious challenge that our nation is facing um when it comes down to getting projects built Um, so we are in the final stage of that thankfully by the grace of God. So we expect to have that done on November 3rd. We go before our town council vote. I don't know when this will air, but um probably 6 to 8 weeks. Yeah. So God willing by then we'll have our town approval and then then you go into the engineering phase and start building. So So Eden is going to be its own town. Am I hearing that right? Well, it's it's a the best way to look at it in the the way that my brain works the best is look at it like a beautiful golf course community. So in we're in South Lake right now. So, there's a beautiful community up the road called uh Vicero, um which is a nice golf course community. We're essentially building a community like that, but instead of we're just not having golf. Instead of golf, you're having cattle, llamas, donkeys, etc. in your backyards. So, you feel like you live on a farm, but you don't have to do any of the work. So, the club dues just like a golf course. So, your dues, HOA dues, or similar are going to maintain that same uh to maintain that. So, you don't have to do any of the farm work. That was my question. Yeah. So, no, you live there off the land, but somebody else, you'll have a a team or a staff of somebody. Again, just exactly like golf course. So, when you live on a golf course community, they don't require you to go mow the grass now. Okay. Right. So, that's part of your due or your association dues. That's neat. I like that. It's actually you still you from it's so similar in in that fashion that essentially your operating model and this employees from a staffing perspective instead of a a gentleman that's out there planting planting tulips now he's planting tomatoes. Mhm. And I guess this this same team um will there will will there be some type of u education that they will need before they get to you? Let's say that somebody hears this and they I want to go work at Eden Ranch. This is going to be awesome. Um, are there certain levels of requirements, education that you'll need or there some ways they can they can connect with you to train and and then become part of the staff and team? And then how big of a team are you going to need to operate? We won't have that large of a team. You're you're talking probably a staffing team of oper you know of probably less than 15 um really on location. Yeah. So I mean farming 300 something acres. Yeah. So you're I mean so we'll have after the homes are built we'll have roughly 150 acres. of green space. Not all of it, not 100% of it all be farmed, but we'll be building incredible green houses because in Texas climate you can we'll be growing things u you know trelluses which are kind of uh vertical farming. We'll be doing some of that and you'll have seasonality tour um that you can plant certain things. Uh we'll be doing some vineyards on there which will be incredible. So um we're we're working through some of those details. you have, I believe, 30 some acres of fruit trees, um, which will produce quite a bit of fruit once they're mature. That takes a little bit to happen. Um, but if you think about multiple green houses, say we have five couple thousand greenhouse. When I talk about green houses, I'm not talking about your traditional hoop greenhouse that looks like plastic. We're talking about your luxury beautiful um greenhouse that is a smart greenhouse. Yeah. Well, but smart, yes, but beautiful, right? Because they can be done out of glass and wood and timber frames. So they can really look and um so those will be on the property. Those will also be uh amenities for the people that live there when they want to go grab their coffee or go for a walk and they can go and kind of meditate and go in and amongst you know vegetables that are growing. Um I don't know do you know who Jordan Rubin is? Mm-m. Jordan Rubin was uh one of the founders of uh Garden of Life. Uh wrote the book The Makers Diet. Incredible man. You should meet him at some point. You you would love him. Uh but I got connected through Jordan Rubin through a couple friends but also Dr. Pompa who is on our advisory board. If you don't know Dr. Pompa, you definitely need to. Okay. I want to meet him. Yeah. He's one he's probably I think he's a leading doctor uh for cellular detox and through our health and wellness journey and actually a little bit about addiction. I'd love to hear more uh you know about your story and and and your book and what you're doing. But a lot of the issues that we have in our health come down to our environmental fac uh factors or chemical whatever those are. So those factors that impact our health, those are also things that even through addiction, if it's chemical addiction, you have you you can become really unhealthy. Um and you can have this toxin buildup that when you encounter whether whatever stresses they are, you can have a number of things that happen in your life that all of a sudden you might have brain fog, you might have, you know, other other issues that happen to your health and getting to the root cause of that um is is super important. So working with with an incredible team and advisory board of folks like Dr. Pompa is a is another blessing. So Eden Ranch is not just a a community that has a farm. We're also strongly focused on health and wellness. Bringing some of the best medical professionals. I say natural focused medical professionals. Is this is this place and and you know you talk about chemicals and brain fog. Tyler, I've done enough chemicals that would still give me brain fog. Yeah. Um me too. [clears throat and laughter] um this this this facility or this this location um are [snorts] you targeting certain generations of people or is it u family to an older crowd? You know, what's what's your demographic you're looking for? The the current Eden Ranch, the first one we're doing in Flowermont. So, we we have a vision to do many more. I believe God gave us a vision to build these all over the world. Um because there's a cry for community and when you can build communities actually foster community for example and just uh not to digress a little bit but you've been probably to some uh incredible vacation spots where you might go to a Ritz Carlton or a Marriott or something like that and you go on vacation. I've seen them. you've seen them. But you can uh if if you go to let's for example say you go to Marco Island in Florida or you go to some place and you have you'll go to your resort and there'll be there's always generally there's activities there's people gather around the pool and often times when you're on vacation you will find that you actually build some friendships with people that are also there on vacation. Mhm. So they have a common common goal, common you know interest and now there will be some sort of event like uh whatever it is there might be fishing in the in a pond or something like that or there'll be this event or or movie night on the you know on the terrace. Those activities, those elements of that of having a a curated experience where the the community center becomes the heartbeat of the community where there's uh where we'll have a farm-totable restaurant on there that har that that serves food from the community um and and other local producers. So that becomes that that spot where you can have a gathering gathering location for your community if that makes sense. Um and so where you really feel like you're on vacation because you've got your you know the property manager uh of of Eden Ranch really the community manager is there working with the team to be able to put on events on a frequent basis where people truly enjoy being just like they're on vacation just like hanging out together. Yeah. It's not like u Yeah. It just creates atmosphere for you to choose what you want to come be a part of. Yeah. people uh now you could be involved with if someone wants to go pick tomatoes and it's during harvest time people get an email or a text or something a way of of communicating hey this is what's happening some people will want to now we are you asked about the the the demographic we're intentionally going after building uh multi-generational communities so all ages I think that's really important that the different ages all live in kind of close proximity to each other now when you build when you go into a traditional development, you'll have one demographic and that's what it serves. But then you'll have uh the the ones that are very successful. You find have a place for seniors or they might have some cottages built in. And so where grandpa and grandma may not need a large house at this time, but maybe they get to still be in the same community where your kids can ride their bike over to grandpa and grandma's house, stop by the orchard, pick some apples or peaches or whatever they're grabbing and, you know, walk through the vineyards or the uh, you know, the green houses. Yeah, just that sounds Who wouldn't want to do that? So, it's really it's really that same when you say that sounds awesome. It really is. It just taking you back to your childhood when you're at grandpa and grandma's house when they said, "Hey, let's go grab some potatoes. We're going to do potatoes for dinner." and you go out there, you pick beets or tomatoes or whatever it is, and you bring it in and grandma washes it off. That's really that same feeling that we're we're going after is really just using we're just making use of the of the green space in a productive way. That's really all we're doing. And you can compare it to, you know, recovery if you want and because [clears throat] this is just a new way of doing life. like we get so caught up in the the the the running and all the all the things and then this just kind of hits a reset almost and just kind of slows it down. This is what life could be like and I think that's really cool. Is this going to be excuse me is this is this gated? Yeah, it will be gated. Gated community and then is there like an application process to become a neighbor? We we will have we are actually working through the application process. I think so far there's roughly at the time that we're talking about this we have over a thousand people on an interest list that say that they want to be part of the community. We are over I shouldn't say overindated. We have an incredible amount of people that reach out to us and that are on essentially on a waiting list. Many of the lots are already sold um or or committed to and we're we're I'm being very intentional. We haven't hired or brought on traditional marketing or realators that are going out there. Although, you know, we love realators and they're, you know, that's an incredible field and I have a great deal of respect. I'm trying because it's our family where we're living. I'm trying to slow down to speed up. I'm trying to meet as many individual families as I can that will end up being my neighbors. They'll be the ones that my kids are playing next to or they're riding their bike by. And so, we're very, very intentional with that. Now, as we get things kicked off here, um, uh, probably over the next month or so, you know, at the end of, uh, this year, I guess in 2025, we will be opening that up and then we will bring on some of our sales team or or some sales team to help with that. But for right now, I've been really intentional with trying to meet amazing families. Yeah. I mean, I think that you've got to do that because you don't want to have someone there that just says, you know, I don't want to live like this anymore. And they just kind of check out. You know what I mean? cuz I feel like even though we don't have to do the work, we're going to have a team there that's kind of doing all this these things for us. Um, people can easily change too, you know. So, is there a is there a way to get out? But I don't I don't guess that matters. I mean, once you if you know that's what you want, that's the way you want to live, once you get there, you're not going anywhere. Yeah. And again, this isn't rocket sciences. This isn't anything that's really out of the norm for people except that you have everything that the I'd say your crunchy moms or people that shop at Whole Foods or Sprouts or wherever farmers markets, you're just bringing those elements closer to them. So instead of needing to drive to Whole Foods, which you still may do, that's fine. But if you have some of those elements where your food is close to consumption, that's the key is you want food as close to consumption as possible. How many Tell me some of the foods. I mean, you listed talked about some of the fruits and uh things like that, but are you talking about everything that you could ever need is going to be grown there from potatoes to tomatoes to So, that fruits. Yeah. So, that's everything. So, we will be doing as much as we can and as uh there's obviously seasonality. So, uh you want to grow with the season green houses. We're working with some incredible um agriculture experts. uh Jordan Rubin being one of those that we're that we're working with to help advise on the best practices of what we should grow when and how and a lot of that will come from feedback with from the community. Um and with the soil amendments from the documentary the need to grow and also having that tech you know that the access to that will will largely will increase our nutrition density substantially. So everything all the tests that have been done when you're using um the the regener product which is essentially the bio stimulant that that uh that's highlighted in the film that the it it really helps create improve the soil improve soil makes your food healthier. So your your nutrition comes from the soil. So you can have a tomato, you can have an organic to tomato that's growing, you know, in California and you can have an organic tomato that's growing say in Texas with the regenera grower having healthy soil and the nutrition density of that is so is substantially different even though it still may look like the same thing but the taste and everything else would be dramatically different. It's because of the soil. It's it all comes down to the soil. We've been spraying the stuff that we've been doing to the to our soil over you know to the earth you know to really our planet for the last number of years has really destroyed soil really in a substantial way. Yeah. That's why we're That's why people have to eat so much more. We have to eat more to get the same amount of nutrients. So, we wonder why we're fat. You know, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, which is another great film if you ever seen. I need to watch that one. I haven't seen that one yet. It's it was on Netflix. I don't know if it still is, but it was it's it's pretty good. And, you know, it's all of this is just interesting to me. And I think um once this comes out um by then we're going to we'll have our recovery by collective and we'll have people that are reaching out and look when they get on the other side of their addiction and they're going to their mind's going to open up to these different ways of thinking. um they may have uh thoughts of wanting to connect with you and Eden Ranch and how they can serve and just you know a lot of people I think [clears throat] about a buddy of mine Zach you know they just choose a healthier lifestyle because we've we've lived such a horrible lifestyle that was not good for us and so when people get to that point of recovery they're like all right I'm I'm going all in I'm going to the gym I'm eating healthy I'm doing this I'm doing that and and and their thoughts change and they go toward this so I want to be able to connect those people to you. Now, if [gasps] if anybody that hears this also wants to just to hear more about Eden Ranch, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you and or do you prefer for them to get in touch with someone else? Well, you can get You seem like you're a very busy man. Uh yeah, don't call my cell phone. Um I've already given it out. Okay, thank you. Appreciate that, buddy. Uh but no, edenranch.com. Um you know, pretty easy to find us. We're also on social. Uh we are actually uh also in the process of doing a documentary and doing a book as well uh that will come out. Uh Eden Rising was is kind of the floated around idea that will be the title. Um but working on really bringing awareness to elevating the standard of development um but also around addiction. I don't know how much time more we got for but talking about addiction you know and and then I'd love to hear you know a little bit more and how I can serve your what you're doing but I come from a background of addiction. Um, so I used to drink a bottle of vodka four or five days a days a week for many years. Why? Why didn't you tell me that? I didn't know that. Yeah. So [laughter] I did that. Did you tell me that in Miami? It's it's part maybe. But yeah, I used to uh I also when I was 17, I died in died from overdose of meth. Came back from that. Um, so we can talk as much addiction as you want. Let's shift gears then. I mean, I love eating ranch, but I love you, too. I want you to tell me Yeah. when was rock bottom? Like when did you say, "Okay, this is this meth life, this alcohol life, this is I'm done with it." So, um I I love sh being able to share a testimony, but I grew I grew up um how do I I guess the way to transition into addiction is I believe that addiction is how do I say it? It is a symptom and we are in people that have addictive personalities and those one of one is if you have an addictive personality or if you're someone who may be considered an addict that's generally God's gift in your life. You actually have an anointing for the elements that causes someone to fall into addiction. It's just that Satan has twisted that and is using it to because we all have a God-sized hole in our heart. That's the way I explain it. I've never heard that. So, I mean, I love it. So, I believe that every single one of us is born with a God-sized hole in our heart. We all do and we try to fill that with a number of things and generally addicts who have you know they have a lot of gusto for life they want to do they want things now they want to do things big they want they all they want life now and that's how I was and probably you're like yourself though people that generally are dicks are addicts are also generally good leaders generally CEOs generally leaders uh in whatever they're doing they they're going to lead the party and so when you fall to fail we throw a lot of stuff at the wall and I don't care what hits the floor Yeah. And so, uh, for me, when what I was trying to fill my heart with, so I grew up in a Christian home that was really strict, um, and, you know, kind of almost, um, Amish Menite, but just very, very legalistic, I guess you'd say. Um, and amazing people, but I didn't have relationship with Jesus. So, I still had this whole I knew who God was, but then I got involved with the wrong crowd. you know, you you heard that saying, if you hang out in the barberh shop barber shop long enough, you'll get your haircut eventually. Um, and so I had I had some bad, you know, some bad influence and, you know, ran with the wrong crowd. I wasn't a math addict. I just tried it. And the buddies that I tried it with, um, I thought, hey, this is fun. Uh, you know, I don't want to just sit around and smoke weed. That wasn't my thing. I didn't really like that, actually. But so this meth thing, I was like, wow, you can be productive. What a great comp. But yeah, let's just not do weed, let's do meth. And so when I tried it, [clears throat] I had uh I was up in Minnesota at the time and I had uh we had went to me and my buddy uh Jamie, we had uh went and picked up some drugs and we when we got it back to the other kids that we were hanging out with at the time, I think it was 17, 16, 17 years old. But when we got it back, us being selfish addicts, addict, you know, addictive personalities, we thought, well, no one's going to know how much we got. let's just do a whole bunch. And so we did and we did a lot of it. We may have done all of it. And so it wasn't too long after that we got a call from the drug dealer. He said, "Hey, don't do that. It's a bad batch." We're going, "Oh, that's not a good thing. This is not good at all." And to the in your and in your mind, I remember specifically going, "I'm going to die. This is poison." Right? So we know that this is not a good substance anyway. But then when you say it's a bad batch, that means okay, well, what's going to happen? And so I remember driving specifically driving on my way to my parents house probably 30-minute drive away and halfway there I went across some railroad tracks and at that point I was I watched my car drive across the road tracks. I was fading and I I knew that I was dying. And um and there's been when you if you've uh there's a an incredible book called uh Imagine Heaven if you ever uh listen to it or read it uh but talks about near-death experiences. Um and it's worth it is definitely worth worth listen worth reading or listening to. I did the audio book, but there's really comes down to basically two experiences. I think even readers I just did one years and years ago about either when people die one of two things happens. You go generally to the light and you get happy or you go toward the dark and get scared. There's that's that's basically what it's broken down into. Now there is a myriad of different you know things from there. But if you break it down to were you happy or not happy. I mean really that's what it is. I definitely was going toward the dark and it definitely wasn't happy. So I said a prayer. said, "God, if you'll let me live, I'll live the rest of my life for you." I woke up in my parents' driveway, 15 miles away, completely stone cold sober with no effects of meth. And if you ever and if anybody's ever done that drug that you'll you'll have physical effects, so your mouth will be all chapped and you'll just, you know, be all strung out. And I day I was the same way. I did um I did about $60 worth of crack at 7:30 in the morning and drank a pint for breakfast. And I was sober as you and me sitting here. Yeah. You know, I was like, "How much more have I got to do to feel anything?" Yeah, I've done the meth before, too. Just wasn't my thing. But man, I'm I'm glad you're here. Yeah. And uh so that that's and and so many years I I called my friends the next day um and said, "Don't don't call me until you're sober." So I didn't have to go through recovery, right? I didn't have to go through treatment and by the grace of God, I didn't have to do that. Um but then I found and um that I still was wrestling with the same issue. I still never filled that hole in my heart. So, as as time went on, I never to this day, there's you could never put any as much drugs in front of me that would ever tempt me. There's zero temptation. I could it couldn't happen. Um, but I [clears throat] did decide, hey, you know what? Drinking is is a great way to solve the problems. And so, self-medicating, that's where I got into drinking pretty heavily. And so, um, [snorts] and but then you you've turned that off too since, right? Yeah. Yep. So, so rock bottom for you was getting a bad a bad batch and and fading in. That's kind of rock bottom one. And then rock bottom two. And then when I would with alcohol, I realized it was I was a very functional drunk. I and I thought that I would want, you know, um people would try go to AA and I I went to AA. I had friends in AA and that's helped many people, but uh and I hope you might need to cut this out, but um I'm not I don't as a Christian, I'm not I'm not so sure that I agree 100% with the AA model. No, you're fine saying that. U you're to you can say whatever you want. I went I did the 12step AA thing right out of um treatment and and it helped like I had to have the 12. That's that's wonderful. But it's not what um locked me into my recovery. Yeah. You know, it was that relationship with God as I understood him. Don't complicate it, but as I understood him. And then when I had that perfect, beautiful relationship with Jesus as as my higher power, we can be redeemed. And that's that the problem that I have, I guess, with the AA group, the idea. And I love the A and I love people that are in AI. I celebrate the recovery. And that's amazing. Mhm. But the mind shift from what Jesus says about you is that you can be redeemed. You can be born again. You can be new. And to continuously wake up every day and say I'm an alcoholic is complete lunacy in my opinion or I'm a drug addict. No, you're not. You are no longer a drug like that. No. When you speak that and you say that and you when you claim that just like when someone says uh and I got uh there's some amazing people that are struggling with cancer right now. When someone says I just talked to a lady yesterday who I prayed for her. He said, "Um, my cancer this or I'm dealing with my cancer." I said, "Ma'am, can I just pray for you for a second? But I want to lovingly encourage you. Never say my cancer again. Don't claim any of that. It's not yours. Those are dysfunctional cells that are acting up. You need to speak to them. Your Jesus is more powerful." Um, and of course there is uh need for some sort of medical intervention. I uh in many cases, sometimes Jesus will heal you miraculously. We've seen many healings. I see it all the time. that just like you waking up in a driveway sober. God, so God is in the healing business, but you know, sometimes there is other things that are needed. I would encourage most people to think, you know, to seek a more natural route as opposed to taking drugs and potions. Yeah. Um because what's the root cause? Um but man, that's great. I I expected Eden Tyler to come here today and I got Pastor Tyler. I appreciate it, man. I just I and the whole heart behind Eden is just that is really bringing uh health in alignment with how God called us to live. So hence the name Eden is can we not build communities? Can we not live in harmony with nature and how do we actually do that the way that God designed it to? Cuz I can assure you it is not God's design for us was not living in suburb into you know a bunch of row homes with no community. Right? when we watch the fall I I'll say something that is that you this uh you can cut out for sure but if not it is around the we call it the greatest generation and it wasn't me who said this so I'm I'm you know I'm sharing some uh I wasn't the one the brainchild that came up with this or it wasn't my brainchild is we talk about the greatest generation is the World War II generation right in society right they were they were the most amazing generation I would venture to say it was that generation that may have been The catalyst that caused the fall of western society. Here's why. Explain that. Yeah. Is we used to be before the industrial revolution, we used to live throughout the beginning of time, families used to be with each other. You used to live with, you know, live near each other. Small towns where you if you had family, you would you would not veer too far from the family farm. Uh or you would get some you'd get, you know, allocated a certain portion of property nearby. You had community. And they say the saying goes that uh it takes a village to raise a child. Well, all a sudden you bring fast forward to the you know after the world war II and the industrial revolution everybody's going into suburbia. The dream the American dream shifted from a farm and a family element and community to living in suburbia with a white picket fence, two kids and a golden retriever. That became now all of a sudden it became the family unit. What happened from it used to be the commun the f the family used to be a multi-generational unit to all of a sudden now you have the family unit where you got dad working all the time comes home and gets to spend time with his kids that was good but then as you progressed along and we watched a [clears throat] number of things happen but economically where uh all of a sudden you know women's rights and women all of a sudden start you know now all of a sudden you have two parents working maybe it's because you know from an affordability factor and we're dealing with that now it. Life has definitely gotten harder from an economic standard and so it's hard whether you're sober or whether you're an addiction. And once you get out of addiction, that's I feel like sometimes that's the biggest reason people may relapse is because of their demographic or where they are, but also their finances. Yeah. The stress of both of those. And so is I think we've been sold a bill of goods and it's a bunch of lies from what uh the whole idea around what is success in America because there's so many mo most people or I shouldn't say most many people are working uh chasing careers they don't like to have stuff that they don't really want to impress people that they don't like. Mhm. It's crazy you say it that way, but [laughter] I mean, yeah, I mean, most people, you know, there's so many things on, you know, got to, you know, and people's uh lifestyle of what who is someone on social media, it's like, is that the reality? Probably not. Probably not. You're seeing the highlights. Yeah. You're Yeah. You're seeing what what they want you to see. Yeah. And not, you know, and it's I think that there's a better way. And I really am encouraged that there's a, you know, I believe that we've reached a catalytic shift in time right now where God is shifting things in the world. We've seen that shift happen tangibly uh in this in basically September along when Charlie Kirk's you know assassination happened. We can feel that there is a shift. Something is different. Something's happening. But even before then there was a shift of people waking up and people realizing hey something has got to change now. There is change in the air. That's a good news. Uh and not to talk too much about that but I think that that's I'm excited about what the what God has for us in this coming season. You're you're safe here. Yeah, I promise you. So that Well, Tyler, let me say this. I can't thank you enough for coming by. I was I was looking forward to seeing you because last last time we saw each other was in Florida, but um I'm so glad you told part of your story. Yeah. I mean, your story then and then the things you're doing now. It's It's great. It's really great. We're not doing anything complicated. We're not doing anything. It may look like new, but really what we're doing is fast forwarding to yesterday. Mhm. Let's go back to the basics. Let's bring According to yesterday. Yeah. Let's bring community. Let's make community greater grand, right? Because right now it's not. I mean, now there are in in different church groups and and I really love the body of Christ and and and the church in general, a healthy church has community, but are they really being practical? One uh one one last thing I' I we can maybe I'll share that's been on our heart and I've I've talked to some other folks about this recently and it's been a common thread is what is the difference between what makes the say for example the Jewish community or maybe the Mormon community what why are they so successful and the answer would be community y and they're close they actually help each other so when you know when a Jewish brother has a a challenge with their business or they need something, they share with the community and immediately it's solved, right? And so it might be something like, hey, you know, I've got a dry cleaner dry cleaning business and they share with their community that, hey, I got uh I can't get this machine fixed. Well, there will be someone that says, hey, let me send you my guy. And it happens. Or, hey, you need funding or you need resources. That happens. In the evangelical church or a charismatic church or whatever you want to call it, the traditional um is that doesn't happen as much. It it it happens, but it needs to happen more. And I hope and I really think the season that God's shifting is people coming together to actually practically do community, do life with people. Jesus didn't say to make converts, he said to make disciples. Disciples happens around the dinner table. And I would venture to say um and this this one might be you might find this interesting. Uh, and I heard this the other day uh that I think it's worth repeating is there was a story of a um of a woman of illreute that came into church. And so she came in there in in clothes that were probably not generally seen in in uh in a church setting. And so she came in and she said, "Hey, you know what? I'm going to give my life to Jesus." She she did. Pastor came up to her, welcomed her and said, "Hey, sister, you know what? Welcome. Next time you come, let's maybe change let's put on some different clothes." And because she was getting a lot of looks, right? Uh she didn't have very much on. Next Sunday comes back and is wearing something very similar. And pastor goes to her again and says, "Hey sister, I thought we maybe talked about this. This is probably not the appropriate attire." And he says, he says to her, "Why don't you?" She says, "What should I wear?" He says, "Why don't you ask God about it? Why don't you say prayer, ask God, and he'll tell you what you should wear?" So she goes back and the third Sunday comes back, same thing. Pastor asked her, "I thought you said you were going to ask God what I should wear." And he and she said, "Well, I asked God." He said, "He's never been here, so he didn't know what to wear." Oh my goodness. [laughter] So, how many how many churches these days are people going into that are empty churches that don't have the Holy Spirit? They may they may be playing church, but aren't doing church. They're really saying, "Come as you are," and mean it. Yeah. But also, but it's the practicality. Is Jesus there, right? And so, I don't know that may be worth cutting out, but it's everything that you're saying is worth keeping in. Believe me, I promise you. Um, I appreciate what you're doing with uh Yeah, I'm I'm gonna uh schedule a call with you. I want to tell you a lot more about what we're doing. We could really use your help on some things and your guidance, but um but yeah, man. Thank you so much for coming by the the podcast and and hanging out and being in front of the studio audience. I know kind of freaked you out when you got here first. Thanks for having me. And no, I'm glad I'm glad to be here and and um yeah, my heart is we we're we are all um broken people at some point that are deserving of redemption. And that's the whole story of Jesus is is a redemption story. No matter where you came from, no matter what you've been through, God can redeem your story. You can rewrite your story. You you may have already written this point in your book, but there is a time when you can turn the page and today can be the new day. That's right. There was uh what was the quote my uh my pastor told me that it's a part of a talk I've got to give this weekend. Um if we were all judged on our worst day, we would never have the opportunity to show our best. Oh, amen. So good. I was like, I can never I can't even I can't even try to forget that. It's like locked in. Oh, yeah. So, Tyler, thank you so much for coming by the podcast. I really appreciate you doing that. Thanks for having me. God bless you. Thank you guys. We'll see you next time.