Jim and Liz Van Steenhouse carry a story that is equal parts heartbreak and hope. Liz grew up in Ganado, Texas, in a home fractured by generational trauma, teenage parents, and alcohol. By the time she was four, her family had fallen apart, and she spent her childhood feeling unworthy, unlovable, and deeply alone. As a teenager, she discovered that alcohol could numb the pain she had no words for, and she carried that habit through high school and into college. At 19, a crisis involving her mother caused her to make two silent vows deep in her heart: to never feel again, and to never trust again. Those vows became invisible walls that shaped every relationship and decision that followed.
Years later, a chance invitation to a workout session led Liz to a football field where a retired NFL player and pastor named Hot Rod Jones handed her a slip of paper with John 3:16 written on it. Standing on that field, God lifted the veil from her eyes and she gave her life to Christ. But salvation did not mean instant healing. She and Jim married, and for years she struggled with anxiety, weekend drinking, and unprocessed trauma even while attending Bible studies and reading scripture.
Everything changed on Valentine's weekend in 2010, when she hit a breaking point and cried out to Jesus on a bathroom floor. What followed was a 40-day media fast, a home filled with scripture, and a growing intimacy with God that culminated in a vision on March 30, 2010, where the love of God washed over her completely. Her 22-year addiction to alcohol was gone. The inner vows were broken. She felt whole for the first time in her life.
The road ahead still required patience. Jim was not ready to receive what had happened to Liz, and she spent the next five years praying for him without condemnation, without nagging, and without ultimatums. She simply became someone whose life reflected the peace that only God can give. In year five, Jim survived a grizzly bear attack in the Northwest Territories of Canada, and that near-death experience became the moment God used to bring him to his knees. Their story closes with a powerful challenge: to live in such a way that every gift God placed inside you is fully used, every calling answered, and every opportunity taken. That kind of life only becomes possible whehen we stop chasing counterfeit comforts and align ourselves fully under the lordship of Jesus Christ.