Ex-Drug and Porn Addict Reveals How God Radically Delivered Him from Himself During Flight from Florida to LA

Kristin Cole : Jul 17, 2014
Charisma News

After being "blown away" by what he read in the Bible, Ryan Ries's life was drastically changed. Today, he is co-founder of the Whosoevers which reaches out to strengthen at-risk world in the nation.

Ryan Ries, co-founder of The Whosoevers, a cause-based movement set out to build and strengthen at-risk youth, tells his story of overcoming a life filled with pain, sorrow and emptiness from drug, alcohol and porn addiction in a new film produced by I Am Second. (Photo: I Am Second/Via Charisma News)

At a young age, Ries, a California native and avid skateboarder, began to experience the party scene and exposure to pornography. When he was in first grade, he found a bag full of porn magazines, and in fourth grade, he began to understand their purpose. By high school, the addiction had grown, as had his love for partying.

"When I got to high school, I was introduced to cocaine. It was more experimental at that time, but after high school is where it started getting to be more of a habit. It turned into a routine. That's just what I did. I partied," said Ries. "I would wake up, go to work, go skate and go get wasted."

Ries soon felt the reality of his life.

"I had the nice house, the motorcycles. I had literally done laps around the world like four times, slept with girls, did drugs but nothing got me off anymore. I was empty," Ries said in his I Am Second film.

While on business in Panama City, Florida, Ries overdosed on cocaine and was found by one of his co-workers who suspected him dead. The next morning when Ries woke up, he knew something had to change. He went back to his hotel room and pleaded with God for answers.

"I said, 'Prove that you're real to me because I see religion around me—my parents and these Christians—and I don't relate to them,' " said Ries.

After picking up to a hotel copy of the Bible, Ries began to get some of the answers he needed.

"I read that Gideon Bible for six hours straight—all the way to LAX," said Ries.