#28 The Fastest One-Legged Runner, Rising from the Ashes of Addiction-Part 1

Our guest today is Julie Seals, founder & executive director of Julie Seals Ministries , an ordained minister, a prison evangelist, and author of "All my hope a prisoner no more." She joins us to recount her incredible journey from battling spina bifida, losing her leg,  and addiction to braving the shadows of the criminal underworld. Her narrative isn't just a tale of survival; it's a penetrating exploration into the heart of faith and the redemptive power of surrender. As Julie opens up about her life's most challenging chapters, we're reminded that the most profound transformations often begin in the depths of despair.

Julie's story is a beacon for anyone who feels trapped in the cycle of running from God and life's adversities. Through her candid discussion of personal loss, entanglement in substance abuse, and the gripping fear of death's grasp, she illustrates the momentous shift that can happen when we stop running and place God as number one in our lives and start facing our trials with divine courage. Her inspiring turnaround, catalyzed by a prayer within prison walls, shows the boundless potential for change through Jesus Christ. Join us as we share Julie's story of hope and the enduring strength through the Holy spirit to rise, renew, and begin anew. Julie was once a drug addict, drug dealer,  but now calls herself a hope dealer.

You can connect with Julie at  Home - Julie Seals,  Julie Seals Ministries, you can purchase her book, "All my Hope, a prisoner No More. through her website New Book - Julie Seals or through Amazon as well. You can also give to the ministry Give - Julie Seals  and even purchase a book for a prisoner.  She is also on Facebook-, and Instagram @julie_seals

Music by:
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Have you ever found yourself running? Running mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially and even running physically from things in this life. This is no More Running the podcast for women. Hello, I'm your host, crystal Lloyd, and I've been known to run and still find myself running from the things in this life. Running from God, His calling, his purpose for my life. Running from change that's within my control, that needs to be made, or any type of change. Running from hard or even good or even just simple little things in this life. And God said to me Crystal, if you will stop running and surrender, there are things that we can accomplish together. Maybe you find yourself running as I have. I want you to know that you're not alone. Let's go from running to no More Running together. Let's get started with prayer, holy Spirit, we invite you to be a part of the podcast, the lessons, the life coaching and the sharing of our stories. Let it be known today that you are God. God, help us to go from running in this life, from whatever it may be that we're running from, from running to no More Running. In Jesus' name, welcome runners. I am so glad you are here.

Speaker 1: 1:37

I'm your host of no More Running podcast and you know that, if you've been listening to me for a little while, that guest days are my favorite days and I am like a kid in a candy store. I'm so excited. And today's guest I cannot I cannot even just express how excited I am to just have the privilege and the honor to share her story. Allow her to share her story, to give her the stage to share her story. And so it's Julie Seales. Julie Seales, thank you for just being on, no More Running and willing to share your hard story. But then God intervened and put a stop to your running. So I'm so excited. But Julie Seales, an ordained minister in a prison, evangelist, speaker for women's conference and youth conference, and then the author of All my Hope a prisoner no More.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Oh, my goodness, this book is so great, julie. I'm like I love it and I'm telling my husband and you know, I don't know if you know my story, but I didn't used to read. And then I got married to my husband and he read all the time and I was. You know, there was a point in our marriage when we first got married and I was like, could you put your book down and spend some time with me please? And then he was like oh, crystal, let me read to you, let me read this to you. And then I started reading. So now I'm like a big reader and I'm telling him I'm like you've got to read this book. Let me read this to you. This is so good. So the tables have turned, but today go ahead.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Oh, it's funny that you say that, because I literally got a message from a woman who she went on a family vacation with her husband and they had a long drive. She read my entire book to him.

Speaker 1: 3:34

We do that. We go on date nights sometimes and, like even our trips, will say, get our books and I will read to him. I mean, he is much better at reading and understanding and comprehending. Sometimes I have to reread and reread and just to understand and then I have to look up the words, but we just have a good time in the car reading. No, we do that. We love that.

Speaker 1: 4:02

I want to move out of the way and I want to give you the stage to share your running story with our runners, our listeners. You know, because I'm a runner and I say I'm an expert runner here. I ran it all wrong and I'm excited that I'm not alone and they're not alone, that we have other runners out there, but then God put a stop to their running, to your running, to my running, and I know that God's going to put a stop to the runners that are listening as well, because they're still running. So so I'm going to move out of the way, I'm going to give you the stage and that you share. Start sharing your story with our renters.

Speaker 2: 4:42

Thank you. Thank you so much, crystal, and it is an honor to be on your podcast. I love your podcast, I love your heart, and I just think how often do we run from the things that are hard? Right, because that's I think, for at least for me, I ran when things were hard and life is hard. So, yep, in my book there's a phrase, one sentence. I wrote that I was the fastest one-legged runner I know, and I will get to that.

Speaker 2: 5:16

But to take you back a little bit, I was born with a birth defect called spina bifida, and I was not even supposed to live, I was supposed to die. My parents took me home to die. At home, there was a big open hole in my back and my spinal cord was coming out. My mom was putting a bandage on it and cleaning it, but and waiting for me to die. And God had other plans. And in Psalm 139, it says he created our inmost being and he knit us together in our mother's womb, and all the days ordained for us were written in his book before one of them ever came to be. So God created me for a purpose and it wasn't my day. I was supposed to be here talking to you today and talking to your runners. And anyway I, when I was six months old, my mom took me back to the doctor and said she's still here and they did surgery. They sewed my back up and they said that I would never be able to walk and I would never. They said I was going to be developmentally disabled. But those things did not happen. I grew.

Speaker 2: 6:28

When I was a child I didn't even know I had spina bifida. When I hit the age of 12, I got there was a tumor on my spinal cord and it was holding on to the legs that go from your spinal cord down through your legs to your feet. It was holding on to the nerves. Wow, and those nerve endings pulled away from my feet. You know when you're 12 and you go through adolescence and you grow really fast. Well, that happened and the nerves pulled away from my feet and I lost the feeling in my feet and the pain. I was in horrific pain. My mom took me back to the doctor.

Speaker 2: 7:06

I had another surgery on my back and after that surgery I started having medical complications. I started getting pressure ulcers in the bottom of my left foot and kind of like a diabetic gets with neuropathy, these big open ulcers, and they would get really infected. And by the time I was 18 years old I had this big ulcer on the bottom of my left foot and from the time I was 18 to the time I was 28, I had 10, 12 surgeries on my left foot trying to save it. Astio my lightest had set in big bone like bone infection. I was on IV antibiotics. It was a really terrible time. I medically and I just wanted to be a normal girl and so in my running crystal I ended up running down the wrong path with the wrong people and I started drinking alcohol. I started doing drugs, just escaping. I wanted to live this party lifestyle and just pretend I didn't really have a medical problem that I needed to take care of, because that would make me different.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Right, yes, yes, I understand that. I can understand that, gosh. Oh wow. Well then, in your running time, what happened? Because you're, like I'm, the fastest one-legged runner.

Speaker 2: 8:44

Yes, what happened? Well, when I was 28 years old, I was married, I had a little baby and the infection had gotten so bad that it turned into gangrene and my left leg was amputated below the knee. And at that time I was really badly addicted to alcohol. I was addicted to meth and my marriage was a mess. I had met my son's dad in a bar. He got sober first and I did not, and, as you can imagine, that was a big recipe for disaster.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Yes.

Speaker 2: 9:23

And because our marriage was just a mess, I thought that running away was the answer.

Speaker 2: 9:31

You know, because I was like you know what, if I could just get from here to there and run away from my problem, everything's going to be good. So what I did is I took my little boy and I ran from California to Tennessee. I ran all the way across the country to start a new life because I thought, if I could just get away from the place of my problem, I can start over. But the only thing is, when I got to Tennessee with my little boy, who was almost two years old, my biggest problem was still there, because I didn't realize at that time that I was my biggest problem.

Speaker 1: 10:08

Wow yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:10

Yeah, there I am living in another state all the way across the country and my biggest problem is me. But I don't realize it yet. And in the middle of that, I knew that. I knew that God was my answer. I knew it. I had a feeling that I needed God, but I didn't know how to get to Him. I didn't know how to find Him. So I found this little church and I thought you know, maybe I need to get baptized, because I believed in God. I believed he was watching me, even and watching over me.

Speaker 2: 10:39

And I went to this little church. I got baptized on a Sunday and nobody, when I came up out of the water, he had said you know, the pastor said because you've repented of your sins, I now baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son. And I'm going under the water, going repent of my sins. What is that even mean? Because I didn't understand the gospel, I didn't understand Jesus and that he died for my sins or who he was. So I came up out of that water a soaking wet woman instead of a changed woman, and I wanted so badly to be the Hallmark mom who, with a white picket fence and she's a good mom and she bakes cookies and you know all the kids come to her house. But I was an alcoholic and I was a drug addict and I didn't know how to get from the woman. I was the desperate woman I was to, this imaginary wonderful woman I longed so much to become. So I was in Tennessee for two years and just magnet for all the wrong kind of people and my life was just going on a faster track in the wrong direction.

Speaker 2: 11:56

After I was there for two years, my son's dad found me I'm shortening the story a bit and we started going through a custody battle.

Speaker 2: 12:05

And in that custody battle, in this little courtroom in Tennessee, in this little town, all of my sin, my wickedness, my terrible lifestyle that I was living was brought up into this courtroom and I was put to great shame, and rightfully so. And I was panicking because now Tyler is almost five years old and I know that because of my lifestyle I'm about to lose my precious little boy Again. I panic and I thought my only answer is to run. So I took my little boy during that custody battle and I ran all the way across the country, from Tennessee to California and then to Mexico, and I was hiding in Mexico for 10 days, desperate, panicking, an alcoholic drug addict, and then I thought well, now what am I going to do? I have my son with me and I don't know what to do. So I thought I'm going to come back across the border and talk to the police and explain. Ah yeah, well, I just was panicking, but when I was crossing the border with my little boy, they were waiting for me.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Wow. That is that's God, you know putting a stop to your running. That was the first attempt to put a stop to your running. So okay, go on.

Speaker 2: 13:35

I'm sorry. So they stopped me at the border. They took my little boy, put him in a police car and me, and handcuffed him in the back of another one and as we were driving off in separate cars, me handcuffed, my son's voice came over the radio and he said hi, mama, I love you, mama. And tears were pouring down my face and I felt like a knife was just ripping my heart into a million pieces, because I knew that I wasn't going to see my son again and I knew he didn't know and all I thought was I don't want Tyler to be afraid. So I leaned forward and the officer driving me held her microphone up so I could talk to Tyler and I said Tyler, look at all the beautiful lights, aren't they beautiful? Because the sun was setting over the city of San Diego and the lights were coming on and it was a beautiful sight, if it weren't for the fact that I was in a vehicle, in handcuffs, in a police cruiser, and he goes yeah, mama, those lights are beautiful. And I did not see my son for 16 years after that day and you would have thought that that would have been the end of my running crystal, but it wasn't.

Speaker 2: 14:56

I was in jail for three weeks. I pled guilty to a misdemeanor child stealing, was it? They let me out of jail and I had a year probation. I went to live with my mom and dad thinking, ok, I guess I can start over. My parents lived in California and I waited the six months. I had a six month restraining order not to contact my son. After that six months I reached out and tried to call his dad, but the phone number had changed and his dad had taken him and moved. And right after that we found out that my dad had lung cancer. I drove him and my mom to the hospital so he could have surgery and my dad never made it out of the hospital. He died maybe two weeks after the surgery.

Speaker 2: 15:55

Now I made it through the funeral in an alcoholic drug induced haze and then I did what I knew and what I did best. I ran again. I ran back to Mexico with a plan to end my life. I had called probation and said, hey, my dad died, I can't come in today. And the lady, the probation officer said I hear this story all the time. Your dad did not die. You better get in here or I'm going to violate you. And something like a light switch went off in my head and I'm like you know, I was like I'm done, and just when you think you can't fall any farther, it's like whoo, there's another big dark hole. And after the funeral I packed a bag of clothes and I went back to Mexico with a plan to end my life. I went to a pharmacist, got a bunch of pills from him with a $20 bill. It was a dirty exchange. You can do that if you find the wrong people in Mexico.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Rod, oh wow.

Speaker 2: 17:01

Yeah. So I went to this seedy little apartment I was renting in Mexico, I dumped these narcotics out and I looked at them and I was going to take them all crystal and I thought, you know, I mess everything up. Everything I've ever tried to do, I've always destroyed it. And I thought, if I take all those pills, I'm not going to succeed at suicide. I'm going to end up waking up and I'll have to deal with consequences. I'll be half of a vegetable or something you know. So the thought of the consequences scared me enough that I didn't take the pills.

Speaker 1: 17:44

Praise God. You know, I'm so glad, I'm so glad.

Speaker 2: 17:48

Yeah, me too. So what I did instead is I went to a liquor store in Mexico and I got a bunch of like tequila, whiskey, coke, whatever, and I went back to this apartment and I decided I would just stay numb, because reality hurt being sober hurt because being sober man, I had to stop running and face things Right.

Speaker 1: 18:19

Yes.

Speaker 2: 18:19

Head on.

Speaker 1: 18:21

Yes.

Speaker 2: 18:22

I was willing to do anything but that. I lived there crystal in Mexico for two years, numb. I drank every day, I took pills every day and I ran into people because here remember now I'm a magnet for the wrong people. I ended up meeting people in Mexico who were meth cooks, crystal meth, amphetamine, and also involved with the mafia. I'm an alcoholic and a drug addict, so those were my people. I got into a world that was so evil and bad that I ended up with a meth lab in my house.

Speaker 1: 19:04

Wow, wow, julie, I mean I'm so glad that you are willing to share your story. I mean it's so hard and I'm sure that each time you share it, even when I share my story, sometimes I go back there and that's hard to do sometimes. Thank you for sharing your story. How long did you stay in Mexico? How long, what happened during those times? But keep telling us, keep telling us, okay, keep sharing.

Speaker 2: 19:43

Yes, I was in Mexico for two years and every time an attempt was made on my life because of the people I was involved with, I would move. I would run further south. I started in Tijuana, then I ran to Ensenada, then I ran to Rosarito Beach. About that time I ended up getting a pressure ulcer in my only remaining foot. I went to a doctor in Mexico I'd been there for two years and the doctor looked at this hole and it was getting infected really fast. He said, julie, that foot, that leg, is going to be amputated too and you need to get back to America, you need to get medical care. I remember looking at him and saying I can't go back because I was a fugitive. I was on probation in Miranda, mexico. I went home and by now I'm living in this home in Ensenada on the beach I was renting.

Speaker 2: 20:49

I remember getting there from that doctor's appointment and it was like the weight of the world was on me and I fell to my knees and Crystal, the Holy Spirit, met me in that living room of that rented house. I remember starting to weep and it was like my circumstances and everything just hit me all at once and I saw my life flash before my eyes and I had been thinking of myself as a victim. Pour me, I'm going to drink. Pour me, I'm going to do drugs. Pour me, my leg was cut off and all this stuff. I saw myself through the lens of a victim mentality and in that moment it was like the Holy Spirit reached down from heaven and pulled these blinders off of my eyes and I saw myself as a sinner in need of a savior.

Speaker 2: 21:46

And in that moment I said God, I've been trying to stop drinking, I've been trying to stop doing drugs, but I can't and I need you to become the center of my life or I'm going to be lost forever. And I said, god, whatever it takes, I need you to do whatever it takes to rescue me. And I can't meet you halfway, I told God. I said I can't meet you halfway. Do whatever it takes. And when I said those words out of my mouth crystal, I stopped crying instantly because something in me knew that God really would do whatever it took. And I said do I really want to say that? And then, one millisecond later, I said yes, I do, because I'm almost dead.

Speaker 2: 22:34

I had almost lost my mind and my sanity because of all the drugs, I had been hallucinating and all this stuff, and I said yes, and I said it again out of my mouth. I said, God, do whatever it takes. And to your runners who are listening, if you will just surrender, if you will just pause and say God, I'm tired of running, I'm desperate, I'm not, my circumstances are only getting worse. So, god, I'm going to pause right now, as I'm listening to this podcast, and I'm going to say that's me. Do whatever it takes, god, because I'm tired. God will meet you there, amen, amen, and he will do whatever it takes.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Yes, he will, he will. Yes, you know, when we surrender, when we have that moment and we say God, do whatever it takes, he comes to our rescue every time. Yes, every time. Every time we go to running, he comes right back to us.

Speaker 2: 23:48

Yes. So the night I got up from that prayer and I made a stiff drink and passed out, because that's how I went to sleep every night. I passed out. The next morning the mafia and the meth cooks came over to my house and asked me to take drugs across the border for money be a drug mule. But I didn't feel different. Crystal, I didn't. I had asked God to do whatever it took, but I didn't see change happening. So I thought God didn't hear me. So I thought, okay, god, god didn't hear my prayer. Everything is still the same. And what I didn't realize is that because I prayed that prayer, god was at work.

Speaker 1: 24:32

Oh, amen, amen, that's right.

Speaker 2: 24:34

I said, okay, I let them duct tape four pounds of crystal meth, amphetamine in crested little baggies a gallon baggies around my waist. They duct taped this meth around my waist and a woman drove me to the international border. She let me out on the Mexico side and I was supposed to walk through the international border, through US customs, and meet her at McDonald's in San Ysidro and get in the car and she was going to drive me to these big mafia people. No-transcript. All of a sudden, as I was walking across the border, I felt the presence of God and I didn't want to do it anymore. Something in me felt really nervous.

Speaker 2: 25:23

While I was still in Mexico, I used a Mexican telephone booth to call the meth cook and I said I don't feel good about this, I don't want to do it. And he's like just go ahead, it'll be fine. I hung up the phone and in that moment it was like the Holy Spirit was surrounding me and walking me through the pedestrian crossing of that border. And I ended up walking up to a US Marshal with a gun and she said she asked me a couple of questions when are you going? Where have you been? What are you doing?

Speaker 2: 25:57

And I was like just frozen, it was like peanut butter, stuck my tongue to the roof of my mouth and I literally knew it was over. I knew my running was over and I told her what I was doing and I turned myself in. She took me to a little room in the back and I remember standing there and the Holy Spirit. I heard the Holy Spirit, not audibly but in my heart, say two years and I shook my head because four pounds of meth is a life sentence in prison. And I knew that. And I heard the voice again say two years, julie. And I knew it was God and I thought God doesn't know federal sentencing guidelines for meth.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Right, exactly.

Speaker 2: 26:52

Yes. So I was arrested and I was taken to federal prison in San Diego, california, and I was arraigned at 17 years to life. It was in that prison, the first week that I was there, after thinking that I had destroyed my own life, that prison ministers came in and this woman saw me sitting on my bunk and crying, and she came over and she sat next to me and she said did you know that Jesus loves you very much? And I said not me, you don't know what I've done. You see, I didn't realize at that moment yet that my running had come to an end. I thought my life had come to an end.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Right. Yes, you didn't know that God was intervening, working on your behalf and put a stop to your running.

Speaker 2: 27:42

Yes, exactly yes. See, when we call out to God and say do whatever it takes to help me and stop me, he does. He does. And if very well may look like our life has come to an end, the running comes to an end. Yes, and this woman, this sweet minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, convinced me that Jesus died for my sin and that if I would just ask him to forgive me and come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior, that he would not only do it, but that he would change everything, that he would change me from the inside out, that he would make me a new creation and that I would be forgiven and get to spend eternity with God. And I didn't give my life to Jesus because I wanted to avoid hell and go to heaven. I gave my life to Jesus because I couldn't live one more day on earth without him. Amen.

Speaker 1: 28:49

Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:53

So I was forgiven. I knew he forgave me. I waited till all the other inmates were off eating dinner because I wanted my own time with Jesus. I got down on my knees at my prison bunk and I said, jesus, I don't know how to pray, so I'm just going to talk to you. And I said I'm so sorry for all of my sin and for everything I've done, and I'm asking you to come into my heart and be my Lord and my Savior. Forgive me, I will live for you, and I'm a mess. My life's a mess, so if you can take it from where it is, I've destroyed it. If you can do anything with it, then go ahead.

Speaker 1: 29:33

And he did, and he did. Oh, my goodness, there's so much more to Julie's story and I just want you all to stick around. Do not leave this podcast. Do whatever you have to do to shut off the world right now and listen to Julie's story and we will be right back. But hey, don't forget, you can sign up for the no More Running email list at info at crystalloycom and make sure to like, share and follow. We would love for you to leave a review for the podcast. This helps us reach even more women who might find themselves running as well. Got her in.