Blind man sees God5 s warriors Man witnesses God's power working in his fellow recovering addicts By JaNAE FRANCIS Standard-Examiner staff MARRIOTT-SLATERVILLE — Frank Eggetts can accept his legal blindness. He just can't accept not "seeing." And he believes his hereditary degenerative eyesight is behind his learning to actually notice people in their true light. "I like being able to see people," he said. "I don't like seeing the ugly all the other people see." He said spiritual blindness is a state of mind. "We forget that we're blind," he said. "I don't want to give up seeing." Eggetts, 64, said his life calling is his volunteer work as an addiction recovery group facilitator for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His open-invitation groups meet at noon Wednesdays and at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, both at the LDS Stake Center at 14th Street and Washington Boulevard in Ogden. Eggetts said he can see how the view he's been given has served to help many who struggle with addictions of all types as they attend his groups. Eggetts gives addicts hope as he shows them their potential as warriors in the army of God. "Inside the bodies of those in recovery, there are warriors. They just don't know it," he said. "Once I start recovery, I become a weapon in the arsenal of the Lord." And Eggetts said he knows well the view from which those he serves see the world while they work toward turning their nights into days. That's because a younger Eggetts with better eyesight more than two decades ago had a much darker view as he struggled with his own addictions. It started with alcohol, but Eggetts said his addictive behavior led to much darker attractions for which he is not proud. He looks back to a miracle that finally happened after years of self-destructive behavior. He fell into crisis. "Crisis is a great miracle," he said. "You have to decide. You are either going to live with your recovery or die in addiction." He chose to see a way to live. BRIAN NICHOLSON/Special to the Standard-Examiner Frank Eggetts works at his home in Marriott-Slaterville to feed his horses Wednesday. Eggetts is a legally blind man who is a counselor with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' addiction recovery program. "I was fortunate. I found help through an addiction hotline," he said. And the road to recovery was difficult and long, sometimes appearing impossible, even costing him his first marriage. "What happens to addicts is we spiral downhill and along the way, we pick up some trash," he said. "Addiction is a really temporary fix and it carries with it a lot of shame. I call it toxic shame." Eggetts said addicts buy into what he calls a grand illusion. "Addicts come to believe they are bad," he said, noting the pain and suffering in their lives that lead them to self- medicate with substances or other attractions. "They think, T must be bad or God wouldn't allow those terrible things to happen to me,'" he said. He said as people start to believe they are worthless, they develop a hole in their soul. Also part of the grand illusion is disas- sociation, he said. "Nature wants to protect us," he said, noting the need for disassociation from the pain. But the trouble is that disassociation leads to more lies, he said. "The opponent knows how to use denial against us," he said. "We are taught to lie because of our ability to disassociate." A final aspect of the grand illusion, Eggetts said, is denial. Eggetts said his work in helping people recover from addictions is to get them to see past this illusion and to visualize the truth, which is that their potential is infinite. But first, people must get a true glimpse of the actual cause of their pain, he said. "You can't get stronger if you're in denial," he said. "Sometimes the hardest thing to do is the most important." And he said many addicts don't even realize they are addicts. "Addiction is anything a person does habitually that damages them physically or spiritually," he said, noting that he's seen plenty of people who are addicted to texting, video games, road rage and numerous other behaviors. Eggetts said once people look away from such gloom, the light can come into their lives. And he said people start to realize that they are better off as a result of their trials. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness," reads Ether 27:12 in the King James version of the Bible. "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." You may reach JaNae Francis at 801- 625-4228. Follow her on Twitter at JaNaeFrancisSE. Like her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SEJ'aNaeFrancis. I