Jeff Morris: Starting Over

CBN.com "I was going to be, you know, a star..."

Growing up Jeff Morris knew he wanted to make it big in the music world.  He sang in church as a child.

"I wouldn’t say I was sheltered, but I wasn’t allowed to be out late," Jeff tells The 700 Club. "I didn’t go to parties, didn’t drink."

As he got older he sang with local bands on the weekends.  When his big break never came, he dropped out of college and joined the army. His buddies dragged him to bars, where they drank all night. He went along with the crowd.

"It got old pretty quick.  Trying to run at 5:00 in the morning, stumbling in from the bar..."

After desert storm Jeff left the army, got a job, and married his girlfriend Mina. Before long he was playing and singing in a band.  It was also the beginning of his drug use.

"It started with some marijuana with the guys there in the band and the ecstasy.  There was a lot of ecstasy.  That would probably be the one that got me the most. The club scene got a hold of me pretty good."

The band made a demo record that caught the attention of a small label under Sony records.  They were halfway through recording their first album when the company was dumped by Sony.

"Oh, it crushed me. You had to keep explaining it, and every time I explained it to somebody, I got more and more upset about it."

Jeff’s anger and disappointment affected his marriage. He says, "We just muddled along in life. We’d get up, go to work, maybe have a few good days, and the next thing you know, we’d be fighting." 

Jeff and Mina began going to church.  He saw it as a chance to impress his family.

"I said, 'Wow, this will be great.  My parents will think, Jeff’s back in church. He’s singing Christian music again.'" 

Before long Jeff joined the choir.  He jumped at the chance to perform in a church production called The Noise. 

"It was about all The Noise in your life. Your job, your family. It just told the story of my life.  Because I was living that noise, you know, every day."

Halfway through the week Jeff bowed his head back stage and prayed for forgiveness and restoration to god. 

"The old Jeff lived for Jeff.  He lived for the moment.  Very, very selfish.  It was all about me, all about my needs."

The “new” Jeff is a family man with the music career he’d always dreamed of. 

"He just never ceases to amaze me that He’s always right there, with open arms and willing to forgive me and wipe the slate clean and let me start over again." 

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