In this episode of The Pastor’s Office, Travis sits down with his father, Steve Carey, just weeks before Steve’s 70th birthday — seven decades calling Maine home. What starts as a reflection on a changing state (“Maine, the way life should be”) becomes a raw, honest conversation about addiction, redemption, personal responsibility, and the hope found only in Jesus Christ.
Steve watched one son battle leukemia and another battle a 10-year opioid addiction — and he draws a hard line between a disease no one chooses and a bondage that demanded personal responsibility. Travis shares his own story: IV OxyContin use, an overdose in the Marine Corps, a robbery, and three months in a jail cell that became his “Egypt” — the place God used to finally set him free through the gospel and Calvary residential discipleship.
Together they take on the questions few are willing to ask: Is addiction really a disease? Is Maine’s approach — methadone clinics, Suboxone in the jails, needle programs — actually working, or is it “pharmaceutical perpetual patienthood”? And how did a man who never imagined entering politics end up running for Maine State Senate (District 9 — Bangor & Hermon)?
We talk about:
– The opioid crisis in Maine — from Purdue Pharma and OxyContin to nearly 400 overdose deaths a year
– Why Steve believes true recovery starts with personal responsibility, not a lifelong prescription
– The Bangor waterfront — a city “rising and falling all at the same time”
– Biblical illiteracy and voter apathy in a state where a majority still call themselves born-again
– Charlie Kirk, the church stepping off the sidelines, and signs of revival in New England
– Small business, the cost of living, education, and a father’s hope for his children and grandchildren Above all, this is a story of hope — proof that God still performs miracles, and that no one is too far gone.
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