ANNOUNCING: Nate Larkin is hosting a national Samson Society weekend intensive focused on positive sobriety. Interested? Click here to provide your email address. You'll be the first to know all of the details when price and schedule are announced. All of the podcast Buccaneers will be there. Click to receive more information.   Nate Larkin's own Silas, worship pastor and author David Hampton, climbs up into the treehouse for episode 171. They guys talk about what happens AFTER the pink cloud of early sobriety disappears. How do you maintain passion for recovery? How do you deal with those around you who either aren't used to the new you or keep expecting you to revert to the old you? Our Guest Though the first bullet point on his resume would include almost two decades as a worship director at a prominent Nashville mega church, the greatest impact of David Hampton’s career and narrative isn’t summed up so neatly. David’s life story is certainly highlighted by his prodigy-like talent at the piano, his awards for songwriting and musicianship, the songs and hymns he has published and recorded, and traveling with a host of well-known music artists. However, David found the theme that emerged as he became more successful was one that he would never have chosen or written into one of his melodies—and one that ultimately would offer life, hope and healing. The twists of his wife’s suffering with a progressive and eventually debilitating disease and his own subsequent spiral into alcoholism began derailing what, at first, seemed like a storybook life. David recounts his days as a “professional Christian” trying to spin the plates of a very public ministry life and a serious addiction to alcohol with candor. David’s journey into recovery brought more than just a means by which he learned to live without alcohol. He became keenly aware of his spiritual bankruptcy and all the unaddressed questions of his faith and lack of it. His story includes how he entered recovery, incorporated spiritual guides from ministers to monks, the sensory overload of fresh sobriety, and determining what parts of his old belief system would make it into the renewed version of himself that was emerging.   Music Used David Hampton's latest project is Fuel Music Group's "Split the Sky." Listen to the full song here: Purchase the music from Amazon or iTunes. We'd love to hear from you. Please take a few minutes and answer questions on our listener survey. You'll be entered for a drawing for a free, autographed copy of Nate Larkin's book, Samson and the Pirate Monks. Subscribe to the Pirate Monk podcast Please tell us what you think by leaving a comment below, scrolling to the bottom and leaving us a voice mail via Speakpipe, or call (615) 807-0476.