Keith Lang — This veteran once ran from God’s plan, but now he embraces it.

Keith Lang spent a lifetime running from God’s plan for his life, but today he’s reaping benefits from accepting the gift he was offered in his youth.

The 58-year-old Poplar Bluffian served in the U.S. Navy, worked in law enforcement and at Mingo Job Corps before giving into his destiny.

“I grew up in Bloomfield and I attended the General Baptist Church,” Lang said. “I felt God had called me to preach but as time went on, I stopped going to church. I pretty much ran from God most of my life.

“I felt like God had called me, but I didn’t want to preach,” he said. “I wanted to do my own thing. I didn’t like to study. I didn’t want to stand up in front of people and preach.”

His first attempt at running was his military service.

“I spent four years in the navy as an aviation structural mechanic. I served on the USS Ranger, an aircraft carrier,” he said. “That was when I really started running. I was away from home, free and could do what I wanted to without the consequences I would have at home.”

“I think it’s because they spend a lot of time at sea,” he said. “When they get into a port they end up partying. When you go into a port, you let go.”

Lang worked for 29 1/2 years at Mingo Job Corps before retiring in May 2022.

He also worked for the Stoddard County Juvenile Detention Center and part time as a Bloomfield police officer and Stoddard County deputy.

“When I was a kid, my stepdad was a deputy sheriff,” he said. “Growing up, my mindset was always the bad people went to prison and I felt that way about addicts. I didn’t see myself as being an addict, because alcohol was legal. It’s more socially acceptable.”

Lang admitted, “I was an alcoholic. I could go weeks without drinking but then I would go through periods of times where I would drink every day. If I drank one beer, I had to have the 12-pack. I guess I was a binge drinker.”

When Lane met his wife, one thing she told him from the get-go was there are no bad people. People just make bad decisions.

“Now I know a lot of people, including my wife, who have been clean from drugs for many years,” he said. “I know the only way they can really get clean from drugs or alcohol, it’s with a relationship with Jesus Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit.”

His wife attended Recycling Grace Ministry and he accompanied her to church.

“I felt God again was calling me to preach,” he said. “A woman actually prophesied over me twice and said that I would preach. I knew he’s always been calling me to preach. That’s how I come to Poplar Bluff and to Recycling Grace.”

“I’m just now really started getting in his ministry and to do what he has planned for me,” he said. “I believe he’s going to use me, my wife and our ministry to do his will. I’m excited I’m finally doing God’s will. Since I had been doing God’s will, I’m just seeing blessings after blessings not just in me but my family and our ministry.”

Lang was ordained in March 2023 and is an associate pastor at Recycling Grace Ministries, which provides help for women in recovery from addiction.

When he first started going to Recycling Grace in 2010, the women’s center was in the planning stages.

The center began “about the time I started actually working toward being credentialed as a minister,” he said.

Lane spent three years going through the school of ministry and was licensed.

“During that time, I would facilitate groups at the church, which was open for the public, but it was mainly the women,” he said.

He also did a little maintenance at the Recycling Women’s Center. In 2023, the ministries’ third house opened.

A lot of times the women who come into the program have men in their lives.

“If the women go through the program, they’re probably going to go back to the men who are in their lives,” Lane said. “If the men are still in addiction, the women are probably going to go back. We need to be working with the men. I work with the men in outpatient recovery, coaching. I also work with the couples.”

He also has worked with men who live in the community probation and parole facility.

He mentors veterans involved in drug court.

When the women get out of the program and they get their own places, they need furniture.

“We try to get people to donate furniture, couches, beds,” he said, adding he helps with the program.

Along with helping others, Lang is taking better care of himself. He has lost 85 pounds.

“I’ve been trying to stay in good shape,” he said. ”I work out every day.”

The oldest of his two daughters passed away with COVID. He has two stepsons and grandchildren.

“I don’t think God necessarily makes things happen in one’s life, but he uses things to prepare us for what he has planned for us,” he said. “The things I’ve done when I was living in the world I think God has used all those.”