Jabe Largen’s new book, “They Call Me Jabe” now available

By DANIELLE REID

Patriot Publishing

From a troubled start in life while growing up in Pulaski to becoming a United Methodist Pastor in Pinehurst, N.C., Jabe Largen shares his journey through his recently released book, “They Call Me Jabe.”

Largen hopes his book will accomplish two things.

First, it will tell the story of people he has known and loved – people who don’t have a voice – but who he feels have a worthwhile story to inspire others. Secondly, he hopes that people who read his book will understand that it’s okay to be human and to have human weaknesses.  When people share their human weaknesses with each other, it makes  a path for God’s strength to be glorified.

Largen describes his early life as being full of drugs, alcohol, violence and mental health issues, which began when his parents divorced. He believes he was genetically predisposed to it because there was a history of drug and alcohol abuse in his family.

“I began using drugs and alcohol as a result of trying to discover who I was,” said Largen.  “I had an identity crisis after my parents divorced while I was in the eighth grade.  A lot of us in Pulaski were getting onto drugs, and before I knew it, I was chemically dependent.”

According to Largen, in the late 1990’s pharmaceutical manufacturer Perdue Pharma aggressively marketed and used Appalachia as testing grounds for the narcotic OxyContin; a drug that caused a lot of destruction. Appalachia’s history of manual labor and high rates of chronic pain made it a target for Purdue Pharma.  He believes the depths of destruction it caused could have been avoided with more oversight and a lot less greed.

“The drug was concocted – they knew how powerful it was but they incentivized doctors to prescribe this high powered opioid with vacations and perks.  They used beautiful and attractive sales people as influencers.  It was done in the name of health and they told people suffering from chronic pain that they could be better.  What was said to be for their good was actually quite evil,” he commented.

“These are very real topics that affect all of us on some level – maybe someone we love. Being a pastor of quite a large and growing church, this has been a take-a-way that I’ve noticed – that it’s okay to be human.  Part of our humanity is brokenness.”

Largen says we all have a deep need for human connections and he encourages people to get involved in community.  Through involvement these connections exist and become more visible.  Everyone in our community is connected.

“It was much easier to see these human connections 100 years ago.  You might have a need for eggs or for someone taking care of your animals.  Back then, that connection was more clear and appreciated.  Now we go through the drive-up window at our bank or fast food restaurant.  We Google everything.  Those connections we used to see are no longer visible.  We can fix that.  I do believe it is vitally important for shared human life to show our humanity to each other,” said Largen.

“I’ve come a long way myself.  I got clean from drugs and alcohol.  Now life has been good to me since then,” explained Largen.  “I want to offer hope to people in a world where they feel hopeless.  My hope is for people not to give up on other people and places,  but see the beauty in brokenness.”

Largen has come a long way.  He received his Master of Divinity from Duke University’s Divinity School and his Doctor of Ministry from Candler School of Theology at Emory  University.  He is now serving as Senior Pastor of Pinehurst United Methodist Church in Pinehurst, N.C. since 2021.

In writing his book, Largen said it was emotionally painful to relive the negative events he was writing about – even more painful than he was prepared for.

“A lot of that came from the editing process.  When doing  your own read-through, you are constantly reliving the events and pain.  It was an exercise in anguish – very hard.  A lot of people I write about were showing up in my dreams; and it wasn’t always pleasant.  Sometimes I felt I was walking with a lot of ghosts and living in multiple realities – the here and now vs. what has been,” he reminisced.

What kept Largen going was knowing that he had to continue with the process and hope healing was on the other side.  He said that once the wound was opened – a lot of it had been suppressed – he realized what he hadn’t dealt with.

“I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t already gone there.  I had to see it through to the end,” he confessed.

“There were plenty of times I almost quit writing:  when I had made it known to my church leadership; when I had to meet deadlines with the publisher; when I proclaimed that I would write the story and felt obligated.  I wouldn’t allow myself to quit,” he added.

Largen said he found glorious and unearned peace which passes understanding and received grace to allow for closure in his spirit and mind, while writing the book.

“There were strange and unexpected encounters with grace.  One of the things we talk about grace is that it’s unmerited.  We can’t earn it and we’re not deserving of it.  In my experience, I don’t see it in the moment. I get on the other side of a situation or event, look back and see there was some sustaining force there … some force that made this good occur.  I call it recognition of the grace after the fact.  The book, if anything, is a testimony to the strangeness of grace.  A lot of things happened in my life.  If considering fairness or deserved outcomes, I have been blessed with a lot of good that was not deserved.  There was not a fair outcome based on my actions.”

Grace is the unmerited gift of God that often times defies logic.  In other cases, it defies explanation altogether.  Sometimes words are insufficient in trying to explain what the grace of God did.

Jabe Largen’s book “They Call Me Jabe” is available through WIPF and Stock Publishers in hard back, paperback and e-book format.  Also, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and anywhere online books are sold.