All is Not Lost

​Yesterday we learned of another heroin overdose death from one of the guys in our group. We prayed for the victim and their family last night, but in my heart I could feel God re-enforcing my commitment to this ministry. It's so simple- we will not rest until parents stop getting phone calls that their child has overdosed.

I received a call similar to that on September 15, 2015. My youngest son had been killed in a motorcycle accident, not related to drugs, but still a crashing blow to his family and to me personally. The loss was unbearable for awhile, but my promise to Paul was that I would do my best to reach young people in his age category (he was 29) and help prevent any similar calls from happening wherever I could.

All is not lost. That is the best I could do then, and now it is to strive in the Spirit to present God as the first option to life, so that if something tragic should ever happen, they will be at eternal peace. And if possible, we want to save the present folk from ever doing another hit or a shot or a pill by establishing an actual life changing relationship with Jesus. We have no new magic solutions, but we have the ultimate one.

No matter what the drug of choice, the heart of the matter is that there is a void of some kind that began with some form of life changing events like divorce, bullying, sexual abuse or many other similar events. This void did not trigger 100% of addiction, but it has in the majority of cases. It triggered the downfall often without the realization that it did. And that void, that longing for acceptance, love and peace in life, can only be filled by that relationship with the Lord.

Sounds too simple, but turning our life over to him is not. It takes an open and willing heart to take that step. What we do is simply continue to offer the same solution over and over again but in differing ways and methods until that willing heart will accept it and take the plunge. We are the farmers planting seeds just as the first century disciples did, plowing the ground until it is fertile.

In the tragedy of death, All Is Not Lost, growth has often just begun. Ask Jesus!