From The Hood To The Good

I grew up in a neighborhood in Washington DC that was considered a poor area, son of a single mom working two jobs just to make it by. It was a mixed group with a relatively low crime rate but there was that one time that was memorable.

The paper boy said hello to all of us sitting on the brick wall outside our townhouse, dropped off the newspaper then my Mom said "where did he go?" Turns out he delivered it then walked through our house stole her purse and walked out the back door. That was our hood. A couple years ago I googled that address and found out that townhouses in that area were now selling for $750,000.

It went From The Hood To The Good! Representing a place where we start that isn't so good to a destination that is, we find ourselves working the Steps of recovery from #1 surrender to #12 freedom. And in the Bible we see in Mark 5:1-20 the story of an addict, a cutter whose hood was the tombs in a cemetery, who was visited by someone with Good News.

No one could help or control this wild man until Jesus stepped off the boat and changed his life. He humbled himself and asked that the Lord not inflict any more pain on him, he had enough. So Jesus removed the demonic spirits and in the end we see the man ask Jesus if he could go with him. The answer was no but he told the man to go home and tell his family what the Lord had done,

In the groups last week and this week I asked what they think the man said to his family, then used a song as a reference with these words as a refrain: I know some folks that told me I would never make it, they said I'd probably end up dead or in a cell, and from the way I used to act I understand why you would say it, but I am here to tell you now I'm doing well!

In this song "Doing Well" the artist Rare of Breed (who did a concert at Gate City Church last year) talks about his similar encounter with the Lord. He too went from The Hood To The Good as did I, as did the wild man in the tombs.

He told his family something they never thought he would say, I'm doing well! Go listen to the song (Rare of Breed - Doing Well) and you might start dancing too like some guys did last week in our group, whose lives have been radically changed.

That's what an encounter with Jesus will do. Won't he do it?