The Week That Was

It is always special to do work for this amazing God we serve, as well as a privilege and honor. There is never a time when I have said "God you have given me too much" because he has given me way beyond too much in my life. That said, this week was a challenge.

For the second week in a row we did seven meetings which definitely required some creative thinking. I had to pull a couple out of the archives and experienced all sorts of different emotions with each meeting. From a meeting with three to one with 40, there was laughter, tears and a lot of raw honesty. But there was one quite different than the others........

That was the one where one of the residents had OD'd on heroin and died overnight. I came into a room of hurting roommates, people questioning what they could have done, those recounting their last conversations with him and those hurting for his two children. It was hard, it was what we call cunning and baffling, but it was the reality of addiction. You just never know, unless...

You take the time to include God as a part of recovery and your life because only with his help can we destroy the demons who work between our ears. Those voices that tell us there is nothing but darkness need to know God has an answer of light. Not me, not you, but  only God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

These latest addictive drugs are darkness. There is nothing but bad results. As parents, friends, and peers, we need to fight through this together with God's help, or we have no chance. It is a rapacious creditor with no hope in its future, but human bankruptcy once it begins as an outcome.

Don't stop talking to your kids. Don't give up on anyone. Keep going because you may be the only light they see. You don't want to get the call like this young man's parents did, and, though we cannot make decisions for another, we can influence them by being shining stars of that light that overcomes darkness.

We continue to press on because that light has saved our lives and our souls!