Last night I had a distressing conversation with a young mother of two. She wrote and asked me to call her and to please “hurry”! I tried calling the number she left several times and finally got through last night.
It turns out that she’s a meth addict and is very near the end of the road. By that I mean she has been doing it long enough to know that she is going to prison, (again) or die if she does not stop using it. She’s lost everything including her two children which were taken away from her. She has no friends and her family has pretty much disowned her.
So I told her the obvious, that she needs to get in rehab. There is one big problem, and that is she does not want to be separated from her dog. She adopted a mixed pit bull and the mutt sleeps with her, goes everywhere with her, is her only friend, and she cried, “He’s all I’ve got left in the entire world”.
I said, “Do you realize that if you keep using meth you are going to die or go to prison?
She responded, “Yes”.
Well who is going to take care of that mutt then?
She softly cried, “I know, I know . . . ”
I must have talked with her for an hour. I even offered to keep her dog at our kennels while she was in rehab and told her he would be waiting for her when she got out. I tried to reason with her and made point after point, but to tell the truth I didn’t make a lot of headway.
We talked about Jesus at length. She told me that she grew up in church, but was not sure of her relationship with Jesus now because of the sins she was committing. I told her that was nonsense and that God would forgive those sins if she would ask for forgiveness and turn from them as best she knew how, but she needed to turn to Him now before it was too late.
I witnessed to her at length, tried to reason with her about the dog issue, and finally decided that I just wasn’t getting anywhere. I reluctantly decided that I did not have enough words in my vocabulary to change her mind and decided right then and there to turn it over to the Lord. I gave her my cell phone number and told her to think about it, pray about it, and call me if she wanted to save her life and I would try to get her in a good faith based rehab center.
I pray that God will speak to her and convince her to get some help and ask you to do likewise. My heart aches for her. She is snared by insidious evil and unless she turns to God she will die. It’s such a waste.
It seems like a million years since I was in her shoes, but I remember it like it was yesterday. I know the despair, hopelessness, misery, desolation, despondency, dejection, and anguish that she lives through every day. She has to worry about overdosing, going to prison, getting HIV or Hep C, being raped, being robbed, getting drugs daily, and finding shelter and the small amount of food she consumes.
She has a gun by her side at all times and I assume that is how she does her fundraising; it’s either that or selling her body; I didn’t ask. Desperate people do desperate things.
So what is the solution?
There is but one and His name is Jesus. I explained that to her last night. I told her that without Him there is no hope for any of us. But the good news is that He stands at the door and knocks and will allow anyone in, even this poor little wretch who has made so many mistakes and such a mess of her life. His heart aches for her too and He wants so badly to restore it, but she has to make that first move.
I think through my experience last night I understood how frustrated it must make Jesus feel when I listened to this young gal tell me that she wanted to get help, BUT she had to take her dog with her. No doubt she loves her dog, but unless she gives him up while she is off to rehab she will likely die. In the same manner some of us want to cling to that sin in our lives and are not willing to give it up at any cost including losing our life, (spiritual and/or otherwise). Unfortunately we can’t have both. Choose to follow Jesus and not the world today! Selah . . .
Matt. 10:39
“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
Matt. 16:26
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
May 6, 2014 – Click here to listen