Today I found out that a friend of mine (we'll call her Melissa) was attacked at her home last week. She went out to her car around 10:00 pm to get something out of the trunk. Two men drove up and one chased her to her house. They fought at the door. Although she was finally able to get the door closed and locked, he kicked it in - completely destroying the door frame. She was screaming prayers at the top of her lungs. Even though she and her 8 year old daughter live alone, she called out to her "husband" to get the gun because someone was breaking in. When the man heard this, he backed out of the house. He stood outside the door as she called 911. She told the 911 operator that she and her daughter lived alone and had no way to defend themselves. I'm sure the man heard the conversation, yet he never re-entered the house. Eventually he ran off. She lives in my neighborhood. The men were never caught.
"Stephanie" is another friend who is 32 and recently found out she has cancer. She had learned she was pregnant the week before. The doctor wanted her to terminate the pregnancy so they could begin treating her cancer. She refused. Her son is now 6 months old and she is currently undergoing chemo.
"Brandy" is living as a single mom. Her husband shot himself several years ago. She has two sons, but one of them was taken away because she simply couldn't care for him. He lives with his grandparents. She and her smallest son live in a tiny apartment. For his last birthday, I baked a cake, bought toys and decorations because she couldn't afford to give him anything for his birthday. The church helped her with some of her bills just so she could get through the month. She was recently fired from her job.
"Peter" used to live in Los Angeles. He was a member of a gang called the bloods. When he went to L.A. to visit, he and a friend were off to see some guy the friend had business with. Peter didn't realize the business was murder. His friend stabbed the guy multiple times and put him in a coma. Peter was caught by the police. Rather than rat out his friend, Peter sat in jail until the guy came out of the coma and cleared him.
"Libby" used to do drugs. She went to clubs, slept with an untold number of strangers. She'd sometimes wake up on the sidewalk, not remembering how she got there. She traveled with a band for a while, smoking, drinking, living life on the edge. She's in rehab now.
"Andrea" was married to an abusive husband. Every day when he left for work, he would remove the spark plugs from her car so she couldn't go anywhere. They lived too far out for her to walk anywhere. They had no phone. She was stuck all day. The trailer they lived in would get so cold in the winter that the water in the toilet would freeze. She and her small son would sit in a bedroom all day trying to stay warm, waiting for hubby to come home and beat them some more.
"Daniel" was always in trouble with the law. He was arrested for grand theft auto, threat with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, among other things. One night it all came to head when he committed yet another crime. The courts gave him the option of jail or the military. He chose the military. When he was alerted he would be going to Iraq, he almost went AWOL. Instead he decided to fulfill his duty, so he went. Even though the military was supposed to turn his life around, he still wound up killing people. It was just government sanctioned now.
"Wendy" was a 17 year old girl who had been abused as a child. She was adopted by a nice Christian family when she was 6. No matter how much they loved her, the damage was already done. She grew up being a wild party-girl who lied to everyone. One night she disappeared from a party like a vapor. They found her skeleton 1 year later. She had been murdered 3 miles from home.
These people are all friends of mine. There are countless more.
Cocaine. Abortion. Adultery. Alcoholism. Violence. Prison. HIV. Murder.
To hear me talk, it sounds like I run around with a band of thugs. I don't. These people are all fairly normal. They look normal. They have normal jobs. I've worked with some of them. I've gone to church with some of them. I've even dated a couple of them.
I am just struck sometimes be the enormous effect of sin in our world. I am constantly made aware of sin by words and conversations I hear, things on TV, things in the paper, etc. But to stop and think about all the people that have crossed my path over the years whose lives have been ripped to bits by Satan. Sometimes I am just taken aback.
My new motto is "No one ever changed the world by being like the world or hiding from the world." If you had told me when I was 14 that in the course of my life I would have close friends that had these kinds of life scars, I would have told you that you were crazy. I would have thought helping "people like that" would be too overwhelming. Yet I find a great sense of peace in it. I guess I never realized until recently that God has called me to minister to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways.
I feel so completely inadequate to help anyone. I am so scattered, so spastic. Yet God keeps putting these people on my door step. I am so humbled by that. Sometimes I feel so helpless. Especially when I don't see the fruits of my labor. My first experience with the crude reality of sin came when I was 15. I was spending the night with my friend "Natalie." Her parents were hopped up on LSD. They were an upscale family, certainly higher on the financial food chain than my family. I remember sitting in Nat's bedroom, huddled together with the door closed as we listened to her parents yell and throw things in the other room. It seemed like it went on for hours. Probably did. It scared me to death, but at least that was one night Natalie didn't have to endure alone. The next morning I remember going to the restroom and seeing her dad's Playboy magazines scattered all about. That life was so foreign to me. I did finally get Natalie to go to church with me. She spent a lot of time at my house. We were such close friends. I had such high hopes for her. She was the first girl I knew to lose her virginity, which spawned her "extra-curricular activities" for the remainder of our high school days. I don't know where she is now, but I have to believe she came into my life for a reason.
I am humbled to think that God could use me to help anyone. Yet I am grateful He chooses to use messed up people. One because He receives all the glory even more. Two because it reminds me that there is hope for us all. The people I spoke of earlier are real. Not one of those stories is fiction. They are only a small fraction of what goes on all the time in our world. Those people are us. We are them. I'm grateful God can use ANYONE, even me, to do His work. None of us is a lost cause.
And Christ died for every last murderous, lying, alcoholic, lustful, greedy, crack-head one of us!
Just remember, NO ONE EVER CHANGED THE WORLD BY BEING LIKE THE WORLD OR HIDING FROM THE WORLD!
Let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence. 1 Jn 3:18-19
Be imitators of God and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Eph 5:1-2
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:8-10
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