By the grace of God

I was driving in a parking lot and I saw a puppy running like it’s tail was on fire dragging a leash behind it. As it headed closer to the main road, I stopped and tried to call it to me. It ran again. Then an employee of a cafe came out, they had seen it too. He got food and went after it. Again, no dice. It continued to run down the embankment and out of sight. Naturally, I am worried as it is young and impulsive and hasn’t a clue what dangers are out there. Lack of food, water, love…. Common sense. It’s just a pup that in a short span of time became homeless, alone and, without realizing it, having to worry about survival.########################## Funny that. Because after filling up with gas, I saw a homeless person. I never give them money mind you… but I had been debating on whether to treat myself to McD’s sausage biscuit or just get the groceries home. I was going for the cheap side of that debate when I saw him. I stopped and asked him if he was hungry. We got our breakfast, I held his dry cracked and calloused hand and prayed for him. He was a skeleton of a man, weathered by the sun and the elements. His hands felt like sandpaper and his eyes were kind and sorta sad. Then, sadly, I said my goodbyes because of my groceries. But he stayed in my heart and mind.######################## Then, God kinda pulled it together in my head. Just like that puppy, I suspect that the man didn’t chose to live this way. I met all kinds from the street in the kind of work that I did. So many people are indignant about the homeless and hurting out there. So many people have half baked ‘theories’ about how they chose that way of life. Well I had the privilege of meeting so many from that world. I heard so many stories of hurt, betrayal and pain... but never ONCE did I hear, “I just thought it would be fun to drink myself into oblivion, scrounge for food out of dumpsters, sleep in the elements unprotected and be scorned by the human race. That just seemed so cool that I made it my life’s mission.” ####################### Or maybe someone said, never, “I really figured being an addict, unable focus on anything else, unable to free my mind and body from the demons that held me in bondage would be good. I figured a life filled with emptiness, alienation, loss of control and starvation sounded great. Being subjected to or choosing prostitution in order to get my next fix sounded really fantastic, too. Being robbed, raped and beaten at the mercy of the streets every single day is so worth the lifestyle.” ########################### No. Just like that impetuous puppy that will likely starve, get beaten up by other street dogs or run over, it isn’t really a rational choice. Young ones that think partying with friends is just ‘cool,’ or whose mom and/or dad drinks at every function, thinks that they can too. Whatever their poison, whatever got them started….this is the flip side that they were not prepared for. Even my Trin swore that SHE would never do THOSE drugs or do THAT for drugs… And yet, after years in the street life, 30 days presumably clean in jail, the possibility of getting help from an amazing place and she chose the drugs and life of hell again. The pull of the drugs, even after 30 days, was not enough to bring her home. She was actually using the jail tablet to get some guy to bring her fentanyl as soon as she stepped outside the jail. And brainless as they become, he did!###################### The evil one doesn’t just drive a sports car folks. He doesn’t just live in THAT neighborhood… he is the ‘other’ one on your shoulder or in your head who tells you to ‘go ahead, take that drink’ or ‘it’s okay, no one will know if you…’ or ‘it’s just once, you won’t be addicted. TRY it.’ Or ‘Go ahead, do it, it will drown out the horrific memory of…’ I can’t even list the number of ways he works on you, in your own head. You’d know better than me. But it’s like he hears your dark thoughts that no one else knows and there is nothing between belonging to your world or his except prayer… except God. You better know it is true. Like Trin would say, “I ain’t even kidding, nana!”####################### We all could be just one decision away from entering the gates of hell on earth… one step from destroying our lives and/or someone else’s life. Or, we know someone who is. No one is immune. Blame and shame isn’t the answer. ########################## I didn’t change the trajectory of my life in a moment and you or your loved ones likely won’t either. It took years, one thing at a time, prayers, pleading, sometimes yelling, but always faith that He had the power and could do it. I couldn’t do it alone. Neither can you. And I am smart enough to know by now that if I am not guarding that gate to my soul every single minute, how easily I might be tricked to turn back. I am determined to NEVER let my sinful nature overtake my loving nature. But the battle starts in my thoughts just like the rest of you. Just like all of those unfortunate souls who fell asleep on guard duty or surrendered to numb the pain of their lives.######################### 1 Corinthians 15:9–10: “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” ########################### Eph 2:8-9: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.#################