Love covers a multitude…..

I watched Andy Stanley’s “Living With Yourself-part 1” and am reminded of something that someone, whom I love dearly, said to me years ago when she was a teenager. She is now 22 and has lived in the street life for years. Back in the before times, we talked a lot about drugs and alcohol, partying and bad choices. When discussing the examples of how far people would go to stay high and in the dark, she said, “But Nana, I would never do that. I’m not that bad.” But, in a very short while, she was exactly that person and more. Even now she is in darkness and unable to break free. ************************************* Every single day, we think of her and pray for her. And not a day goes by that I don’t push the thoughts out of my head about what she has to do to keep herself in drugs, because we know what that looks like and have, sadly, had occasion to see it first hand. ************************ 1 Cor 13: 1-13: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.******* Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” ************************************ It is a mental exercise to love, pray for and think about someone who lives in darkness. Because, initially, your vision of them is as they were, as they could truly be in the world. But that image is involuntarily replaced with the images of ‘what if’ or ‘what is’ and all that darkness entails. Her images, which are far and few between the ghosting of our messages to her, become fractured by the reality of addiction. Like with all sin, her physical appearance and demeanor changes to suit her environment. Her complexion, her weight, her health, her behavior and her words are withered and worn down by self-abuse and the constant abuse of such a lifestyle. She is in survival mode and that means being anything that is necessary in the moment to survive her ordeal.*************************** 1 Cor 13:7: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” ***************** That lifestyle, a life in darkness or hidden sin, is brutal on the soul. Addicts often become the slaves of the trade, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes by force, to repay a debt for their sin. A debt, I might add, that Christ already paid a million times over. Men and women alike end up in servitude to others. Brutally raped, abused, enslaved, robbed, beaten, prostituted for the sake of a fix or drink. We know this to be true and thus, we have to try to replace that image with the distant past’s image of our loved ones because it is easier to live with. ******************** We are helpless to change it. Only unconditional love and endless loving words, regardless of ghosting, will prove that we will always be here when they are ready… until the life decision is made by the nature of their own choices. Until they cease to be in our world any longer. ******************** 1 John 3:16: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” *************** And in the years past, we lost our much loved and lovable son-in-law to his addiction. In that moment, all that we could think besides the deep sorrow for loss, is our girl could be next… Years, almost a life time in the making, he, too, struggled to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord but did not have the strength to see it through. He, too, was one of the most loving, empathetic people I have ever known. This man loved his wife and children with all he had. I know without a doubt that he suffered guilt and shame every moment for being enslaved by the drugs his body would not live without. Though he brought in a six digit income with a very prestigious job, he spent it all and had to steal from his own family to feed his habit. Years and years of financial debt, rehabs, heartbreak and starting over… to end up in his car, in his early 30’s, a whole long loving life cut short... not by choice, but by the nature of how he lived… in his mind, to survive his addiction, his chains, his enslavement. ***************** The brokenness, loss, pain and potential ruin that this brought or could have brought to his family is horrendous. To this day, more than three years later, every occasion is marked by the absence of their husband, father. Every occasion is marked with tears and remembering. Every day is a gaping wound, an absence of someone who filled their hearts with love, but now loss. *********************** We do not, often, remember those that we love as they were in their darkness but the good in their souls and the person they could have been. Love does that. Love paints over the darkness with bright and hopeful images of how it could be, how it could have been.******************** No matter what the poison or darkness, never stop loving others… not just your loved ones, but the nameless faces whose story you may never know. Pray for others lost in darkness. Be kind and gentle with those who lost their way. Jesus did not come for saints but for sinners. He gave His life for them so that they could be free and have eternal life. **************************** We are meant to shine for others, the Light given to us, not be selfish and hide it in our own hearts. It requires constant care and rekindling with the love and Word to stay strong against the storms that will come into our lives. Those forces that wish to prevent us from saving others from the darkness… but Christ overcame death for our sake’s so that we may live and share His light.************************** James 5: 20: “Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”