1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
I can remember years ago, while living in my self-imposed hell because of poor decisions, looking to the Lord for a miracle. Maybe you’ve done something like that yourself. You know what I mean; raise your hands up to God and say “God fix me”…you wait for a couple of minutes and nothing happens and you go on thinking this “God thing” may work for some people but it never seems to work for me.
Today I know that God performs his greatest miracles by working through His people. On the day I chose to stop using drugs and drinking alcohol, God placed four of his very own in front of me in the form of an intervention. God didn’t intervene by Himself, but instead He chose to interve through His people.   I am so grateful that I was able to open my ears and eyes just enough in order to hear and see what God was saying to me. As some of you may know, I had prayed a prayer of surrender the night before because of my fear of the suicidal thoughts that had begun to take up space in my head. The rest is history all because four people garnered up enough courage to look me in the eyes, with love, and tell me, on behalf of God what a screw-up I had become. Â
Last night at our Next Step Recovery Service a gentleman “Jim” came up to me afterwards and informed me he was going to go get help for his problem.  I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. You see Jim had been coming to the Next Step for four years. I can remember the first time he stepped foot in the church. He was so drunk he could barely stand up. He came through the doors on that first night because he knew there were others who had walked through the same doors and had overcome their various forms of brokenness. I can’t exactly remember what I told Jim on his fateful first night at the Next Step, but for all newcomers I usually tell them, “keep coming back no matter if you are sober or drunk, God loves you just the same and will meet you right where you are and if you come through the doors enough times you will eventually develop the willingness to change–whether you want to or not.”Â
What is even more amazing is the fact that Jim is going to attend a program developed by a friend who had experienced his own battles with the bottle.  My friend “Bob” acted upon a vision God gave him. The vision was to provide a place for men to go and get their lives together while learning, understanding and accepting the power and peace a relationship with Jesus Christ provides. Bob’s program is “inpatient” and lasts a year with no cost to those men who attend. I should have mentioned that I met Bob through a recovering “doper” about five years ago.Â
Then my friend “Doug” contacted me about four years ago and set up a meeting to talk.  Doug had barely survived the horrible effects of alcoholism and addiction and with just one year of sobriety under his belt he felt a desire to provide a place of worship and community (similar to The Next Step) in his hometown. We talked, Doug went to work, and God immediately began doing amazing things through Doug and his ministry. Most notably Doug provided wisdom and guidance for our friend Jim on a frequent basis over the past four years.
On Tuesday of this next week Doug will be transporting Jim to Bob’s program and I will be praying that Jim sees the light and will be the next person God will be able to utilize as He continues to utilize “screw-ups” to help other “screw-ups.”
…quite simply…this is how He works.
(Please note I used fictitious names for the sake of preserving the anonymity of the real-life characters in this blog.)
P.E.A.C.E.
