Time Well Spent

As my wedding day seems to be quickly arriving (9 days away), I have often wondered where all my time has gone. It seems just like yesterday, I was having my fifth birthday party at Mcdonalds in Louisiana. It seemed like yesterday, I was moving to a foreign land called Georgia. Man that place is hilly... Memories came and went of graduations, college, seminary, and so many other things, but the question that came to my mind through it all was it time well spent? Did I spend my time wisely, or waste it away as if I had so much more time have and spend?

And yet, as this week has come, more question have invaded my mind. In lieu of the recent storms that devastated north Georgia, I have decided to dedicate most of my time to relief effort in Ringgold, Georgia. For every crushed house, I wondered has my time been well spent? Every tree snapped, every family helped, was my time well spent?

My answer came today to the answer which has alluded me for weeks in the form of an envelope. As I was cutting and removing trees, I found an old military envelope amidst the debris. Thinking the envelope may have had some sentimental value, I took it over to the wife. Overwhelmed with raw emotions, the woman nearly collapsed over a simple envelope. But for her, it was a shred of what she had left remaining of her mother and father. As it turned out, it was the envelope in which her father asked her mother to marry him. The woman could not stop thanking me for finding this simple envelope.

As I sit here now, I wonder if my time has been well spent, and I say yes! It has been well spent cutting tree down to allow bigger trucks to get the rest. It has been family birthdays, road trips to Texas, and trips to Disney World. It has been serving on mission work camps, repairing roofs, and allowing a 90 year old woman to believe my deaf brother heard every word she talk to him for over a hour and a half. It is my prayer this night your time has been as well spent as mine.

A Recently Broken Mended Heart

Sadly, today I heard one of the saddest things I have ever heard in my life. After attempting to visit a member in the hospital, as I was walking out to my car I overheard two women talking. The conversation went something like this...

Woman # 1: Let us pray that mom OD's this time, and she never returns.

Woman # 2: I pray so too, Oh Lord if she does go into cardiac arrest, may they not resuscitate.

Woman #1: And dear Lord, may mom not be in any more pain. Please also take her away from this earth, so that we may not be burdened and pained anymore either.

I have to admit that when I heard these words, my heart was broken in two. Never had I ever heard such words come from what appeared to be somebody's mother and daughter before. It upset me so bad, that I took a moment in my car to compose myself before driving.

However, I began to drive home, the words of the two women echoed in my head. At first, all I could feel was sorrow for that poor woman, who was addicted to some drug. I was saddened at the fact that her own family wishes her dead, just so her and their pain would be gone. I thought about what caused this poor woman to get addicted to drugs in the first place. Was it simply just to try something new, and wham bam she was addicted? Or was she in such a state of hopelessness that she was trying to find a way to ease her pain? Could it have been that at one time this woman was sick, on pain medication, and could never stop taking them? Not matter the reason, my heart went out to this woman and her family.

Next, my thoughts transitioned to how hurt this woman and her family were. I have had pain and hardship in my life, but never where I wished myself or another dead. I wondered what this woman had done to have her family wish this on her. Did she have her daughter taken away from her? Did she steal from her own mother just to get the drugs that she desperately needed? How many sleepless nights did her family stay wondering if they would ever see her again? As I thought about all these things, I began to realize how these women could wish their mother/daughter such ill will. And sadly, I even imagined the drug addicted woman at times probably thought about the same things about herself. In many cases, drug addicts want to get clean, but the craving is just to much for them to handle. Not only losing that battle, you are losing your family in the middle of it all. Not only that, but the withdraw symptoms must be excruciating painful. I wondered if the woman had even thought about dying.

However, in the midst of all these thoughts, the story of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years (Mark 5:24-34) came to me. I often wondered how tormented that woman must have felt. How she had tried countless doctors, medicines, and fold remedies, yet none of them worked. I could only imagine the physical pain that she was going through as well. I believe at some point she wished she would just die to. Yet, with just the touch of Jesus' tunic, she was healed. Thinking of that story, my sorrow turned to hope and thanksgiving. I realized how lucky we are to have a God who loves us. Not only do we have a God that loves us, but his love is always available. No matter how far we believe we have moved away from God's love, we are an instant away from receiving it again always.

My friends, God is the ultimate healer. Whether the healing is physical, emotional, or spiritual, God can fix anything. It is my prayer tonight that God breaks the bonds of addiction from this woman. I pray that the heal ing process for the entire family can begin. Finally, I pray that this woman's family can find it within themselves to forgive her for the sins she has done against them. God is never far away, you just have to talk to him in order to find him no matter where you are in life.