My phone rang and it was my father asking if I would meet him at his pastor friend’s church. He was taking a young man there dying from heroin addiction. He asked me to come and pray with them.

I drove right over and as soon as I entered the pastor’s office I noticed the young man sitting there with his head hung in shame.

He was dying for a fix and from embarrassment.

The pastor got up from his chair and kneeled down before him. He grabbed his hands and gently said, “Look at me son.”

The young man barely glanced up when the pastor said: “Do you see how heavy I am? Do you see my problem may not be heroin, but it is food. We are all broken son. Nothing to be ashamed of here.” 

As soon as the words came out of the pastor’s mouth it was like the breaking of a dam, and courage bubbled up out of this young man’s soul as the pastor’s confession made him brave enough to share his story.

There in that office was when God began piecing together what He had been saying to me in the middle of the night. What He has been saying to us for a long time Church:

“Go first.”

Share your addictions.

Share your weaknesses and how I make you strong in the middle of them.

Share the thing you hide and are most embarrassed about.

“Take the plank out of your own eye and maybe then you can tell your brother about his plank.”

We as the body of Christ want to come riding in on our white horses and save all the alcoholics and heroin addicts, when God is saying, “Get off your high horse and admit your own crap.”

I am not an alcoholic, but my father was.

And I loved going to meetings with him and learning. For twenty-two years of sitting in AA meetings with him, I kept trying to figure out why it felt cleaner, holier, and more reverent than any church service I had ever attended. (In the middle of “f bombs”, ripped jeans, and gallons of black coffee).

Then it hit me.

Jesus doesn’t just sit with the broken, but the broken open.

God can’t reach polished suits, polished lives and put togethers. He heals hearts so desperate for healing they are willing to risk their very lives and reputations to get it.

You see that’s our problem, we care so much about what others think, we don’t want a “stigma” or a “reputation” so we hide.

I sat in silence two years ago, ashamed, as I struggled with depression and had to go on medication because I was afraid I would be judged, looked down upon, and thought of as crazy.

Do you know what the definition of stigma is? A mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as one’s reputation.

When in the world are we going to stop caring about our reputations and let the blood of Jesus Christ be the very thing that brands us and makes us brave enough to share our wounds?

Many addicts have a problem with us Church.

We tell them they just need Jesus. We tell them they don’t need a big book to tell them how to recover. We tell them that their addiction is not a disease and we scoff at them from our pulpits and scratch our heads asking, “How could they stick a needle in their veins?”

Let me ask you this: what is the difference between injecting saturated fat into our veins or heroin? Do they both lead to the same demise? Last I checked heart disease is still the number one killer.

And so is the diseases of ignorance and pride.

If we want to be forerunners and to help with addiction than we must educate ourselves and come out of hiding. We must be willing to take our masks off and share how Jesus Christ heals our infirmities, pride, our marriages, and share our stories and wounds.

We always think we have to wait for deliverance or for the bow at the end of the story to share how God is healing us.

That is our very problem. I love Nichole Nordeman’s line in her new song The Unmaking: It is only when we are broken do we become whole.

It’s not heroin, alcohol, or any addiction that is killing us. That is just the symptom of a root cause: Hiding.

Brennan Manning says in his book Abba’s Child: Christians who remain in hiding continue to live the lie. We deny the reality of our sin. In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others. 

When we will stop depriving others of our healing gift? If you want others to know how Jesus heals and delivers- start talking.

The pastor I spoke of earlier? He became a close friend of my father’s and shared with me how he would frequently go to meetings of Bill W. I asked if he was an alcoholic and he said, “No, I just had so much to learn.” 

If you want to know why your son or daughter can’t stop using– go and learn.

If you want to learn how to have peace in the middle of your loved one’s addiction and how to stop enabling, fixing, and controlling- get to an Al-Anon meeting as fast as you can.

We have a lot of work to do Church and a lot to learn.

The question is, will we be brave?

.

Sharing is caring!

Facebook

Linkedin

Twitter

Pinterest

Buffer