Another kid died yesterday. Had him in my home over the weekend. A kid in recovery from drug abuse. Full of life & dreams. Gone. Don’t yet know how he died. But he’s dead anyway.
I have a family member in long-term drug treatment. In just the last 4 weeks 3 young men who have been through the same treatment process have died. That does not mean the program is a failure. In truth, the success rate is extremely high – but human nature tends to camp on the negative and neglect to see the overall picture. However, the reality is it’s an insidious disease. Addiction is a life long struggle. A life and death one. I have watched good kids on a strong path to healing, snap and be taken over by something even worse than the effects of their disease. I have seen the demonic in this. Not one to look for a demon in every bush, but I am one who knows there is an evil spiritual army only too ready and capable of manipulating human weakness.
But I angrily wrestle with something more than this.
How many other diseases of the mind or the body, how many moral aberrations in human nature are either caused by or manipulated by satan? It’s impossible to know and calculate. But it is possible (and true) to acknowledge that it happens. The world is truly messed up. The sex trade, modern day slavery right under our noses, economic exploitation/greed, and political corruption are but a skimming of the surface of the insanity of humanity. And what makes me mad is that the Christian community so often spends the majority of their efforts addressing the soft stuff, the white-collar problems of persons. Especially in North America, we have indulged ourselves and created an entire industry of Christian consumption of products/programs to address things that keep us safe and happy in our homes, in our church buildings, IN OURSELVES. We regularly fail to look out and around, roll up our sleeves, put on the rubber boots and wade into the shit that infects the human condition. There’s no glory in that I guess. Perhaps no commercial value or direct impact on the budget or congregational growth. Maybe too much risk?
Yeah, I am mad.
What is WRONG with us? What is WRONG with me? We as a community have developed a white collar, button-down culture of training and service that has influenced and produced the same kinds of Christian communities. I am mad because I AM PART of that production line. Harv Matchullis is not without participation and culpability in this.
Right now all I know is I am watching kids I know kill themselves. Kids I talked to 24 hours ago. Going to a support group and praying just isn’t going to cut it.
This messed up world needs more from us.
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