My youngest son, Jared, is taking Fire Science in school as he wants to be a firefighter. At dinner the other night, he was telling my husband and myself that his class that day was on meth addiction. As he began to tell about the effects of meth addiction on a person, I began to feel sick. He described one of the most horrible abuses to a human body that I had ever heard. I don't even want to think again about what he described as it was so horrible. As he talked, I thought about my friends on the reservations.......the ones doing meth and the ones who struggle every day to resist the temptation to do meth. People I love struggling, struggling, struggling to be free......free from the pain of meth......free from the pain of living on the reservation......free from the pain of being indian. And then I began to hurt. I hurt for my friends......I hurt for their families......I hurt for the loss of what their lives could have been. Pain......it seems to be everywhere. Please God, have mercy on us all!
God is working in Rick and me. He is working in a new way, calling us to a greater walk with Him and to a greater responsibility in ministering to our friends and yet to be friends on the reservations. Hearing the effects of meth addiction has served to make me even more determined than before to follow in obedience His call on our lives. This call has begun to take shape for us. We are beginning to see clearly what God is calling us to. And we are stepping out in obedience, one day at a time, one step at a time, fixing our eyes on Jesus. Because this is the only way we can answer this call......with our eyes on Jesus. Without Jesus as our focus, we will grow weary and lose heart. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning it's shame and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:2-3 And of course God knows that......He knows how weak we are and how much we need to rely on Him. He has taught us to step out of His way so that His Holy Spirit can work through us to minister to those on the reservations. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord Almighty." Zechariah 4:6
God is incredibly good to us! He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, and He uses both of those for our good. We know that we are not alone in this ministry that He has called us to and we know that He will enable us to do that which He has set out for us to do. We live daily, laying it all out at the foot of the cross, trusting Him to go before us. And so we have found, my friends, that there is no better way to live! To God Be The Glory!
