When It's Meth

 

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;

(for he is faithful that promised). . . .

                                                                                    -- Hebrews 10:23

 

Palm Sunday is a great scene. Our Deliverer has come! Hosanna! Save us! Wave those palm fronds like mad, and yell and sing and clap and cheer.

 

Yeah, right. And less than a week later, what'd they do? Snuffed him. Or tried to.

 

It's how we are. Lots of times our deliverance, sent straight from God, appears right before our eyes in obvious, can't-miss fashion. And yet we don't see it, or misunderstand it, 'til much later. In the meantime, we fall into a world of hurt and confusion and sin.

 

Luckily, that doesn't stop the Lord Jesus Christ from doing His favorite work for us, anyway: saving us from the bondage of our own bad choices. Take my old friend. I ran into him recently for the first time in several years. Turns out he has been going through hell because his son, a sweet-faced kid who wasn't even shaving yet, got mixed up with a horrible addiction to something very bad:

 

Methamphetamine.

 

It forced his father to do all kinds of things he never thought he'd have to do: take incoherent phone calls from a whacked-out boy who should have been busy with baseball and school; go out driving around all night trying to track him down; spend $25,000 in addictions recovery treatment; wage ugly arguments with his wife over who was to blame and how they should handle the problem, and endure untold sleepless nights full of gnawing, agonizing worry and self-recrimination.

 

My son! My son! Was he stealing? Were people hurting him? Was he . . . dead?

 

They live in a nice suburban neighborhood, and the people who were selling meth to his son maintained crack houses in similar neighborhoods you'd think would be "safe." How can you win against people so evil as to deal drugs to kids? His son is a smart boy, and they'd had a great time together up until this happened. Even so, the dad was absolutely powerless to get his son to listen to him. The drug had snatched him hopelessly away.

 

That's the bad news. The GOOD news is, the young man is clean and sober now, doing well in school and on his way toward a productive life. It was a battle. But it has been won.

 

Somberly, humbly, the dad said that when other people start talking about all the tough things they are going through with their teenagers, he thinks, "They don't know how lucky they are: fender-benders, piercings, bad grades, arguments - no parent wants any of that.

 

"But when it's meth. . . ."

 

A meth addict hits that first incredible high and then will do anything to try to recapture it. Anything! They're forced to use more and more meth to try to match the feeling, and of course, they never can. They literally die trying. But it's pointless to harp on how they're throwing their lives away. It's pointless to try to get them to stop, until they have no choice.

 

In his son's case, it was a judge's ultimatum: either go into treatment until it works, or go to prison for 3½ years.

 

Finally, the wayward son listened to reason. His father was with him every step of the way, and now he has him back.

 

Through it all, he prayed. A lot. He felt so alone, so ashamed, so confused, so frustrated.

 

But now he looks back and is amazed to see how God put certain people in place to help in just the right way, at just the right time:

 

n                          The police detective who arrested his son on the felony drug charge happened to have been an old acquaintance of the dad's from high school. The dad got a call in the middle of the night that went like this: "I picked up this kid tonight and I noticed he had an unusual last name, the same as yours, and I was just wondering . . . if he is yours, I want to help." That officer gave him expert advice in navigating the criminal-justice system and recovery phase.

 

n                          The man who manages the treatment center where the judge assigned the boy was a past customer of the father. The father had done a great job for him. And so he returned the favor by pulling out the stops for the boy's medical and psychological healing. The extra attention obviously worked.

 

n                          The father's business partner adapted graciously to all the work he missed and the resulting scale-back in their business growth. Why the empathy? Because HIS teenagers had dragged HIM to hell and back with MIP's, DUI's and similar problems in the recent past. He was a good listener, an arm around his shoulder, someone who walked beside him so that he could walk beside his son, every step of the way.

 

The dad couldn't see it at the time, but he sure sees it now. In engineering this deliverance, Jesus was out ahead of him, and right beside him, too. Every step of the way.

 

His advice to other parents: talk, talk, talk to your kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol. In the olden days, a youth could make a bad choice and get away with it. Today, because of the sickening power of the drugs and the tricks the dealers have to hook you, one bad choice and you may be dead. Teach kids not to ever make that first bad choice. Keep them busy. Coach them about friends who lift you up vs. friends who drag you down.

 

            And oh, yeah. Remember that most important Friend of all:

 

Our Deliverer . . . the One Who has come in triumph to our world, to save us . . . the One Who is faithful . . . every step of the way. †