When I started my journaling this morning, I could not guess where it would lead. I want to share with you the passage which spoke to me and where it led me. Because, as I started to write, the passage took me to a different place than the one in which I had started. Here is the passage:
2 Cor. 4:13,16,18 "We do not lose heart because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
I have a grandson in his 20's who recently relapsed from an addiction to heroin. He is once again being treated and all the family is praying for him, hopeful that this time it will last. Heroin use changes the brain permanently, and it will always call out for one to use the drug again and again.
This must be a terrible burden to bear, always desiring the worst thing your body can safely use. I know of no other addiction that is this cruel and I have witnessed others. Yet, I know all addictions are terrible and do not belittle anyone in pain over an addiction. My heart hurts with each and every one who must suffer from any substance or idea that overtakes a person. That person suffers, and so do all the families who try to support him or her. Satan was busy, I think, when drugs came along. My opinion.
Our Dan was named after the Biblical Daniel. The Biblical Daniel had his problems, too, being deported to Babylon somewhere around 600 B.C. But, he stayed faithful to God all through his captivity and was a key to God's plans for the ages. (Book of Daniel, Old Testament)
Our Dan does not yet know God's plan for his life. But, God does! And we trust that there is one!
God does have a plan for our Dan's life. And the family awaits the moment it is revealed. We pray that when God chooses to reveal it, Daniel will be ready to receive it.
I have hesitated to write about this difficult situation. I'm sure other parents and grandparents out there understand. But Daniel needs all the help we can give him. And I'm hoping for an army of pray-ers.
When Dan was little, he was nervous about going to school on the bus. He had a secret signal to his mother that indicated: "Pray for me!" And she would signal back, "I am praying for you!" I don't think our Dan would mind one bit if a few readers prayed for him. Pray so this time in our lives is just another temporary moment amid the wonders of what God can do!
Thanking you from the bottom of my heart!
A concerned and loving Grandma,
Jo of MN
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