Recently several of the ministers in the Graffiti Network have been thinking critically about how to minister effectively to individuals with addictions, specifically heroin addiction. I’m still learning, but here’s the strategy I’ve come to embrace:
Meet the need first
Build Relationships
Trust God to transform lives
This strategy has been shaped by firsthand experiences on the streets of the Bronx. This is the third of four blog entries sharing those stories.
In the last blog entry, we thought about the power of friendship. Friendship, as Dr. Perkins defines it is “discipleship in action.” By building relationships, the world is changed one person at a time.
Sometimes, transformation doesn’t happen quickly. Around Graffiti, we say, “If you want to see things change, just wait around long enough.”
Often, God does his best work over time. I may want to hurry it along, but I can’t transform a life; I have to trust God to transform lives.
TRUST GOD TO TRANSFORM LIVES
Several years ago, I met a man playing basketball in the park. An older gentleman, he was an expected sight each morning as I walked past the park on my way to our ministry center. We would exchange friendly greetings and small talk. Then I would go my way, and he would take a few more shots at the basket.
After years of this shallow routine, I thought, I need to get to know this man better.
We went to lunch. As we talked, he said often, “I’m a shy guy,” but he kept talking and opening up. He had lived in our neighborhood for many years. He had countless stories from years gone by. These weren’t good years in our community.
Then, he said something that I didn’t understand. He said,
“I saw you that day.”
“What day?”
“The day you brought that man back to life in front of the grocery store.” (To understand the day he was talking about, read the first entry of this blog series here).
I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even know him at the time. He saw and remembered.
Over our lunch, I learned details about his life that I never knew. I enjoyed getting to know him and I think he enjoyed getting to know me. Most consequentially, my new friend had an opportunity to get to know God. Following our conversation that day, he placed his faith in Jesus.
It’s fun to see how God works. The air I gave to the man unconscious on the ground later brought air to the soul of my new friend. The relief work had an unexpected outcome. It planted the seed of release. The fruit would come much later, nearly ten years later, but it blossomed and was beautiful.
The life of faith isn’t like a ladder, but instead like a tree. It as twists and turns. A new crook in the tree was encountered on the day of my friend’s baptism.
He showed up drunk.
I wondered, should I even baptize him?
I did. He was baptized.
Then my friend disappeared. I didn’t know what happened until a month later I saw him riding his daughter’s bike down the street towards our ministry center. He looked a little silly, sitting on a tiny, pink bike, with his legs nearly up to his chest.
His face looked fresh and bright.
He told me, “I checked myself into rehab but now I’m back.”
However, that wasn’t the end of his drinking. He relapsed several times over the following months.
Then there was a day it all changed. While on a trip with his wife, he felt the familiar urge to get a drink. He wrestled with his thoughts, but then something happened. He said,
“I asked myself, ‘What am I doing?’ I don’t want to do this.”
When he recalls that day, he says, “God changed me.”
In all of our conversations through the years, we rarely talked about his struggles with alcohol. They were obvious. Sometimes I even wondered if I should do something to help. Instead, I focused on being a friend, listening, and sharing God’s Word.
Alcoholism wasn’t a problem I could fix, but God could.
God did.
God changed his thinking and transformed his life.