When Wolf Parade sang, “I keep my head up tight. I make my plans at night. And I don’t sleep, I don’t sleep, I don’t sleep ’til it’s light. Some folks float. Some are buried alive.” I felt that.
I grew up in the wealthiest suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. A place called Germantown.
Off the top of my head, I can name 7-8 high school peers who did not live to see their 35th birthdays. All succumbed to drug overdoses.
Their names: Adam H., Mallory M., Stephen M., Adam B., Peyton C., Ches L., and now Phillip C., who I just learned passed away yesterday.
This is insanity.
Saved By the Grace of God
I was almost one of those names.
When I was 20 years old, I took Xanax for the first (and only) time. Drank a ton on it. Blacked out driving home from a party. Ran headlong into a telephone pole doing at least 30 miles per hour.
By some miracle, I had my seatbelt on. It saved my life.
I got a DUI. Lost my license for a year. Amazingly, I felt sorry for myself – rather than being grateful for being alive.
I got on a friend’s account on a message board, posted a sob story about the experience, and got utterly destroyed by the message board members. It was pathetic.
Even more pathetic was the next dozen years of my life – where I sunk deeper and deeper into Adderall addiction, until God rescued me from my disease.
The names I mentioned earlier were less fortunate. Young men and women with bright futures.
I have a better fate now than the one I deserve. The one that so many of my colleagues have met. I am humbled and grateful to God that He has spared me from the destruction I sought to bring upon myself.
Called to the Light
This is a prayer for the family and friends of those who have succumbed to their addiction. There are millions out there. My heart grieves for them.
God, please bring comfort and solace to those who have lost loved ones to addiction.
Please bless them and allow them to feel the Holy Spirit in their lives this week.
Let them know that they are loved and that they are not going through this alone.
Help all of those currently suffering from addiction to get the help they need – spare them and their loved ones from further anguish at the hands of this unholy disease.
In Your Name I pray – amen.
