That's All Ya Got?

It's time to admit that most people who care deeply for the addicted and desire to see true transformational change come to all who are affected by addiction have no idea how to respond to the hurting. 

​Feeling Helpless will either drive you further into a problem, or drive you away from the problem.

​The other night one of our team received a call from someone who's church was engaged in an outdoor neighborhood outreach event.  During the event, which was open to anyone who desired to come, two self-confessing heroin addicts came and began to pour out their souls as to their struggles with their addiction.  They confessed to the crimes their lives had been reduced to in order to maintain the habit they could not stop on their own.  They were asking for help. 

​The phone call came to one of our tem.  ​"I told them that there was a group of churches in our area working together to help people like them so I'm calling you.  What do we do?  What should I say?  How can we help them?"​  At this point in the story it would be great to report that solutions were immediately offered that were perfectly fit to the needs.  It would be stunning to report that we found them beds in a rehab center that very night and they were now on their way to wholeness.  That would be nice, but that is not how the conversation continued.  Instead, both parties were scrambling to unearth answers from the recesses of their minds to offer some hopeful crumb of wisdom to the couple.  There was an overwhelming sense of helplessness in the conversation.

• The answers offered seemed too small to fit the large scale nature of the problem.
• ​The insufficiency of the knowledge-base of both parties was glaring.
• The deeply-felt helplessness was eye-opening.

​Feeling helpless is the perfect impetus to drive us to learn more, gather information, seek more answers, and ready our minds for truly adequate responses to the issues.  The next day, two of our team members discussed how we will begin to engage in more efforts to inform our responses and use this moment of helplessness to drive us further into the problem, not further away.

• ​We need to know details about local rehab options and their intake processes.
• ​We need to know dates, times, phone numbers and such for partners that handle crisis intervention.
• ​We need to know conversational tools of wisdom so we can offer grace free from fear of being manipulated.
• ​We need to seek deeper partnerships with other agencies and know their offerings.
• ​We need to be equipped with ways to get people to take the first step towards their own recovery.

And so much more.

Uninformed, uneducated, unwise compassion will not be enough.  On the phone, compassion was dripping from the conversation, but there was a drought of wisdom and knowledge. 

Feeling Helpless will either drive you further into a problem, or drive you away from the problem.

​At Addiction Response Ministry, we're ready to press in.  Pray for us that we would be wise and equip ourselves, and thereby the church, to respond better.

​AMEN.​