Jude 2

I'm going to tell you all something. Today has been one of those days -- actually, this weekend has been so -- that just leaves me so disgusted that I can't hardly find words for it. It all boils down to one thing: drugs.

Now, I've been vocal here and everywhere about my belief that drugs should be decriminalized because, as an attorney, I see that imprisonment does absolutely nothing to mitigate the problems that the drug culture creates (and, in my view, exacerbates the problems). I also believe that the government has a vested interest in enlarging itself on tax dollars and social control through the so-called "war on drugs", and that it is a tool for oppression of black men. That is my personal conviction, and I'm only saying all this so that what I say next does not make me the hypocrite.

BUT..... I am flat out convinced that drugs are evil. And, many of them are legal. I can't judge anyone for what they take under doctors' orders, but doctors are the highest-paid drug dealers in the world. This is to say nothing of the illegal substances such as marijuana and cocaine and crystal methamphetamine.

I've told my wife before, in half-jest, "I fully believe everybody in the world except for me and you is doing drugs, and I'm not too sure about you." The last part is the jest, of course; but, anyone else on the planet could be revealed to be a drug addict and I wouldn't flinch about it.
All of the gasp factor about illegal drugs and substance abuse is just gone from me, but with that I am filled with disgust at the fact that people are swallowing, smoking, shooting up, and whatever else, left and right.

Where does it end?? Is there any way we can expect that this most widespread societal scourge will ever abate? If someone can tell me 'yes', myself and about 10 other people (as I figure we may be the only ones left not using) would love to hear it. I'm just mad as fire. NO ONE has an answer for it. No one. The thing that would seem as plain as the nose on your face eludes discovery like the lost city of Atlantis. I just don't get it.

I really wonder sometimes .... and this is one of those few things that causes me to pause and consider my whole end-times views .... but I really wonder if that reference in Revelation 18:23 REALLY means drug use instead of "sorcery". This is no fancy-pants New Age deal, y'all. This is every stinkin' where like bed bugs in New York City.

Lord, help us. This has gotta stop somewhere.

Dolfan.
I think it really comes down to Love as Jesus said.

Do we love our facilities, programs, organizations, doctrines, theology or the hurting people more? Jesus came to show the heart of the Father and absolutely loved broken people. To reveal and restore the relationship back to Him.

Remember.. this springs quickly to my mind.. but Jesus freed the two possessed men and instead of the city people thanking him, asking Him to stay, minister MORE and teach them more on this life changing salvation.... they asked Him to leave. Were they scared that more of their "deemed misfits" would be made whole? Did it challenge their existing ideals?

Do we really want these ( deemed "evil" outcasts ) people sitting next to us? Do we really reach out to them unconditionally and love as Jesus did?

It's a rhetorical question only.

Jesus said the TRUTH with set you FREE. I believe that can apply to all situations. It's not hopeless.. it Loveless.

Philippians 4:13 (New International Version)
13. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

All true. 100%. If you'd been sent to clean up the remains of the World Trade Center a week after 9/11/01, and you were given a shovel and a loudspeaker and told to have at it....alone....it would've been impossible to finish that in your lifetime if that's all you had to work with. Cry for help with one hand, and shovel with the other and hope for the best??? That is the "feel" of what I see happening.

And, I don't mean legally. The government is going to do what it is going to do. I mean practically. What in the world are we going to do?

Let me tell you what has happened just in my little personal work zone in the past week -- and not as an attorney.

1. Last week, one of my employees (our cleaning lady at the store), calls me on Monday night and says, "Mr. Tim, I know I didn't come in today because I had a migraine [a story I believe because this girl doesn't typically miss work], but I may not be able to come in tomorrow because my husband [her ex, actually] may have killed my mother." Turns out she was half right: her ex-husband had, in fact, attempted to kill her mother. In fact, he beat her so badly, wrapped her in a blanket in the woods and left her for dead, then went and -- as police closed in on him -- he shot himself dead. At the time she'd called, of course, her mother was missing and not yet found in the pitiful shape she was in. They found her in the woods, left for dead, moments after the phone call. Actually as I hung up the phone, an ambulance and two police cars zoomed by the store with their lights and sirens on. One steel plate in the skull later (he beat her furiously with a hammer), one amputated finger later (defensive wounds as she tried to shield herself from the blows), one reattached ear later (her left one was dangling from her head; for now, it looks like she'll get to keep it), and a bashed in face later .... which, from the report I got last night, all adds up to miraculously no brain damage .... and one very dead ex-husband/wife-beater/drug addict/drug dealer later, the only thing anyone can do is be thankful the lady is still alive. Until, that is, the next crazed addict does something horrible to someone, purposely or not.

2. Another employee ... one of our best as a matter of fact ... arrested yesterday in a very public and broadcast drug bust (depending on the news reports, it was either trafficking -- a felony -- or simple personal use possession of marijuana -- a misdemeanor -- we're still investigating ourselves to get to the bottom of it; there may be some grace given if it was simple possession for personal use only).

3. We try our best to follow the law and run a responsible, respectable, clean and decent business. Our customers, as you might imagine, include everyone. Killers who did their time, child molesters, people with AIDS, cross-dressers, drug dealers, rapists, thieves and embezzlers, you name it --- they all come in and out of our store along with the preachers, pray-ers, plumbers, police, and professionals. (I don't know anyone that I know has AIDS but you've gotta figure that the odds are that HIV positive people are everywhere and you see/talk with them all the time). Point is -- that along will all of the so-called "respectable" people who frequent us, there are as many people who have wound up in life's dumpster through faults or no-faults of their own. We're an equal opportunity convenience store. But, we try to keep all of that on the other side of the counter. When you're behind the counter, we expect you to not do things to recklessly or purposely drive your life into a brick wall because it impacts our business. But, people evidently don't care enough about themselves to avoid that wall. And DRUGS comprise a prevailing factor in most of it.

My disgust is the combination of the utter scale of the problem, and the lack of any effective way of reducing the scale. The church's record on dealing with this is no better than its record on relieving poverty among its own. So, I'm not optimistic that "we" have a solution.

Just this morning, I've been trying to help a lady that I know through church. It is a convoluted situation and I'm giving her my time so far because I know she's really in need. My guess is, though, in the middle of this little knot she's in, somebody -- maybe two somebodies -- is a drug addict. It is set up just to be a classic drug-addict's mess that someone else (this lady) is being left to clean up. And, I'm pulling off tasks that I can actually get paid for to help her with it, and writing about it here (which I don't get paid to do ) because I'm going quite bonkers about this, obviously.

Just venting, I guess.

Our local HS had a public meeting after 3 students OD last year. OXYies It's bad everywhere.

I completely understand.. especially when it's so close to home as yours is.

dolfan wrote:My disgust is the combination of the utter scale of the problem, and the lack of any effective way of reducing the scale. The church's record on dealing with this is no better than its record on relieving poverty among its own. So, I'm not optimistic that "we" have a solution.

Seriously.. I have to default back to TRUTH and not any "Church's Record".
We do possess the answer, the TRUTH. Are we using it? Or do we trust in our [ insert x ] more? That is the question that I think this passage answers.

1 Corinthians 13

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

You keep helping in love as the spirit directs and you are planting seeds that will grow. Trust me.

God Bless you today!

dolfan I've heard that whatever agitates us most is what we are called to help correct. I don't know if that is the case with you but it sounds as though you are acutely aware of the problem! Thanks for sharing that- I will keep it in prayer.