Addicts.

Two young women at my school are addicts. One thrives on anger and the other finds acceptance in drugs. How do I know this? They told me. Now for the story! My first meeting with them was detailed in a previous blog post titled "YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT"! After that encounter, I applied myself to pray for a conversation with the girls. I knew I would get one.

A couple weeks later, after school had been dismissed, Angry was standing at the corner waiting for her drunken father to show up. Seeing the chance to fulfill my prayer I approached her with the light-hearted comment, "I never got to introduce myself before yelling at you." I reached out my hand and she accepted it with a smile on her lips and a name on her tongue. Not what I expected! We only shared some simple small talk but it was a beginning!

I began seeing the two girls at school more often and gave a smile and "good morning" to them when I saw them. Knowing I didn't hate them, they returned the favor. This continued up until a few weeks ago when they came out of their class all riled up. I happened to be in front of the school and they walked my way with what can only be described as "the look".

Miss Addict suffers from what I can only be described as diarrhea of the mouth. In other words, she has no filter between her brain and her tongue. She immediately jumped into a conversation with me about all the problems she and miss Angry suffered from. This is how I came to know of their troubles. I listened and made some comments suggesting that I understood what she was talking about. In truth, I did understand, being a spiteful addict myself. I have been to group meetings to fight it. Maybe we will get into that another time! Suffice to say that my sins lined up very effectively with theirs. The girls went on their way after setting their dark, not-so-secret secrets on the table in front of me.

I prayed for them some more and today the addict showed up, sans miss Angry. "I'm moving to Tennessee," she said. Some small talk later, I simply said that I would, "pray to the Guy upstairs" for her. "Thank you" she said. Fifteen minutes later, both exit to the front of the school. Seeing them both together, I asked how anger management and the addictions were coming along. With a shrug and an "All right" I responded with a chuckle and told them a joke from Alcoholics Anonymous circles: You know you've only recovered from alcohol when you've given up the coffee and the cigarettes. I told them that I knew it wasn't going well because, no matter how much progress they had made on one point of anger or addiction, they simply fortified another segment of it. " 'Progress' is often a transfer from one bad thing to another" I said.

With agreement between us, miss Angry and miss Addict began to walk off. That's when I did it. That's when I tossed the subtle bomb at them with the comment, "You know, there is only one way that you can be healed." With a turn, miss Addict asked, "Oh yeah? What is that?"


"To know a God who can fix your heart."

"I need to have that," she murmured as she turned away.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
~Acts 4:12