It was one week ago today that my friends Sheila and Rogers world turned upside-down. They had been crazy with worry over their son who had not come home the night before. He had just gotten off house arrest and was to be home by 6:00. Most of those we minister to at On Wings has lived through that scenario many nights. The fear that comes over you is debilitating as you imagine all kinds of things that could happen.
Sheila woke up to the worse news of her life. There stood the sheriff's chaplain with the words she hoped never to hear, "your son was found dead in his truck".
Sheila said all she could say was no, no, no, as she bolted out the door trying to make sense of it as the words rang in her head. It will take a while for it all to become reality as she sorts through her feelings and loss. I know they wanted to relive the time, the if only's have surely played over and over.
This is the bottom line fear of each parent who deals with a child who is addicted to drugs. Oh Lord, if we could only stop the cycle. If we could only get through to the ones we love so much with the message that they are destroying their lives for a moments seeming pleasure or escape. It cost this young twenty year old his life.
What can we do Lord to get the message across. To save our loved ones from destruction. Help us Lord to know how to help....how to get through...cause even after we pray, and cry, and pray some-more we find ourselves helpless to change it.
The solace comes in the fact that numerous folks had talked to Josh about his relationship with the Lord and he had said time and again that there was a time he had accepted Jesus into His heart. On that basis we can have some sense of peace, knowing that at last he is free. Not free on this earth with us as we had hoped, but he had found his freedom in Christ. Have you my friend? We never know when God's hand will be removed from our lives and we will breathe our last.
Josh had written a letter to a friend that expressed his acceptance of the Lord in his life and the desire to know that this friend had also made that decision. She read it at his funeral and I pray it reached the hearts of each one in attendance.
"Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed" Job 14:5. "In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind" Job 12:10. In light of this scripture we can rest in the One Who has total control and know that His purposes will be accomplished.
