RUNNING a Bible study for a group of youth-aged girls in a
recovery program as an extension of the ministry of the church I work for, and
God leads me to share the above Word. We
had just been discussing how three of these girls had experienced significant
healings whilst on a camp. In a mood of
reflective joy, we all mused about how fortunate we were — having gone through
a recovery of sorts, in the Kingdom of God.
There were stories going around the group of how much community adds to
life, and how ‘those on the outside’ were missing out.
These girls, and anyone on a mission of recovery, inevitably
has to give up and sacrifice a lot of things; much contact with family, access
to electronic devices and social media, and basically many freedoms we all take
for granted. There is a true sense that
life is ‘on hold’ — that into the incubator of self-development they go.
Yet, even with all this taken away, together with the
daunting task of looking ahead to a lot of personal work, there is the
perspective that this Program builds their future, one day as a brick in a wall
at a time.
I told them that they inspire me. Some have bold hopes for noble careers,
others want to be leaders elsewhere, like in a family, and others, too, are
headed for careers in helping vocations like social work. First they have to finish their
schooling. They learn to deal with their
feelings. They’re discipled. They go to healing meetings. It’s a hotbed seminary for challenge and
growth.
On the one hand, they have nothing, so far as possessions go,
yet, on the other hand, they have it all — a caring, nurturing community they
can grow with safety in, the felt Presence of God, and opportunities that might
only come through a Program like this.
They have nothing, yet they possess all things.
And that’s a marvellous spiritual concept; the less we have,
as in what we hold, the more we have.
Only someone who’s ever lost it all, and had to go back to the start,
could really understand.
Consider it privilege replete with joy when you’re in
possession of nothing, for only then can you say that, in God, you possess all
things. It was so for Jesus.
© 2016 Steve Wickham.
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