My friend, Steve

Steve is a homeless guy in recovery that I work with outside of Helping Up Mission.   Yesterday I took him a couple of places to address some legal issues and we talked about his life.

While a skilled craftsman, Steve could not make enough money to cover his drug habit.  Consequently, he started missing work because he was using.  He lost his job but still needed his drugs. 

So Steve went to the nearest store to steal something in order to purchase drugs on the street.  But the first store he could find would generally not be the most conducive for stealing.  Eventually he got caught, arrested and went to jail. 

In jail, Steve would detox and hope that maybe this time he could stop using when he got out.  But upon release he would find another job and simply start the same cycle over again.  Steve did this for some 20 years.   

About a year ago Steve had a spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ.  He has stayed clean ever since.  Right now he is going back and forth from Maryland (where mom lives and where he wants to stay) to Florida (where his 7-year old daughter lives with her mother).  Steve makes a little here and gets down there to help out.  He works down there and then comes back to take care of things here – including his legal matters.  Steve has networks of spiritual and recovery support in both places.      

The wreckage of our past can so drag us down.  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, it doesn’t have to be that way.  It truly is one day at a time for Steve.  It should be that way for all of us.

Just for today,
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director