Contentment & Hope…It’s Working For Keith!

Monday–Friday, at 7 AM, we have “Morning Devotions” with the men of Helping Up Mission. It’s a time for daily announcements, a short devotional thought about that week’s Character Quality and a daily reading from Just for Today published by Narcotics Anonymous.

This week’s Character Quality is Contentment: Realizing God has already provided everything necessary for my present well-being.

As is often the case, yesterday, that truth went remarkably well with the Just for Today passage – starting with a quote from the NA Basic Text: “Gradually, as we become more God-centered than self-centered, our despair turns to hope.”

I talked briefly(!) about the connection between the Character Quality of Contentment and this God-centered hope. As far as I’m concerned they’re talking about the same thing.

After Morning Devotions ended (about 7:15), Keith came up to share something with me. He’s the guy who’d read publicly our Just for Today message.

Keith’s been here almost 10 months and is in the final phase of our 12-month residential Spiritual Recovery Program. He celebrated his 53rd birthday over the weekend – with his family!

His life has dramatically changed since arriving here, and family can see it, he said. For him, it started with the concepts we’d discussed that morning.

First, Keith changed his thinking about God and how He works in our lives…then God started making changes in his life.

Over the months I’ve heard Keith verbalize these thoughts in class. This morning I could see in his eyes and hear in his voice how well it’s working.

Keith has hope today because he’s connected to the God of Hope!

One Day at a Time,
Pastor Gary Byers
Deputy Director