Some personal pain, some public thoughts

This week I let go of someone I love. Oh I didn’t let go of the fact that she is in the hands of Christ, although she would object to that. I let go of trying to be the one to guide her footsteps away from the precipice. But this isn’t just about her. And, yes, I am terribly sad.

So here are some thoughts about needs in California and I am sure beyond our borders. It does not even need to be spoken. If young people are not Christians they will have sex before marriage. Sometimes when they are Christians it is the same. Sexually, as a people, we are broken.

In a few months we will vote on allowing marijuana to be legal in California. But in a very real sense it already is. If someone is an adult and under stress they can legally obtain marijuana. And if they are so inclined they can offer it to their teenagers. (Not legally, but no one does anything about it.) I know a family who gathers on holidays to smoke marijuana. Many of the young people involved lose all interest in anything else.

It was not always so on our street, but now, across the street from our house, is a darkly painted apartment house where in the evening it is exceedingly dark with drug selling and prostitutes. I am thinking of placing a large sign on my front tree with the words, Prostitutes and druggies, “do you know Jesus loves you and can change your life?” Perhaps I should add pimps.

Californians think they are broken because of money woes. And of course we are hurting in that area in so many ways. But our brokenness is much, much deeper than that. We are all broken and in need of the care of our Creator. We are in need of the work of grace, the gift that Jesus gave by his death on the cross. We are in need of revival, a turning away from sin, and a turning to Christ. Outside of Him there is nothing. With him there is joy in the midst of pain.