You mean there is hope?

Some of the stories are just heartbreaking. The people involved literally had no—or little—chance of finding success in their lives. One young girl started smoking marijuana at the age of four. How did she do that, you may ask? Her mother held her down and blew smoke into her lungs, hoping the effects would calm her down. Several years later, the young girl was on crack and heroin.

I heard similar stories about women and girls during my recent trip to Healing House, which is a residential treatment facility for women and their children. Healing House is under the organizational umbrella of Metro Hope Ministries, which also offers a men’s treatment facility.

The stories I heard that day made me realize—again—how fortunate many of us are. Thankfully, few of us ever had to deal with a mother who intentionally tried to get us high when we were a toddler. Or had to grow up in a household where generational poverty was the norm, with no idea how to escape it. Or grew up in a 
household where generational prostitution was viewed as “normal.”

No, mercifully most of us didn’t experience those life setbacks. We didn’t begin life several steps behind starting line.

Yet for these women—and everyone else—there is hope. If the gospel is about anything, it is about hope and restoration.

The Apostle Paul’s life always inspires me. Here was a man who did enjoy a good upbringing and was thought of highly among his peers. So highly, in fact, that he was a major force behind the persecution of Christians, these new Christ followers who some thought threatened the reigning religious landscape.

His hands were stained with the blood of murdered Christians, yet he ultimately found Christ—or Christ found him—and his life was redeemed. He went on to spread the message of those he tried to kill: the message of hope, redemption and healing. And he was largely responsible, along with the Holy Spirit, with spreading this newfound faith across the Middle East and parts of Africa and Europe—and beyond.

A life redeemed, indeed.

Similar stories play out each day across the world of people finding hope through a church, ministry, friend or a direct intervention from God. The details may vary, but the essential characteristics are the same.

Who could have imagined looking at Paul that one day he would become a leader in the “sect” that he once targeted? How about the kids who grow up in homes where generational poverty, addiction and prostitution are the norm? Few people give them a chance either.

Yet many of them find a way out—in the here and now and for eternity.

Many years back the term “pre-believers” became popular among some missions-minded people and those involved with evangelism. They felt it took the negative connotation out of “unbeliever” or “unsaved” and spoke to the hopefulness that they would eventually find Christ.

As believers, instead of seeing someone as an addict or as someone beholden to negative forces, maybe we should see them as pre-healed, someone who has yet to hear of the love, healing and redemption of Christ.

Then we can take it upon ourselves to be the one to share that gift with them, either individually, through our church or through a ministry like Healing House. Think of the impact upon those hurting this could have?
 
So the next time someone looks at you with desperation written on their face and says, “You mean there is hope?,” you can reply, “There sure is. Let me show you.”