“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he had given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the time.” I Peter 1:3 – 5
I have the awesome privilege of being a mentor for a group of women recovering from addiction. When a new young lady comes into our group she will be asked to ‘tell her story’ I only ask the girls what lead to them being where they are today. One thing they all have in common is they have never told their entire story to anyone. I will sit beside them and listen to their story. This is not easy for them at the beginning but when they realize that they are loved unconditionally for perhaps the first time in their lives – things begin to change.
So many times at one point in the story the young woman will say, “I have no hope. I have no hope of recovering, I have no hope of a future. No one cares.” The look on their faces show the lack of hope and it is … for lack of a better term sad. When they finish telling their story and have washed the tears away then it is my turn to share with them that there is hope and that hope is found only through Jesus Christ.
Some of the young women already know Jesus, they have just put him on the back burner for a season. Others have never even attended Sunday School or church in their life. I may not be with them physically when they find Jesus but they let me know as quickly as possible what has happened in their lives.
Recently I walked into our Connection Class and noticed the smile and bright eyes filled with hope on the face of one of the girls. She ran across the room threw her arms around me and began to weep. She whispered in my ear, “Miss Betty, I found Jesus and now I have hope and someone who loves me”. This my sisters is when every tear that I shed for these girls is worth everything to me.
Our hope is found in Jesus Christ and without Him there is no hope in our fallen world. Are all the girls I mentor a success story? Sadly, the answer is no. But the ones who find Jesus have hope for a better future and eternal life.