See God's Masterpiece, a Life in Transition
This is a challenging post to write. If I tell the whole story, I will threaten the anonymity of an A.A.newcomer. But I'm going to try, because the serendipity with which God works is blatantly obvious in what is happening in her life.
I was friends with a family 20 years ago. More precisely, I had a love and concern for the children, who I saw growing up in a high-risk environment. I later watched the kids pass into adulthood from a distance, with occasional contact with some who demonstrated sad results of their troubled childhoods.
I didn't come to know one of the kids because she was just a baby then, waddling through the house wearing only a diaper -- or less. Later, I heard some heart-breaking, second- and third-hand stories about her as she grew. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change..." She and her siblings were among those "things."
Through Facebook, her father confided concerns for the now-young woman. She came up on my Facebook list of friend suggestions, so I sent her a request, explaining who I was and how I knew who she was. The request was accepted, but that was all I heard back.
Months passed and I thought of her little, except when her father told me his frustrations with her drug addiction and violent outbursts. Then just after Christmas I saw this posting from her on Facebook: "Who goes to na or aa meetings? Need some people to go with! Just message me!"
I wrote back and offered her a ride to a meeting. Since then, we have become good friends. She lives in a halfway house just a couple miles from me. I've been taking her to meetings almost every day. "...the courage to change the things I can...."
She confided she has lived a drug-filled life. Her mother and friends provided her junk. She was sexually abused by many men ever since she was a little girl. Her own mother let her own boyfriend rape her over and over.
The girl has now been sober two months, following time homeless, in jail, and in a psych ward. Her mind is like that of a 14-year-old, socially and mentally frozen in time by drug abuse. But now, praise God, she seems committed to change. She asked me to be her life coach, and at A.A. yesterday she found a sponsor, who I highly recommended to her.
God is at work in this woman. He brought us together because of my work with kids some 20 years ago. She lives close by me. He has led a sponsor into her life. My new friend has a lot of growing and leaning to do. But I see God working miracles in her. In me, too.
I was friends with a family 20 years ago. More precisely, I had a love and concern for the children, who I saw growing up in a high-risk environment. I later watched the kids pass into adulthood from a distance, with occasional contact with some who demonstrated sad results of their troubled childhoods.
I didn't come to know one of the kids because she was just a baby then, waddling through the house wearing only a diaper -- or less. Later, I heard some heart-breaking, second- and third-hand stories about her as she grew. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change..." She and her siblings were among those "things."
Through Facebook, her father confided concerns for the now-young woman. She came up on my Facebook list of friend suggestions, so I sent her a request, explaining who I was and how I knew who she was. The request was accepted, but that was all I heard back.Months passed and I thought of her little, except when her father told me his frustrations with her drug addiction and violent outbursts. Then just after Christmas I saw this posting from her on Facebook: "Who goes to na or aa meetings? Need some people to go with! Just message me!"
I wrote back and offered her a ride to a meeting. Since then, we have become good friends. She lives in a halfway house just a couple miles from me. I've been taking her to meetings almost every day. "...the courage to change the things I can...."
She confided she has lived a drug-filled life. Her mother and friends provided her junk. She was sexually abused by many men ever since she was a little girl. Her own mother let her own boyfriend rape her over and over.
The girl has now been sober two months, following time homeless, in jail, and in a psych ward. Her mind is like that of a 14-year-old, socially and mentally frozen in time by drug abuse. But now, praise God, she seems committed to change. She asked me to be her life coach, and at A.A. yesterday she found a sponsor, who I highly recommended to her.
God is at work in this woman. He brought us together because of my work with kids some 20 years ago. She lives close by me. He has led a sponsor into her life. My new friend has a lot of growing and leaning to do. But I see God working miracles in her. In me, too.
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