This place is a rehab

My sister spent a few years working at a rehab clinic in Plymouth, called "High Point". She earned a degree in drug addiction counseling while in college, and for some reason saw it fit to actually put this to use healing people who most often don't want to be healed. Most of her stories of the people inside were vaguely amusing, yet often disturbing. She always came back to one shocking point though; these people are not imprisoned. They are not ordered into the institution, but rather they must enter at their own free will. They can leave anytime they want, but they know that this will never solve their problems. They know deep down that no matter how much they push help away, they originally walked through the doors with the intention of seeking some sort of assistance. Now, I have never considered myself addicted to a drug or any substance for that matter, except of course for my passionate and unending love for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yet I find the situation that these people enter into remarkably similar to some important aspect of my life.

This faith, this love, this way of life that I call Christianity, is the Great Rehab. As humans we have become addicted to ourselves. We have let greed, money, lust, and power overtake our abilities to behave like rational normal human beings, to behave the way God has intended. Our bodies have been transformed from gloriously warm temples into nothing more than cold damp rooms in which the spiritual bacteria that seeks to infect us may thrive and spread. We are diseased, and we must come to the realization that we need help. That is the first step; admission.

So what must we do now, in our greatest time of need? The answer is simple, we must seek out He who is an expert in the field of spiritual depravity. The only way I know how, the way that worked for me and therefore the one I must offer up to you, is to enter the Christian faith. Now, you must not enter into this 'rehab' expecting to be surrounded by the reformed. Do not be shocked when you see the faces of those tormented by the same addiction, a face that is often too familiar to bear. These are not saints and martyrs you will become to know as your family, but human beings just the same as you and I. You will find that each person will want to sit and tell you their own story, to witness to you the great changes that the Counselor makes in their lives every day. Listen long enough, and you will begin planning regularly scheduled visits with Him. He will sit with you, one on one, as if you are the only person on the face of the Earth. In his comforting words and solid advice you will find the foundation in which to rebuild your spiritual life. You will see how for so long human beings have been raised to believe a lie, to believe that we are simply "doing our best" in a messed up world. He will show us the blatant truth; that this is a horrendous lie, and that we have the capability for so much more.

Now, you may begin to enjoy these sessions so much that you may never want to leave. For a while, this is a good thing. You spent your whole life living only for yourself, so you owe a certain amount of time to the One for which you must truly exist. You will find yourself enjoying the company of the patients more and more. Looking out the window may begin to instill a sense of fear in your heart. I believe that this a completely natural feeling, yet one that Christ wants us to overcome. You must spend your time being rehabilitated, but you must remember why you entered in the first place, so that you could bear the trials of the outside world. You must walk through those sanitized walls, past all that feels safe to you, and enter into the cold of the night. And now, as if coming from a foreign planet, you will see the world in a different light. A place of both pure beauty and pure horror. With the right intention, this place has the capability to mirror heaven. That was Eden, and we gave that up for a drug called 'Power'. You will see the ambling of misplaced and confused souls as they walk the city streets. You will see the lack of color, the pale skin that represents disease in its early stages. Now, isn't it a wonderful gift that we have been equipped with the ability to offer the same help back which was once offered to us? We have the gift to bring these people back inside with us.

Now, I do not want people to have the impression that salvation through Christ is something which you can accept or throw away. It is one or the other. When you enter into this 'rehab', you never truly leave. I supposed a more correct analogy would be that you must frequently look out the door for people outside, waving them in with a smile. You show them the colour and warmth from inside that sharply contrasts the reality of the world. After that, it is up to God. All you have is your stories and your experiences to share, and you must hope and pray that they are enough. You must not become upset when people never even reach the stage of admittance. That is the danger of the most powerful drugs. They destroy not only the body, but also the mind. Clear thinking turns into clouded deceit. We would all agree that to look upon someone in their deepest stages of heroin addiction is a troubling site. Yet, how much more disturbing is it to witness those hopelessly addicted to the world?

Lucky for them, there is a place where the doors are always open, and where the Counselor always has time to share a few words with them. It is a place of both freedom and constraint. A place which I may choose to walk away from, yet a place I would never want to leave.