Give it one more chance...

"Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer" (Luke 13:8).

I often wrestle with my own frustration and disillusionment with the difficulty of deep change in myself and our residents. I constantly beg God to grant our residents second chances at life. Providence House in some ways is a garden, where as a community we are able to nurture, water, and prune each other and trust that God will allow us to bear fruit in different areas of our life in due time. How thankful I am for second chances.

I battle to believe that I can look a repentant sister in the eyes and say: “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13). Literally, you shall not die. She is battling for not just her spiritual life, but her physical life in this fight with addiction. We know that if she relapses and continues to abuse alcohol there is one unavoidable outcome.


Then I am struck by the patient nature of God. We know that the Lord is waiting to fulfill His promises to us because He wants more people to repent and come to Him (2 Peter 3:9). So will He not also give broken men and women, these small fig trees, chance and chance again to bear fruit?

I am grateful to the Lord for many things this week. A few "second chances" I've witnessed: One of my women receiving a brand new treatment for hepatitis C found that after 7 weeks of treatment, her liver functioning is at a normal level. What would have been a 2-year treatment plan was cut to 1 year. Another one of my women who has been wrestling with the fear of failure finally stepped forward and got a full-time, permanent job. 

Please praise the Lord with me for these things!

               As I write this, my heart is heavy. This week has been a dark one for Providence House, but I acknowledge that God is faithful, willing and able to redeem all these situations. He loves our residents more than I ever could. Without going into details, we have had several relapses, breakdowns and evictions, and I am currently watching one resident caught in a downward spiral that is heading toward an eviction or relapse. I am grasping onto the hope that he will, by the grace of God, break through and change his path around. Sometimes it is hard to believe.

                So how can one deal with the evil we have been confronting this week? My failure has been succumbing to fear. “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to [them]?”(Ps. 56: 3-4). I fear what will happen to my brothers and sisters who we have to let out onto the street, are facing mental illnesses alone, have no support or family around them, or have allowed drugs and alcohol back into their lives. But what is the “word I praise”? The Word that tells me “for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12:11). He tells me that He wants “all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2:4). That truth can set them free (John 8:32) from their slavery and when Jesus sets them free with that truth, they “will be free indeed” (John 8:36). He promises me that He will “not do wickedly, and…will not pervert justice” (Job 34:12). This is the God I know, and this is the God who will not give up. This is the God who suffers alongside our residents, our brothers and sisters in their extreme pain.
 

Please pray for God’s peace and redemption to descend on this House.