KERI'S STORY
This Checkpoints recounts Keri’s story; how God brought her from a life full of lies, chained to drugs─to a life full of “the Truth”; free to share God’s story in love.
“Keri, tell the truth for once.”
Two and a half years ago, before my father died in my arms, he had said these harsh words to me on the phone. At that time, I had just been told I could no longer remain in the treatment program at Place of Hope, a Christian-based drug and alcohol treatment center.
“But Dad…,” I tried to explain.
Instead of listening to my explanation that I had to leave Place of Hope for passing a note to a male also in the program, my father thought I was lying and using drugs again. Because I had lied to him so much in the past, Dad had no reason to believe or trust me now.
Although that abbreviated phone call with my father in June 2015 ended so abruptly, it strengthened my prayerful hope and resolve to not only regain my dad’s trust but rebuild our seven-year estranged relationship. Being dismissed from Place of Hope and Dad’s response, to tell the truth, also caused me to remember how I felt the day I entered treatment.
I felt lost.
I felt broken.
I felt hopeless.
I was everything a person would not want to be.
The day I left Place of Hope, I prayed the same thing I had prayed the day before I came there, “God, please help me.”
When Ms. D., my counselor, helped me prepare for my discharge, she asked me a
question I struggled to answer: “Where’s home?”
I knew that because Dad did not believe or trust me, the home where he lived in Florida would not be an option for me now. I did not have a place to call home when the police officers, who had found me passed out at Love’s Truck Stop in Columbia, Tennessee, transported me to Place of Hope.
For several months prior to this time, an 18-wheeler cab had been my “home.” The truck driver had dumped me there.
I realized what Dad and other family members knew; I did not have a home. Not only had my life turned into a mess, I had to admit; I was a mess.
Somewhere between being transported to Place of Hope and told I had to leave there, I remembered the strong words my father had said, “Keri, you made this mess, you have to clean it up.”
I made the mess—that realization did not make it any easier knowing I had no place to go—no place to call home.
I had to leave the place where I had met Jesus Christ, the place where I had learned how to read my Bible—the place where I had learned how to pray.
Shortly after I came to Place of Hope, I began to realize the power of prayer. At that time, I did not know how to pray and considered the prospect of any communication with my father futile.
“It won’t do any good to call him,” I told Ms. D. when she encouraged me to contact my father. “He won’t answer.”
“Let’s pray about it,” she said.
My attitude at that time matched other words my father used to tell me, “Keri─you’re just not getting it.”
Dad was right. For more years than I care to recall, I did not get it. I did not understand how God could love me; that He loved me unconditionally.
On December 27, 2015, as my earthly father died in my arms after a massive heart attack, the words he said to me confirmed that he believed I had finally “got it.” “With God’s help, you will make it.” Dad’s words helped keep me going each day.
Today, each day that God gives me the opportunity, I tell those crying out in their pain, “God, please help me”─that God will…
I tell them, “God will help you to ‘get it’.”
When we relinquish our wills to His; when we place our trust in His love, demonstrated on the cross by Jesus Christ, He hears our prayers. He will not only help us, but He will also help us recognize and realize that “the truth” can be found only in Jesus. As John 8:32 records the words that Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Today I know that God, my Heavenly Father, loves me. He not only loves me, He loves others, who like me in my past, are at a desperate, hopeless point in their lives where others feel like they have to say to them, “Tell the truth for once.”
I have learned that with God’s help, instead of telling the truth for only once, a person can start a new life sharing it every day. My new life, grounded in Jesus, “the Truth,” freed me from the chains of addiction.
shELAH’s Note:
Keri’s story encourages those who love someone addicted to drugs or alcohol to not only share the truth in love but to do as Keri’s father did, refuse to enable them when actively abusing substances. It also reminds me of what Dr. John Hall used to say:
When we take the mess
That we have made of our lives
And give the mess to God,
He takes the mess,
Makes the mess a blessing
And blesses the messer.
I like what Erin, a friend and fellow believer in the faith of Jesus Christ, added: “God also turns the mess into the messer’s message.”
