From the Pastor's Study
From the Pastor’s Study
Embodying Love
Jan 12, 2022
Every month the area Christian Reformed pastors get together for breakfast, and yesterday was our scheduled day. Because there were no restaurants open, we met via Zoom, and while I normally dislike Zoom meetings, this one turned out to be quite meaningful. We each were given the opportunity to talk about some of the things going in our lives and churches and communities, and we all talked about the fatigue of Christmas coupled with COVID. I found this past Christmas season to be rather disheartening because we were prohibited from gathering with large family groups and we were limited in attendance at church. I am sure I am not the only one who felt this way. As pastors we lamented together for what we have lost.
What we lost, however, was nothing in comparison to what some have experienced. Two pastors from our group shared how they had been impacted by the death of someone from drug overdose. That person had ties to one church and lived in the community of the other church. The families and community of this individual were reeling from the death of someone they loved but who had been making bad decisions that eventually led to his death. It was mentioned that this person had begun using opioids as a way of dealing with his problems.
Opioids, derived from opium which has been developed as a pain medication, come in many different forms. Fentanyl is a common and extremely powerful opioid, a wonderful gift to those suffering from extreme pain but also highly addictive and very toxic. As we know, newscasts regularly report death and overdoses from fentanyl and other forms of opioids.
What makes opioids so attractive? The pastor who was part of the community where this individual lived said that opioids create the feeling of being loved. While not all who take the drug get this feeling, the 30% who do feel like they are being wrapped in the arms of someone who cares for them, accepts them, and will protect them. It’s a warm and wonderful feeling, according to those who have used opioids. It is no wonder that in a world where there are so many people who grow up in broken homes, who have parents who don’t seem to care, who have difficulty making and keeping friends, that the feeling of being loved is wonderful and welcome.
It is fake of course, an illusion. The one who is high on fentanyl is no more loved before he/she took the drug than after. It’s just a feeling, not reality. The sad thing is that once the effects of the drug go away, reality sets in again. Their lives are just as messed up and chaotic as they were a few hours before, and because their recent experience felt so wonderful, real life is all the more horrible. Because they feel alone and distant from others, the only way to achieve that feeling again is by taking more of the drug. The second time around, or the third time, might not result in the same intensity of feeling, so the user ups his/her dose. It becomes a cycle, and soon the user is addicted, not able to function without having a regular dose. As the frequency and size of the dose increases, so does the danger of overdose and death.
The problem with a drug is that it only creates a feeling, not reality. Nor surprisingly, those who do experience and know what it to be loved and embraced by another do not become addicted to that feeling. Nor when they depart from the presence of the one who loves them do they crash into a terrible low. Instead, they continue to bask in the feeling of being loved for hours and days and weeks following their experience of truly being loved. Real love creates memories that last while a drug creates an illusory memory based on chemical reactions in the brain and not on experience.
As we know, the drug use problem in our area is among the highest per capita of anywhere in Canada. This is rather surprising since we live in a rather affluent community without some of the social and economic problems that many face, and we would think that people who have so much going for them would not need to turn to drugs to feel that someone loves them. Sadly, even in our community, with all of its affluence apparently people still have the intense need to be loved.
And this brings us to the gospel. Jesus Christ came into this world, a world of brokenness and despair to bring us to God the Father so that we can experience His love. Sin banishes us from God’s presence, but the recognition and repentance from sin through faith in Jesus Christ returns us into the Father’s love. Most assuredly when we become God’s children, we know that this same God also loves us. The experience of God’s love, however, is not always felt until it is embodied. Often the Bible speaks of the church as being the body of Christ, and it is more than just a metaphor talking about how we are connected to him. Being the body of Christ means that others experience the reality of our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through us. In other words, we become the ones who make the love of God real and tangible.
One of the pastors in our little group last week spoke of making inroads into the drug community in his area. It is not easy, he says, because there is so much brokenness there, but he hopes to build relationships in the name of Jesus and show the love of God in his presence and in his actions. I suspect his work will not always be rewarding. That being said, we can also anticipate that as he embodies the love of God to those who have become addicted to drugs, he will also the beginnings of a move away from the dependence on those same drugs. After all, the love of God overcomes the despair of fallen people.
The best way to counteract the dangers of drug addiction in our families, church, and community is not primarily through law enforcement. Instead, we are presented with the opportunity to have others know what it is to be loved and when loved to know what it is to be embraced, protected and wrapped in the arms of someone who cares. The work, as we well know, does not always begin with helping people through their addictions; it begins when we truly love our neighbours by bringing them to the Father through Jesus Christ. Some of us may work with those addicted to drugs, but most of us will be able to embody the love of God through Jesus Christ to those who may not have turned to drugs but who, nonetheless, do not know what it is to be loved.
Pastor Gary
