Out of Options -- Coming to The Truth

Heather burst into tears after a good ten minutes of sucking it up.  Slowly, she began to talk about the troubles she was having, the unfair punishment she was enduring, the people she was having to put up with back in her block.

         I mean on the street I would have been drunk.  I would've smoked a blunt.  I would've cut myself by now.  I would have stopped this pain somehow.  But in here.  God!  I'm out of options!

And with those words, she sank into herself.  She just gave up.

I'm out of options!   Could God hear any sweeter words coming from our lips?

That doesn't seem like a good thing to most people, I know.  We are an independent culture -- the strong thrive.  We don't go for help:    We do.  We make.  We survive.

This hurts so much!  she sobbed.

      Of course it does, I told her. You're going through it.  You're finally feeling it.

 Another woman rubbed her shoulder, You'll be a'right, baby -- it's somethin' we all go through when we finally come  to the truth.

The truth.

What is "truth"?  It was a question Pilate posed to Jesus as he was wrestling with the idea of putting an innocent man to death.  Truth is one thing.  "The Truth"  is another.  "The Truth"  is singular and final.  It is the root of existence.  Once you know that, everything else clicks into place.

Jesus said of Himself:  I am The Truth.

Heather just stood there before Him, like we all must do when we run out of options, hands empty -- without a clue how to get out of that knotted predicament where she found herself.

And did she even feel it?

The Transformation has taken place:  The Divine Exchange was made.

His righteousness for her sinful past.

Although it will take a lifetime of committment to take this journey, she was healed in an instant.

Although everything she has learned about life in this world is upside down and counter-productive, she now has within her all the Truth and Knowledge she needs.

Although she went to bed on an old steel bunk tonight, she is a Princess --daughter of the King!

Does she know it?  Will she live it all out? 
I told her I'd be there when she gets out on Tuesday -- and we'll see.  We'll just see.

Another week has passed:  Heather is on the street, with her new Bible and my phone number, but she has never called.  Apparently it's one thing in there and another thing out here.  Sometimes I think some of them would be better off just staying inside, where they can get some protection and food and a good Bible study.  A couple of days ago I read in the paper that a former inmate was found dead.  Twenty four years old.  She had left the jail a month before. 

I am getting a new perspective on ministry:  you just do what you can, while you can, when you can and you leave the rest up to Him.