The front page of yesterday’s St. Louis Post Dispatch blared, “A Mass Killer.” At first blush, I imagined there had been a shooting. Well, on further reading, yes there was. “A Mass Killer: St. Louis heroin deaths hit new high.”
My Sunday morning attention was grabbed by the photo under that headline. Caption: “Ashley Johnston and Richard Skinner shoot heroin in the kitchen of Johnston’s home in St. Louis on Feb. 6. Both have used heroin off and on for years. Johnston, who is pregnant with her fourth child, is trying to kick her habit with methadone but recently missed a few methadone allotments because of car problems. Skinner said he used his stints in jail to get clean. Johnston and Skinner have one child together; that child is cared for by Johnston’s mother, who also cares for two other children she has.”
The accompanying article by Jesse Bogan is filled with personal story after personal story about the rising number of deaths and devastation in the city of St. Louis from heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic drug 50 times more powerful than heroin. “A little bit on the tongue can kill you.”
This is the sad inevitability of life lived for self, not living under the Gospel, imagining ourselves as god. The true God says, “OK, see where it gets you.” “God gave them up to dishonorable passions” (Romans 1:28). Even we who confess the goodness of God in Jesus have our problems, our addictions, and personal sins that would enslave us. You and I know, should know how desperately we need Jesus in our daily life. How do we reach the Ashley's and Richard’s out there with the help and hope of Jesus? The church can’t act like a country club.
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