Midweek: Step Twelve

Within the course of a week, a friend had been grabbed --an attempted abduction or rape? --and hit by a car. Praise God, neither incident left her much more than rattled. Why? she asked. Why did God allow these things to happen? She wasn't at all angry with Him; she didn't feel betrayed by the upset. She, like many of us, was merely trying to make sense of it all: believing "everything happens for a reason," we want to discover the reason. Is God correcting me in some way? Was there an opportunity for me to share the reason for my trust in Him with another? Did the resulting hospital visit reveal a larger medical issue that needed to be addressed? Did He provide me with a newer vehicle than the one that was totaled? Am I learning compassion for others in the same situation? Is my faith being tested? Have I met someone during this ordeal who needs prayer? If we've been in the faith any length of time, we go through our Rolodex of possible explanations --things we've learned from experience or the experiences of others, things we've learned from Scripture --and we seek to put some sort of meaning or objective to it all.

Amy Carmichael, Christian missionary to India, labored fearlessly and passionately to rescue children from India's caste and Hinduism's cultic systems. In her book, Gold Cord, Carmicheal writes:

We should have been as others who see without seeing, and never dream of what is being done out of sight, if it had not been for what was caused to happen on March 6, 1901.

What happened was Carmichael encountered a young girl who, because of poverty, had been given to the temple to be "married to a god." The little girl told the missionary the horrors of what Carmichael calls "a great secret traffic in the souls and bodies of young children." The missionary and her associates could in no way dismiss the account of the girl and searched for others who had experienced the evils of this "temple trade." They developed ways to rescue the tiny victims and minister to their broken hearts. Dohnavur Fellowship, a safe home and Christian family, was begun, and continues today --all because of what some might call "a chance meeting." But Carmicheal was determined to seek purpose. By her own admission, had it not been for such a meeting, they would have continued on with eyes blinded and hearts oblivious to the goings-on with regard to these vulnerable children. 

Step Twelve, the last step of Walking the Twelve Steps with Jesus Christ, attaches purpose to pain:

Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, I try to carry this message to others with addiction and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

Call it "giving back" or "paying it forward;" whatever you may call it, this step gives purpose to all we have been through. It is redemption, to the extent we are able, of our bad habits, our past offenses, our failures, our pain, and our shortcomings so that others might be rescued. We cannot do the rescuing, of course, but we can introduce them to the One who can; we can set them on the course to cooperate with Him in transforming their lives as He has transformed ours. We can decide to disallow the enemy of our souls any further victory in our lives. We can draw the line and say, "This seems to not be a good thing, on the surface; but I know that 'All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.' (Rom. 8:28) I will keep watch for the good and cooperate when He calls me." Even our powerlessness, the unmanageability of our lives, the wrongs of our past and the harm we have done can be used by a Mighty God to bring Him glory and give us a greater purpose as we continue to walk this path into eternity with Him.