Devil's Playground

"I've been to the edge. There I stood and looked down."

- Van Halen

"It reopens my wounds. But I never want them to heal

completely, because I never want to forget."

- Susan Kelley

One of the occupational hazards of being a therapist is that you gain insight on a little secret. Namely, things are worse in the world than many people suspect. Police officers know it. Social workers know it. Some journalists and some pastors know it, too.

Without a doubt there is beauty in our world. But like I wrote in an earlier post on trust, these are islands and occasional subcontinents in an ocean of heartache.

We reach out for love. We desperately stretch out our hands for inner peace. But left to our own devices, these desires seem to float just a fraction of an inch beyond our fingertips.

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In the book of Matthew, just before Jesus sends out his disciples, he tells them, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

I love this verse. Throughout scripture Jesus tells us the world is not as it should be. He knows many suffer. He knows you suffer, too.

But, because He loves us dearly, because we are His children, He has come to fight for us, to tip over tables for us, to literally bleed for us, and to rescue us. ... And, He is sending out His disciples to do His work.

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In Daytona Beach, there is an area I call, the devil’s playground. Here human suffering is an open wound. In the middle of the devil’s playground is the Daytona Outreach Center (D.O.C.), led by two of Jesus' disciples, Ray and Susan Kelley.

From time to time I visit the D.O.C., and never leave without asking Ray to pray for me.

Prostitutes, drug dealers, addicts, homeless people, and too often their children, surround the Daytona Outreach Center.

Ray and Susan were once inmates of the devil's playground as crystal meth addicts. That was before Jesus rescued them.

Ray and Susan are not Jesus-is-my-boyfriend type Christians. They are battle-scarred, former hostages of the enemy, who now belong to Jesus Christ.

Ray and Susan could have returned to the peaceful existence of suburban living or moved out to the country. They could have taken normal jobs or went back to school. Instead they rejoined the battle. They returned to the devil's playground, this time as disciples of Jesus Christ.

The kind of peace the world talks about is an illusion, a lie. Lasting inner peace is only possible through Jesus Christ. But until He returns, the battlefield is active and real.

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Please watch this video about my friends Ray, Susan, and others at the D.O.C. ...

Battlefield

The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic. - Joseph Stalin

Daytona Beach is a battleground. Some other places, not so much.

Over Labor Day weekend I spoke with a former Amish woman and her husband at a home church in the North Country of Upstate, New York. As we sang hymns and prayed on a back porch, the men wore jackets and some of the women hung blankets over their shoulders to stay warm. The leaves there are just starting to turn. Near the end of the gathering some of us took communion.

The couple I spoke with told me that not many people in that part of the country are interested in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even with persistent economic troubles, their lives seem comfortable in a Norman Rockwell kind of way. It is almost like, ‘Who needs Jesus in such a quiet and peaceful place.’

East Central Florida is different things to different people, but few would describe it as quiet or peaceful. – Although, street signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts announce Jesus almost everywhere you go, out of the schools each year we produce a robust cohort of drug addicts and young people willing to trade their bodies for drugs. There is at least one story of a person being snatched from a public place and raped every twelve months. We even had our very own serial killer just a few years ago. – When people on the street in Daytona Beach talk about needing Jesus, they are not kidding.

We have a lot of Jesus here, because we need a lot of Jesus.

Saturday we laid-to-rest my friend’s son Garrett. He probably died from a drug overdose or at least medical complications brought on by his struggle with addiction. Tuesday, between sessions with clients, I sat in my office and wept. I hear a good share of difficult stories, but Garrett’s death hit me hard, it became personal, maybe because I have two boys and I’m afraid for them.

Jesus spent a lot of his time on earth with ‘sinners’ like addicts and prostitutes. He came to them with a heart full of love, understanding, and compassion.

Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick . . . For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Matthew 9:12-13

There is no doubt in my mind that people in the North Country experience heartache and have their own brand of troubles. I know Jesus is there, too. But, His presence is more overt down here in Daytona, where the battlefield is active . . . where Evil and Good both stare you in the face . . . where broken spirits are mended by a Savior who refuses to forget us.

. . . Father, we praise You for being a God who loves us. In our pain we felt Your love so acutely this last week. Thank you for the gift of Garrett, we remember worshiping You with him by our side. His love for You was so transparent and obvious. Be with us Father as we move forward, as we close ranks where Garrett once stood and continue to march forward in love and compassion for those around us. You are our God and we praise you. In Jesus name . . .