(Each Saturday, a faith leader in Franklin County offers a personal perspective in this space. To become part of this series, email religion@recorder.com)
Last month as a church we began a Sunday morning series on addiction. One of the resources I read to prepare for this study was “If You Love Me: A Mother’s Journey through her Daughter’s Opioid Addiction,” by Maureen Cavanagh. The following excerpt provides a glimpse into the challenges of helping a loved one toward recovery. In it, Cavanagh recounts the first support-group meeting she attended for family members of those struggling with addiction. I include it here with a prayer that it will give hope to someone.
Book excerpt begins:
“The speaker is a man my age who has been sober for over 25 years, Sean-Michael. He tells a tale of heroin use, jail, and more heroin use. His only sobriety was in prison, and even then, he managed to find drugs. His mother was his one constant source of support. She never gave up on him, never denied him a hot meal.
“ ‘I had been missing for a few weeks,’ Sean-Michael said. ‘Recently out of jail again, and she had taken me in. She convinced her brother to hire me, and I immediately stole and sold some copper off a job site and disappeared, staying barely alive in a crack house nearby, until the money and drugs ran out. My plan was that I’d go home, take a shower and eat a home-cooked meal, and then with her help figure out my next step.
“The room is silent. The parents are all waiting for the answer we want to hear. I am sure that he’s about to explain that this is the moment, over a warm bowl of soup, when he came to his mother and told her he was done. She had loved him enough for him to quit using drugs.
“‘I got to the door,” he says, ‘and she saw me coming up the walk and she opened the door. Then she did something she had never done before. Instead of welcoming me in, she stepped onto the porch and put her foot down and said, ‘Get off my property, Sean-Michael, and don’t come back until you are done using drugs for good. I love you with all of my heart and if you die, I will mourn you every day until I join you, but I am not going down this road with you anymore. You need to help yourself and until you do that, don’t come back.’
“ ‘I’ll never forget that moment,” he says. “God rest her soul. She took control, and the one person that would always be there for me was gone. I turned, and for the next few weeks I continued on the run I had started at 16. Then one morning I woke up and realized that life was going on, with or without me. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I had lost everything, and the pain of getting sober was finally not as bad as the pain of trying to stay high. I entered a program for what seemed like the hundredth time and the first time as well. Something had changed, and I can’t tell you whether it was my mother or if I had just had enough, but I was done. I slowly built a new relationship with my family and took my life back. My mother never saw me high again, and she lived another 20 years. I was the one everyone counted for dead, and I came back. Don’t ever lose hope.’” (Book excerpt ends.)
(Pastor Emberley continues) One of the core values of our church family is a commitment to the “one anothers” in the New Testament. The list includes: be kind and compassionate to one another, carry one another’s burdens, and, of course, love one another. A few weeks ago, I was moved to tears as I observed our little congregation live out its commitment to this core value.
A son of a family in our congregation has struggled with addiction. After a relapse, he had completed detox and was at a point where he was ready to enter a live-in recovery program. The cost was beyond his reach. Before a Sunday service, one of our church leaders who had been seeking to help this young man stood up and brought this need to the attention of our congregation. He said he would be in the foyer after the service for those who wanted to make a contribution. More than enough funds were raised and I was able to drive the young man to the recovery house in New Hampshire the following day.
Don’t ever lose hope.
About the Community Bible Church
At this time, Community Bible Church does not have a church building to call home, but we hope to construct a new building on the property we own at 24 Main St. The above drawing is the architectural rendering of the new church. If you would like to make a donation to the project, you may send your contribution to Community Bible Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 41 Northfield, MA 01360. Thank you for your support.
For now, Community Bible Church meets at Camp Northfield (96 Wanamaker Road/Route 10) for Sunday morning services at 10:30 a.m. We meet for prayer on Sunday evenings, rotating among a few homes of those in our church family. Our teen group meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. at the Emberley’s (16 Old Elm Way).
Check out our church website, www.cbcnorthfield.com, for more information about us. You can listen to recent sermons at www.sermonaudio.com/cbcnorthfield.