The title of this blog post may scare some of you. Am I about to use some Jay-Z and Kanye West in my blog to convey a point? The two guys who's names are some form of Jesus, amounting to some serious blasphemy (Jay-z aka Hova, aka J-Hova, and Kanye aka Yeezus)!? Yes I am. More specifically, it will actually be Frank Ocean. In the song "No Church in the Wild" Frank Ocean has a line that always makes me think. He asks these set of questions, "Human beings in a mob, what's a mob to a king? What's a king to a God? What's a God to a non-believer who don't believe in anything?" This is a very vital question that I think our culture wants to avoid when rehabilitating someone, especially one with our set circumstances (remember our patient X model, without a home, mentally ill and suffering from a drug addiction).
Let's say we take our patient X, through proper counseling and medication the patient is able to reach a level of consciousness and state of mind that they haven't experienced in some time. Their network of neurons that have been so jumbled up and entangled, sending off messages that made it physically and mentally impossible to interact with the world has reached a new level of homeostasis (new because they may likely never be able to return to "normal" (I will talk about the permanent effects of drugs in a later post)). They leave said rehabilitation center and walk out onto the streets. Let's say the program they were involved in (And I'm going to go on a quick tangent and let you know that there are very few, if any drug rehabilitation centers that will willingly accept and are properly equipped to deal with mentally ill patients, and few mental health hospitals that allow patients to enter not sober.) is so advanced they even have social workers that connect patient X with some sort of job center that will allow them to do something on a daily basis.
But then a question that neither patient X nor the practitioner could have foreseen comes up, why? Why would I go to work each day? Why do I not go back to using? You see, the homeostasis that patient X reached at the climax of their drug addiction and self medicating became the new normal. The normal lasted long enough to have permanent psychological and neurophysiological effects. Leaving that old homeostasis for this drug free one does not feel good. It actually feels quite terrible. I have heard this from enough people who suffered from drug addiction, the feeling hasn't gone away, the craving hasn't gone away and it is a constant battle each day. Everyday for the rest of your life, you might feel slightly depressed (if not experience full on clinical depression). And everyday you physically feel like crap. So they ask again, why?
I have wandered the streets of L.A, Pasadena, Arcadia, San Francisco and Davis in search for some answer to this question. Not by making any assumptions, but by simply asking and listening. The only answer I have ever gotten from people on the streets is, Jesus.
How can a bearded white dude with long flowing hair (jk that's dumb, homie looked more like me with tanned skin and nappy hair than he did hipster white Seattle man) be the answer to such a question 2,000 years later? Because what he offers is in the works. What he offers is unmatched. And what he offers is eternal. He offers hope, good news, he offers the gospel.
The Gospel is freedom. It is the key that unlocks the chains that hinder us. It sets us free, and gives us a reason to live and a mission to accomplish.
I don't know if or how I can scientifically prove this to you. I don't think it's a science, and so like other things that science can't measure or explain, we have to trust that the stories I hear are true, and know their truth by their fruit.
You see, the Church is absolutely essential in this process. I believe it answers a philosophical question that breaks the cycle of addiction.
But what's a God to a nonbeliever who don't believe in anything? Well good thing as the Christian Church we believe it is our mission to make disciples of ALL nations and ALL people. Good thing we are called to love the forgotten ones, the "least of these." Good thing we have a perfect example of what it means to love and sacrifice. Good thing we know that it is our job to invite those who are broken and hopeless into our lives and to show them the living water that quenches all thirst. Right?
We have a job to do. And I want to leave you, church goer, with this challenging thought that I had to ask myself. If you are not actively seeking to love and bring justice for the poor, stranger, disenfranchised, forgotten, lonely, drug addict and homeless, then are you really a follower of Christ? Because if you spend no more than 5 minutes reading the gospels then you know that's where Jesus was and what he was doing. If we claim to follow him, then shouldn't we be in the places and doing the things that he was?
Often times when I'm on the streets, I look around and say, man, Frank Ocean is right, there is no church in the wild. For us to have any impact on the issue of homelessness, there needs to be Church in the wild. So let's go, and bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
Let's say we take our patient X, through proper counseling and medication the patient is able to reach a level of consciousness and state of mind that they haven't experienced in some time. Their network of neurons that have been so jumbled up and entangled, sending off messages that made it physically and mentally impossible to interact with the world has reached a new level of homeostasis (new because they may likely never be able to return to "normal" (I will talk about the permanent effects of drugs in a later post)). They leave said rehabilitation center and walk out onto the streets. Let's say the program they were involved in (And I'm going to go on a quick tangent and let you know that there are very few, if any drug rehabilitation centers that will willingly accept and are properly equipped to deal with mentally ill patients, and few mental health hospitals that allow patients to enter not sober.) is so advanced they even have social workers that connect patient X with some sort of job center that will allow them to do something on a daily basis.
But then a question that neither patient X nor the practitioner could have foreseen comes up, why? Why would I go to work each day? Why do I not go back to using? You see, the homeostasis that patient X reached at the climax of their drug addiction and self medicating became the new normal. The normal lasted long enough to have permanent psychological and neurophysiological effects. Leaving that old homeostasis for this drug free one does not feel good. It actually feels quite terrible. I have heard this from enough people who suffered from drug addiction, the feeling hasn't gone away, the craving hasn't gone away and it is a constant battle each day. Everyday for the rest of your life, you might feel slightly depressed (if not experience full on clinical depression). And everyday you physically feel like crap. So they ask again, why?
I have wandered the streets of L.A, Pasadena, Arcadia, San Francisco and Davis in search for some answer to this question. Not by making any assumptions, but by simply asking and listening. The only answer I have ever gotten from people on the streets is, Jesus.
How can a bearded white dude with long flowing hair (jk that's dumb, homie looked more like me with tanned skin and nappy hair than he did hipster white Seattle man) be the answer to such a question 2,000 years later? Because what he offers is in the works. What he offers is unmatched. And what he offers is eternal. He offers hope, good news, he offers the gospel.
The Gospel is freedom. It is the key that unlocks the chains that hinder us. It sets us free, and gives us a reason to live and a mission to accomplish.
I don't know if or how I can scientifically prove this to you. I don't think it's a science, and so like other things that science can't measure or explain, we have to trust that the stories I hear are true, and know their truth by their fruit.
You see, the Church is absolutely essential in this process. I believe it answers a philosophical question that breaks the cycle of addiction.
But what's a God to a nonbeliever who don't believe in anything? Well good thing as the Christian Church we believe it is our mission to make disciples of ALL nations and ALL people. Good thing we are called to love the forgotten ones, the "least of these." Good thing we have a perfect example of what it means to love and sacrifice. Good thing we know that it is our job to invite those who are broken and hopeless into our lives and to show them the living water that quenches all thirst. Right?
We have a job to do. And I want to leave you, church goer, with this challenging thought that I had to ask myself. If you are not actively seeking to love and bring justice for the poor, stranger, disenfranchised, forgotten, lonely, drug addict and homeless, then are you really a follower of Christ? Because if you spend no more than 5 minutes reading the gospels then you know that's where Jesus was and what he was doing. If we claim to follow him, then shouldn't we be in the places and doing the things that he was?
Often times when I'm on the streets, I look around and say, man, Frank Ocean is right, there is no church in the wild. For us to have any impact on the issue of homelessness, there needs to be Church in the wild. So let's go, and bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
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