No Choir Girl

I had just begun the routine of making monthly trips to visit my parents in northern Georgia, six hours away, leaving Fridays after work. Praying before leaving…seeking safety and for Him to direct my steps.
Not satisfied that I had discovered the best route, I tried a new short cut. It was late and it was dark. Before long I decided I better stop and ask directions. I very quickly found myself lost in the small town.
Acknowledge me in all your ways, and I will direct your steps… (Proverbs 3:6)
I had been told many times before that I was ‘easy to talk to.’ I don’t know the exact formula, but being non-judgmental, open-minded and Spirit-filled help! And here it happened again - I was just an unknown person who struck up a conversation with another unknown person. It turns out, we were both seeking directions.
Almost immediately the conversation turned to spiritual matters and became a confession: Sexual abuse as a child, divorces, boyfriends, homelessness, hunger, drugs, prostitution, and finally jail. How friends from the street came to help when she was released from jail a few weeks earlier.  This was no choir girl! She was more lost than I was. I needed a map; she needed a Savior!
…they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies, but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers (Psalm 78:56-57)
She stopped speaking of her sorrowful past for a moment, realizing how free she felt to openly speak with me.  Out of the blue, she said, “I think you were sent.” 
I asked, “By whom?”   She looked up toward the sky…toward heaven. 
I agreed.  “I think you’re right.” And truth be known, I knew she was right.
She told me how she knew she needed to get out of her current drug controlled lifestyle, how she had prayed… for help, for encouragement, for direction.  
She stopped again to think for a moment. She asked if I was a preacher. I told her no I wasn’t. More like a special agent. (Not secret, ‘special,’ as all believers are called to be!) I told her I had spent time low in the gutter too. In darkness. Not too long ago. But for too long. 
I told her how God these days had sent me many times to encourage other folks, still in their own gutter. At just the right time. In just the right place.
…if any of us is in Christ, he is a new creation… (2 Corinthians 5:17)
I asked her name so I could pray for her. Jackie! I encouraged her to read God’s Word every day. I told her how she has a literal spiritual adversary, an enemy!  Stalking her, out to ruin her and destroy her completely. I encouraged her that when he trips her up in the future, to get back up!
Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8)
I told her that when she senses the enemy stalking and seducing her, if she can’t think of a prayer or words to bind the enemy, to sing! Godly, upbeat music. The enemy can’t stand it!
By wise counsel you will wage your own war… (Proverbs 24:6) So I will sing praise to Your name forever; that I may daily perform my vows (Psalm 61:8)
Jackie asked what song I might sing when under attack by the enemy. I started singing the doxology for her. ‘Praise God from Whom all blessings flow…’ Jackie joined in! She knew the words! And then she sang ‘O Holy Night’ from memory. Acappella. A truly lovely voice – alto, angelic, godly.  She told me she had spent many years singing in a church choir! A little old country church in South Carolina.
I asked if I could hold her hand and pray with her. She obliged. And then she touched her forehead to mine as I prayed. Thanksgiving for His love. Confession for our foolishness. And for strength to get past our addictions. Our demons.
As I paused for a breath, Jackie prayed aloud her own words! Words that were not unheard nor ignored by her heavenly Father. In Jesus’ name, amen!
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow… Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me (Psalm 51:7, 10-11)
Jackie’s jail time had been long enough to pretty much get past her addictions. But she had gotten right back into the ill-advised lifestyle. When she was released, old ‘friends’ from the street came…to help her get her life going again. They gave her a place to stay. They gave her some clothes. They gave her some money. And they gave her some addictive chemicals and pipes and needles and stuff.
They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way…hungry and thirsty… (Psalm 107:4-5)
 Folks from the church choir she once sang in? Folks she knew the five years she was a paid church music minister? Her own dad, a long time prominent preacher? All no-shows.
Then He will say to those on the left hand,’ Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
Then they also will answer Him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 
Then He will answer them, saying. ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' (Matthew 25:41-45)
And now, on this night, by this stranger sent by her loving Heavenly Father, she had been encouraged to get back on the road God had prepared for her. To walk with Jesus. To exercise her spiritual gifts, or risk being in a spiritual funk. And to fight her seemingly ever present evil and deceptive enemy.
…they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them out of their distresses. (Psalm 107:19)
She asked me to pinch her…so she would know our ‘encounter’ was not a dream!
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)
To this day, Jackie remains in my prayers, and remains ‘clean.’
Deliver those who are drawn to death… (Proverbs 24:11)
Epilogue – 8 Years Later
I just received a DVD in the mail, a Christmas cantata recorded a month or two ago by the choir from a little old country church in South Carolina. I can’t wait to listen to it, especially to see if I can pick out a familiar voice in the alto section!
Oh come let us sing to the Lord…oh sing to the lord a new song… (Psalm 95:1, 98:1)