For our sisters and brothers struggling with substance abuse disorders and addiction

I know that many sisters and brothers are struggling with substance abuse disorders and addictions and that this time of year can be especially tough. Believe me, I know that. This section here isn't intended to save anyone, but maybe there is something here that can help or that people can find useful and pass on to others. This is a small effort, and may be inconsequential, but if we build hope and support we're going to help and eventually win.

The Holiday Season is upon us, please remember that it’s okay to not be okay during this time. Remember that you are loved, even if it’s not be the folks you think should be providing that love.
Also remember to be safe! Don’t use alone if possible. Carry naloxone and other supplies to help keep you here with us. Call the Never Use Alone Hotline (800-484-3731) or a trusted friend if you don’t have someone to use with.

You matter, you are important, and we want you here.

  

Our brother Steven Cline wrote this a while back. He thinks that he might make a song out of it, but he's graciously offering this up because he feels like it might help someone. I agree--it will help someone, and can help many people. And i hope that it does become a song.

 
it all started in my teens
trying to fill the emptiness inside of me
feeling like a loaner, the devil started tempting me
with pleasures of this world that would make me lose everything
I've tried it with girls, and I've tried it with pills
I've tried it by drinking to the bottom of the bottle
but that void inside of us only Jesus can fill
there's pleasure in sin only for a season
when the funs all gone your left with addiction
strongholds and chains weren't mentioned
if not for the sin I wouldn't know deliverance
God has forgiven me for all the wrong I've done
cause of the blood shed in the cross by his son
he's the king of kings the Lord of lords
he forgave all of mine hell forgive all of yours

Memories, Inspiration, And Encouragement

This photo came from Jimmy Nickels posting on the Scenic Harlan Co. And Surrounding Area Facebook page. People in the coalfields have long memories. The strikers at Brookside were heroes of mine at the time, and the still are today. Mr. Nickels wrote:

The beautiful family of Jerry Rainey, taken in front of their four room coal camp house that they rent from Brookside Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky.

Mr. Rainey, whose father was also a miner, was born in the same mining camp.

The mine operation can be seen in the far background.

Even though a Kentucky law prevents miners from being evicted during a strike, Brookside had ordered them to leave. They were refusing to leave, citing the Ky law, as many other paper evicted miners were also doing.

After 13 long months for the miners, 1973/1974, the UMWA and Brookside’s mother company Duke Energy reached an agreement.

Many hardships had been suffered by the miners and their families, and one death, but the strike line was held firm.

Notice all the UMWA stickers on Mr. Rainey’s truck.

These children would possibly be in their 50’s by now.

Photo credit unknown. Circa 1973/1974.

Photo by Rick Burgess at Dolly Sods in Tucker County, West Virginia.

 Please follow Rick on Facebook.

"Broken World" by The Talleys covered by someone in Southwestern Virginia

This person did a more-than-credible job with this song, and their care for the song and what it says is real. This was recorded a couple of years ago, but I just found it on the Souls Harbor Pentecostal Holiness Church page. That church is located in far Southwestern Virginia. It's rural, mostly white, and majority women, and it's poor. This is a part of the country that struggles with unemployment, poverty, and substance abuse and lacks comprehensive social services.

I like this version of the song better than the original, though I do respect the work done by The Talleys. 

The song begins with a description of real-life problems that most of us face every day. We do indeed live in a broken world where "everything is upside down, wrong is right and right is wrong." Most of can identify with that line, although when we get down to the question we will disagree over what is upside down and what is right-side up and is wrong and what is right. It's easy to take this as code for just about everything on the Trump agenda, but I'll say that capitalism has turned the world upside down. People profit from doing that and keeping things turned around, and it will take a mighty movement of working-class people to set things right. 

There is hope in this song that everything will be set right soon when our Savior comes. The contradiction is that the song says that God created this broken world. Did God create a broken world? Is that true, or did the social order turn things upside down? God's judgement will certainly prevail, but God has a preferential option for the poor and the oppressed and women. God has judged, is judging, and will judge. Heaven and hell are present now. God wants our liberation, and wants us to want it.

Feel this song and think of those in your life who are struggling. Let's give one another reasons to hope and work for liberation and heal this broken world.     

 

 

On Hope And Starting Over And New Beginnings

 

The solidarity of those who have been broken and those who share our journey

 

We have choices and opportunities...

We have choices and opportunities...but we still depend on God and on those around us to make our way in the world. No one lives alone, none of us survive and thrive without others. Our brains and feet work best when we're thinking and walking with others.

 

HIGHROAD - "We Are Broken"

 

Feeling broken or broke down? God uses broken things and broken people.

 

We can do this. Really, we can.

 

2022 Lent Devotional: Week 3 By Emily Burns/Methodist Federation for Social Action

A Lenten meditation provided by the Methodist Federation for Social Action:

 2022 Lent Devotional: Week 3

By Emily Burns

 Psalm 62: 5-8, 11:

“Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge. God has spoken once; I have heard this twice: strength belongs to God.”

One of my favorite authors, Kate Bowler, describes Lent as a time when, “We ask God to show us the world as it is. We begin with the reality of our finitude rubbed on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday...then we walk through that reality in a kind of dress rehearsal. It’s the downward slope of God-the Great Descent, where the whole church walks toward the cross. A time when we all get a minute to tell the truth: Life is so beautiful and life is so hard. For everyone.”

Lent is a season of grief to acknowledge Christ’s sacrifice and the reality of our suffering. We live within the sacred tension that “life is so beautiful and life is so hard.” We know Easter is on its way, but we sit with the brokenness of the world as we wait. We cannot ignore it. We sit with the grief of more than 800,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States and more than 5 million worldwide. We cannot look away from the reality that even before the pandemic, 1 in 4 households experienced a major form of economic hardship and that number rises to 1 in 2 for Black and Latinx households. Many of us have felt the toll that this pandemic has had on our mental health. We are experiencing more anxiety and depression than before the pandemic but struggle to access adequate mental health care. The list goes on and on. COVID-19 has exposed the gaps in society’s systems, and those who have been the most deeply affected have been the most disadvantaged.

We sit here with the reality that the world is not as it should be. People are hungry, grieving, scared, and sick. As the “end” of the pandemic is declared to be nearing, some of us may wonder why we do not feel relief. We have all been going through a collective stressor. As we are finally coming to the point where we can breathe, the reality that is our changed world and all that we have experienced feels like it is crashing down upon us. Many of us are grieving the loss of loved ones while others may be feeling the exhaustion of being both a parent and teacher to children. Some have lost their jobs and others are managing the effects of Long Covid. Whatever your experience has been, life feels unbearably hard for many of us and it can be hard to hope.

This Lent, I will look for God to meet me in those places of despair, helplessness, grief, sorrow... I will “find my rest in God alone and remember that my hope comes from them.” I may not get the easy solutions and answers I want, but I receive God’s presence within the unresolved. That presence gives me the strength to continue to seek justice and work toward systems that care for the most vulnerable. Rachel Held Evans writes that “sometimes we are closer to the truth in our vulnerabilities than in our safe certainties.” This Lent, may you encounter God in your vulnerabilities, in your grief, and in your sorrow. May “the strength [that] belongs to God,” sustain you as you seek justice and make change.

You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.