Sitting in a rehab waiting room today.
Stark, white walls.
Fluorescent lights beam brightly down.

Pain hovers like a storm cloud over the room.

All women today. Mamas sitting next to their teenage babies, waiting for them to be admitted. Mothers getting treatment who have lost their babies.

Last chances.
Relapses.
Cries and tears.

Words of shame and guilt float through the room, “so heavy it is impossible to forgive myself.”

Living on the streets the night before, prostituting herself for drugs, smoking crack minutes before getting in our car.

Jittery, nervous, palpable fear.

This – this rehab waiting room – this is holy ground. Presence amidst pain.

Love calling forth New Life.
It is slow; it hurts; it comes.

It must come.

Shame and guilt call no one to new life.
It must be Love.

Love that sets free,
breaks every chain.
We fight through fear,
we fight through pain.

Gasping, breathing, awaiting the promised

New Life.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of Life has set us FREE in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

Romans 8:1-2