Day 82: When Scars Become Beauty Marks
Day 82
When Scars Become Beauty Marks
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17
I got to hang out with Wonder Woman recently. Well, not Wonder Woman exactly. Her name is Lori, not Gal Gadot (the actress in the 2017 blockbuster film Wonder Woman and 20/21 follow up film, Wonder Woman 1984). But she’s incredibly brave despite her lack of knee-high red boots and a cape. Because Lori just passed the three-month mark of being clean from methamphetamines after an eight-year addiction that culminated in her conviction for illegal drug possession and armed robbery charges.
Unlike most of the women I meet at The Next Door (a six-month, faith-based residential program that provides recovery support services for women conquering their addictions to alcohol and drugs), Lori looks younger than her age (she’s twenty-three). The first time we met she was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt with a popular logo emblazoned on the front, torn jeans, and metallic nail polish. As a matter of fact, if I’d seen her strolling through the mall or giggling with her girlfriends in a coffee shop, I would’ve assumed she was a happy-go-lucky college student. It wasn’t until she pushed up the sleeves of her sweatshirt, and I noticed the long, ragged scars from shooting up, that the tragic reality of her former life became apparent.
Because I’ve had the privilege of volunteering with several addiction-recovery programs, much of Lori’s story is achingly familiar. She grew up in a very poor family in a very small town. One of her parents moonlighted as a mean-spirited bully, who claimed to be “knocking the stupid out of her” when smacking Lori around. Of course, Lori wasn’t stupid at all. Despite the regular beatings she endured at home, she excelled in school. She made the honor roll and the cheerleading squad. After making an emotional commitment to Christ at a youth rally, she became an outspoken Christian leader on campus.
However, when Lori’s parents divorced, she became the sole possession of her abuser, and her world caved in. She eventually ran away from home and moved in with her boyfriend. He introduced her to methamphetamines, which numbed the searing pain of the compound fractures in her heart. And the rest, as they say, is history. Horrible, awful, gut-wrenching history.
That is until God intervened with a team of Tennessee-based federal agents wearing flak jackets. Lori’s voice brightened when we were getting to know each other and she shared the part of her story where those law enforcement officers burst into her trailer to arrest her. She looked up at me through her bangs and grinned. Then she said with newfound confidence, “Miss Lisa, I know God ordained the exact timing of my drug bust, because I’d planned to commit suicide that afternoon. If those cops hadn’t come when they did, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
Before I left, we talked about the Bible study we’ll be doing every Wednesday night for the next three months until she has to report to prison to serve what will likely be a reduced sentence of about eighteen months. When we hugged good-bye, she whispered she wanted to be a Bible teacher too when she gets out. I whispered back that her testimony will plunge the divine sword in satan’s chest even deeper, and be used to set captives free!
Lori’s recovery will be a day-by-day, uphill journey, but I can totally picture her a few years from now standing in front of a room filled with wide-eyed young girls hanging on every word of God’s redemption story in her life.
The older I get, the more convinced I am that admittedly flawed sinners are the most credible witnesses of the Gospel, because blemished believers can’t fake moral superiority. Our scars make it glaringly apparent that we couldn’t protect ourselves from harm. Authentic Christian warriors with scabby knees, bruised hearts, and even track-marked arms, who sometimes stumble yet always grab onto the arm of His Spirit in order to stand up again and again, exemplify the redemptive power of divine grace. We prove how miraculous and restorative the love of God really is. We know we can’t make it by ourselves and we are only kept together because of the miraculous redemption King Jesus provided for us on the cross. Only He can take a wounded soul and make her Wonder Woman.