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Street Story

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My strength was gone. I shook from the physical need for alcohol, and hadn’t slept for days. Even then, sleep was not really sleep, for the sidewalks are cold and hard, even in San Diego.

We street people found cardboard to place down on the concrete. Without it, the chill seeped into your bones, and could be felt the next day. Or, at least, until the alcohol dulled everything.

On this particular day I had managed to drink enough to quit shaking. I even, and I use this term loosely, “felt good.”

Not whole, not complete, just “good.” Via the artifciality of alcohol. But I knew I was a mess. My life was a horror.

On a street corner stood two Hispanic men. The short and stocky one was preaching in Spanish. He was fierce, and he was at war for the Lord. I don’t know what he was saying, but it drew me over to them.

The preacher spoke no English. The other man did. He, as it turned out, had done a lot of time in jail. He had been a heroin addict, and Christ Jesus the King had saved and delivered him. The preacher had done some jail time too, and had committed some grievous sins, but was washed clean.

By the Blood of the Lamb. 

I asked for prayer and the man who spoke English translated my request. The preacher’s face became even more intense. He prayed in a fierce torrent, calling on His God for me, a backslidden sinner.

People walked by as he interceded for me, some studiously ignoring us, others taking no more than a passing interest.

But the Lord heard his prayers, and the the prayers of the other saints who prayed for me.

Now I, too, am at war for the Lord. So are you. People of the Book, is that not the way it works?

Holy is our God. Holy is our King.

(“The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” Exodus 15:3)


Tagged: alcoholism, junkie, prayer, preacher, San Diego, sermon, Spanish, street life, War, withdrawal

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