How important is your view of God?

Because of Michelle’s skewed view of God she ran from Him to alcohol in times of trial.

“Later on in life, through a series of very unforeseen, life-altering, incidents in my life, I found my way to alcohol.”

“As the incidents increased in size – an unforeseen divorce, the loss of two children, the rapid onset of a disease and death of my mother – I found my way back to alcohol.”

Michelle serves as an example that there’s no such thing as a typical alcoholic. Things can go from bad to worse very fast.

“I had never even had so much as a traffic ticket, but now I had two DWIs, I had been in and out of jail for violating probation. I had been to five previous secular treatments, and could not function. I just could not stop drinking.”

Michelle’s shame caused her to run further from God, instead of too Him.

“I was ashamed. I was guilt-ridden, and never once did I ask God for help. I thought if I just hid in bed with the covers over my head, God could not see the person that I had become.”

But God showed His love to Michelle, even when she wasn’t looking for it, in two divinely-timed events:

“I remember watching a brief program from Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge, and it was about freedom and how Teen Challenge had changed this man’s life, and I remember thinking that night, ‘I wonder if they could help me?'”

“The very next day as I was out running errands I ran into a friend that I hadn’t seen in a number of years, and as we were catching up, she shared with me that she was now an employee of Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge, and I just looked at her and told her about my struggle.”

She said, ‘Michelle, I know, God put you on my heart about three years ago and I’ve known since then.’  And I asked her, ‘Do you think that Teen Challenge could help me?’ and she said, ‘Yes it can, because God told me that it could.’ And I immediately went over to admissions at Teen Challenge.

Highlight – God’s timing

God’s timing