Ravaged is a good word….Yes I do believe that is the most descriptive word I can find to describe my recent experience. I rode out with one of the supervisors with the Granbury Police Department last night. As a law enforcement chaplain, my most effective ministry takes place riding in the front seat of a patrol car. In fact I have a lecture that I deliver for police training events entitled: “Everything I ever needed to know I learned in the front seat of a patrol car.” There was a time in my younger days when I feared that everything I ever needed to know was going to be learned in the back seat of a patrol car. Thankfully that did not happen.

Last night there was a DWI Task Force in place attempting to enforce laws that pertain to drinking and driving. I don’t like waking people up in the middle of the night to tell them that there loved one has been killed in an alchohol related crash. I was excited to see the task force in place. All through the evening, city police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and DPS troopers arrested individuals accused of driving while intoxicated.

As the jail began to fill up last night, the sadness of it all was striking. I saw several people’s lives ravaged by years of alcohol abuse. It is equally heart breaking to see a young person’s life changed forever, because of one night of partying. Confidentiality impedes me from sharing details, but I can say that that the offenders ran the scope in terms of age, gender, race, and socioeconomic background. Last night, however, there was commonality among them. Each of their lives are unraveling due to alcohol abuse.

I am not sure if it would do any good or not, but I wanted to take each of those individuals back in time with me. We would travel back to Wichita Falls, TX. The year is 1992. When we arrive, each of last night’s offenders will be sitting at a metal kitchnette table with me in a small, but tidy frame house. They will observe me holding a ladies hand and attempting to comfort her.
One of the offenders will no doubt blurt out: “What is wrong with HER?” I will turn from the woman overcome with emotion, and tell them: “I just told her that her son was killed in a car crash less than a 1/2 away from home. And I had to tell her that he was very intoxicated.” I might even tell them that she and the man’s grandmother were watching footage of the crash on the 10:00 news just as we we approached their home, and knocked on their door… How would last night’s offenders react to such an experience in time travel? I am not sure.
I am quite certain that the lives of the affected family members have never been the same since that awful night. Alcohol abuse ravaged that family.

As the foreboding doors of the jail closed slammed behind the accused last night, I realized quickly that time travel was not going to become a reality. The DWI Task Force will hit the streets again tonight, but I won’t be joining them. I think I will go to bed early, and be prepared to deliver a message of hope tomorrow morning. As I look across the eclectic audience tomorrow morning, I suspect I will see more than a few folks whose families have been ravaged by alcohol abuse. I will feel real empathy for each of them. My own family of origin was ravaged by the destructive seduction of alcohol. Yes…ravaged is the right word. I know that to be true from experience.

Meanwhile the accused will sit in jail and wait to see the judge. If the truth be known, we could all be referred to as the accused. We will all be judged someday. But thanks be to God for his mercy and grace extended to each of us in Christ Jesus. Time travel is pretty unrealistic, but hope for a new life in Christ is not. A life surrendered to Jesus overpowers even the ravages of alcohol.