My Red Ribbon Week Story

This week at All Saints we are celebrating Red Ribbon Week, and encouraging our students to live drug-free.  I shared my little red ribbon story with my students and just thought I'd pass it on.  Growing up, my parents and grandparents were pastors, and my sister and I were homeschooled.  So we weren't in an environment where we were pressured to try drugs.  But some of our dearest friends were.  They were those kind of friends as close as family, where your hearts are just sealed together forever.  Even now, though it has been years since I have seen them, one phone call would have me doing everything I could to be there for them.

When I was 19, we went and spent the week of New Years with them.  By that time, they were all doing drugs, mostly cocaine.  They didn't use around us, and never offered it to us.  But it was so awkward.  My sister and I would walk into a room and conversations would die.  They didn't invite us to the parties they went to, and even though we didn't want to go to the parties, we wanted them to want us.  It was a long week.

A few months after we left, one of my friends talked to us on the phone.  He said something that absolutely floored me.  He told me that he had thought about our visit every single day.  I mumbled something like, "Really?", cringing inside at the memories of how stupid we felt.  He said, "Yes, because you are so free."

Romans 6 talks about the way that sin makes us slaves.  In the beginning, it feels like a choice, but the deeper we get into it, the more we surrender, the more captive we become.  Soon, it is almost impossible to break free.  While my friends never went to jail, the consequences they faced--the broken relationships, the pain their family went through, the ongoing struggle to reclaim their freedom--have been so very hard.

At 19, I didn't fully recognize the freedom that my sister and I had, but as I look back, I am more grateful than I can express that we never tried on those chains.

We know that our students will face many difficult choices, both now and in the future.  Our goal at All Saints is to help them build the strength, wisdom and love to always walk in the freedom of Christ.

Image credit: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center