Allyson Messed Up, Part 1

“I was a drug addict, involved in a destructive relationship with little desire for spiritual things,” Allyson admits. “My sister and I were like light and dark, and I was the dark.” Allyson’s sister, Kathy, was a Christian music artist who blessed many people with her music. She once shared with Allyson, through a song she wrote based on Jeremiah 29:11, that God had a plan for her life. Allyson laughed it off. “God does not have a plan for me. My life is too messed up.”

One day, Kathy gave Allyson, who was living in her home at the time, an ultimatum—clean your room, or else. Allyson refused. After Allyson returned from a weekend camping trip with a friend, Kathy told her, “You have to leave. I can’t have this in my house anymore.” That night, like Jacob, Allyson spent much of the night wrestling with God. She contemplated ending her life. In desperation, she cried out, “Okay God, I can’t do this. I’m messed up and I don’t know what to do.”

The next morning, she visited a doctor to get help for her drug addiction. When she pleaded with her sister for a second chance, Kathy said, “You’re my sister and I love you. I’ll give you another chance to stay here, but you have to do two things”—she had to clean her room and attend a church camp meeting for ten days!

Allyson packed her clothes for camp meeting. In her suitcase, she secretly stashed drugs to help her “get through” the week. Strangely, she could never find them in her suitcase throughout the week she was at camp meeting even though they were in her possession the whole time. “So there I was, with no drugs, and it was already midweek at camp meeting. I was faced with detoxing there, and sleeping in a tent.”

God was about to turn Allyson’s life upside down.

Reflect: Have you ever come to a point in your life where you felt you could never straighten out a mess you created? That’s not such a bad place to be.

Key Bible Texts

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11 KJV)