Two years ago, I stood in the Grand Traverse County Corrections Facility delivering gifts to 42 officers. I asked the captain what their biggest need was, and how we could pray for them. He boiled it all down to two critical issues facing Northern Michigan:

• How to deal with the mentally ill population who commit crimes.
• How to address the opioid addiction sweeping through our area.

It was the first time my eyes were opened to just how widespread opioid addiction is in Northern Michigan. It seems that with every turn of the calendar, another person has died from an overdose. It’s time to wake up and lean into this issue as one of the great dilemmas of our time. And we need to pay attention especially to how such addictions are affecting our teens and young adults.

Consider how widespread opioid addiction is in our culture:

• December 2017 WSJ article: US Lifespans Fall Again. For the first time since the 1960s, life expectancy fell for 2 years in a row, now down to 78.6 years old. The central issue in the decrease is drug-overdose deaths, particularly among young people. Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the CDC, said, “This whole decrease in life expectancy can be put clearly at the foot of the opioid epidemic.”
• March 2018 WSJ article: Elderly to Surpass Children by 2035. Projecting the aging population, it estimated that “people over 65 years old would outnumber children by 2035” which would be the first time in US history. Though the article was not about opioid addiction, it is clear that the two issues run parallel.
• April 2018 WSJ article: Deaths of Despair take Toll across US. This article pointed specifically to substance abuse and suicide as driving an increase in premature deaths in nearly half of the US. Calling them “deaths of despair,” the article pointed out that among the 25 leading causes of death in the US, the largest increase was in “opioid-use disorders,” which saw an increase of 343%!

Many of us have been affected to one degree or another by this opioid crisis. Some of us know friends, neighbors or coworkers that struggle with addiction. Others have faced the crisis in their own home, with young adults who have turned to opioids to dull the pain and ease the burdens of life. Whoever has faced this darkness knows that the struggle is real and the consequences are often deadly.

Mrs. Fitzgerald, the director of CDC, offered this appeal: “We need as a country to have a really thoughtful all-out effort to eliminate this problem.” I agree. And I believe the church should be on the leading edge of this effort.

Here are some action steps for us to take within the church:

• Be aware. Opioid addiction (not to mention prescription drug abuse) affects many more people than we may realize. It is no respecter of wealth or social class. Any home could be affected.
• Be prayerful. Our young people need prayer. They are surrounded by this epidemic. Families who wrestle with addiction in the home or try to recover from the death of a loved one need prayer. Our church needs prayer on how to best minister to those ensnared by addiction. Pray, pray, pray.  Ask God to give us all wisdom on how to minister hope in the midst of crisis.
• Seek help. I am aware that we have individuals and families in our church wrestling with some form of opioid addiction. If this is you, please seek help by bringing the struggle into the light with trusted friends or leaders. This can be scary at first, but it is an issue that cannot be healed until the poison is brought into the light.

The gospel of Luke tells a true story about a woman who wrestled with a medical issue for 12 years. She was hopeless. In those long 12 years of misery, scripture says: “she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.” For many who face opioid addiction in their homes, it can feel like long years of misery without any hope of getting better. But in the biblical account, this woman saw Jesus in a crowded street and turned to Him with faith. Maybe it was a “last ditch” effort by a woman who had nowhere else to go, but she had heard that Jesus could help. Scripture says: “She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.”

However God may lead us in the future, I am confident that people facing addiction crisis must find freedom through an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ. Where doctors have lacked wisdom, and money has been wasted, and counseling has not worked, and rehab has failed, may we reach out in faith to Jesus who has the power to set us free!

You are loved,

Craig Trierweiler