Climbing Out of the Hole

Two Friends who Helped me Through the Hard Times in 1988-1989

June 2010

Psalms 71:22 NIV

"I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel."

I sit, defeated and discouraged, in the high school guidance counselor's office. I have just gotten off the phone with a credit card collector. I tried to make arrangements for payments on the card after my first husband left me with a pile of bills to pay.

The bill collector on the other end of the line didn't care I initiated this conversation and has decided to tell me exactly what she thinks of me. I explain I have called in good faith to pay my debt and am attempting to work out a plan with her.

She berates me. She complains I should never have taken the credit card to begin with if I couldn't afford it (forget that at the time the credit companies were handing cards out like candy to children) and I was essentially the scum of the earth for having gotten myself into credit debt.

I tried once more with her, kept my emotions at bay, but before I could make any progress with her, she hung up on me.  I was left holding the line after unsuccessfully trying to pay my debt to the company.

The first year or two after my divorce was a dark time in life.  I especially didn't know how to climb out of the financial hole by myself, but God lifted me out of it little by little, and He never once hung up on me when I talked to Him.

He never once called me names or made me ashamed for how I had gotten into the hole.  In fact, He even climbed in the hole with me and held me and comforted me until I could get free of my dark prison.

Back then I thought a lot about the children's song, "Jesus Loves Me".  Those words got me through dark days.  I didn't know many people in Georgia back then, so Russell and I depended on each other and God to see us through.

We read books. We sang songs. We played games. We went for walks. We went to church when we could. But through it all, I knew Jesus loved me.

Without God, my folks, and a handful of friends holding us up, I don't know how I would have made it through the first two years in Georgia. 

They all showed me I wasn't "scum," and I could rise above my circumstances.
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Thank you Lord, for meeting me where I am in life, lifting me up, and not tearing me down.