05/16/2022
If you ever think you’re too far gone.. Here’s a story to counteract that lie.
Never Beyond Repair
A Story
Marian Hatcher had a corporate job in
finance and was married with five children
in her thirties when the pain from her past
began to interrupt her promising future.
She had been molested as a child and her
outward success simply masked an
internal brokenness that stayed with her.
Her husband started to beat her and,
feeling she had nowhere to turn, she
turned to drugs. Crack co***ne
specifically.'
"Crack co***ne brought me to
my knees..That drug became the love of
my life and told me it was OK to leave my
children."
She began to sell her body in order to
keep up with her insatiable need to get
high in order to escape the pain that was
waiting for her in reality. She eventually
started working for pimps, so she could
stay high and drunk without having to face
the fact that she left her family. She was
missing for almost two years before she
was arrested and sent to Cook County
Jail. And it was then that her sobriety
forced her to come face to face with a
past she had been avoiding her entire life.
The judge sentenced her to three to seven
years in prison, but instead she ended up
serving four months in an area women's
drug treatment program. It was there
where she was given the tools needed to
dig into her soul and dredge up the shame
that she had been covering up through
multiple marriages, drugs, and prostitution.
After doing the hard work of uncovering
her pain and making peace with her past,
she realized she had a calling that was
bigger than herself. Her pain had purpose.
She began working with the County Sheriff
to shift the way they pursued trafficking
victims, helping change their philosophy
from going after the women who sell s*x
to going after the people who buy it. Her
work didn't stop there, Hatcher teamed up
with justice officials at the national level to
begin speaking out and educating people
about the issue of human trafficking
across the US and, in 2017, she became
one of only twenty individuals to receive
the Presidential Lifetime Achievement
Award from President Obama in
recognition of her tireless work and
impact.
In recounting the arrest that catalyzed the
change in her life's trajectory, she said
"Angels with handcuffs brought me to
Cook County Jail." A woman who had
numbed herself with drugs and alcohol to
escape her pain was now using her story
to help others escape their own.
Our Lesson
The pain we keep trapped inside of
ourselves doesn't stay buried; it seeps out
of us through our decisions and
relationships. I can't tell you how many
unwise decisions I can look back on and
see unresolved hurt compelling my
thoughts to choose wrongly. I am sad to
say that I've had, both, platonic and
romantic relationships that were simply
the fruit of unresolved hurt stirring my
emotions to give too much of myself when
it wasn't safe to do so. Simply because I
wanted to be wanted by someone...
anyone. The wrong one. Perhaps you can
relate to this.
You look over your shoulder and see a trail
of past decisions and relationships that
you aren't proud of. Yet, at the core of
those mistakes was the hope that you
would find the comfort, security, and
validation you needed. That car you
bought in an effort to impress people, but
you couldn't afford, got repossessed. That
woman you gave your heart to despite the
red flags that she wasn't going to be
faithful. The old boyfriend you
reconnected with on social media because
you and your husband have been getting
into arguments.
As you read this I want to offer you the
truth that, no matter what you've done as a
result of your past pain and no matter how
much shame you have carried because of
it, you are never beyond repair. In Christ
Jesus we have immediate and direct
access to redemption power; the power to
write a new story.
Work
Take this time to get before God and
receive His grace by verbally confessing
the ways your pain may have directed your
decisions and relationships against His
perfect will. Be completely honest
because he already knows everything
you've done. This exercise is for your
benefit; to finally admit where you need
God's help.
