Aaron Reddin onLife, Liberty, and Pursuit of Jesusness

THV teamed up with us yet again to get the word out on Operation Rescue!!!  The story aired last night and again this morning.  They are helping us to constantly raise awareness on the homeless crisis of Metro Little Rock.

When the cold weather starts creeping in, we begin to go out at night and pass out blankets, hot coffee, coats, gloves and anything else we can gather up to help ease the burden of sleeping out in the cold.  But one thing must be understood, our first and foremost goal is to bring them back with us to the shelter and out of the element!! 

Just this week we have gotten 4 men in off the streets and we pray there will be many more to come.   We need your help in raising awareness and we need your help in gathering supplies!!! 

Last year we passed out over 650 used coats to people who had NO coat at all.  With the help of the media we got the word out.  They are helping us again as you can see, but we need all of your help too!!!

Get your small group or Sunday school class to do a coat drive, or “white” drive for us!!!  We need gloves, coats, knit caps, blankets, bleach to clean the shelter.   We need it all, guys!!! 

Thank you so much to Channel 11 and Katherina Yancy for all of their work in getting the word out!!!!

You can go to  this link to actually watch the news coverage from last night, and I will have the actual footage up on the blog at some point. 

People often tell me that they have a hard time believing that I was ever a Meth addict. 

Well, incase you didn’t click on the “Who is Aaron Reddin” tab, I’m a delivered Meth addict.  Yes me.  I personally don’t see what makes it so difficult to envision.  

But you all know that I have devoted my life to ministering to people who “are” where I have “been”. 

Back in May of this year (2008), my best friend Justin and I were asked to be interviewed for a TV story on Meth addiction.  Something we know about all too well. 

The result is below, one of our many little quick bits of fame on the local news…….

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZFyOjgKBpk]

Well you guys all know what I do to make my bread.  Just in case you don’t, I’m the Director of Men’s Ministries for the Union Rescue Mission in Little Rock, AR.  We have a long-term drug/alcohol rehab program, and then we also run a homeless shelter. 

As you can imagine, things get pretty interesting most of the time.  I have been doing this long enough now to have lost my “shock factor”.  You know that part of you that freaks out when something out of the norm is thrown in your face???  Yeah, well I don’t have that.

But, when you have 30 men who live here 24/7 for at least 9 months and then also throw in the homeless populous which averages about 45 per night, you can expect some surprises.  We have all kinds of surprises every single day.  Sometimes they are big.  Sometimes they are small.  Sometimes they are quick and others consume your day. 

But the one we had this week was so funny that I just had to share it with you.  The actual surprise was NOT funny.  However, the aftermath was hysterical!!!

It all started when one of our maintenance men was doing some clean up around the building and found the “surprise”.  He comes running across the campus and through the building yelling for me until he finally found me and demanded I come with him immediately.  Well you know me, I wanted to know why before I took a single step.  He says “Man, I gotta show you something!!!”.  So we go to the spot where the surprise was found and there he hands me a 4 and a half foot marijuana plant!!!!!  SURPRISE!!!!

Now keep in mind that this man is in rehab for drugs and so he was freaking out until he could get the “surprise” to me and know that the “situation” was under control.  So here I am with this pot plant!!  Yeah, just standing there with it…..like….what now???? 

I couldn’t very well carry out any rehab activities or go back to teaching any of my classes while I held this weed plant!

So I ask Justin to call up the LRPD and have them come and pick it up from us.  You know, surely the cops would rather have it than us, but NO!!!!  They didn’t. 

While he is going through all these police numbers and calling here and there, I spot a real live “cop” sitting in his car about a block away.  So having the little bit of sense that I do have, I place a giant trash bag over the “surprise” and walk down the road to the cops car.  Meanwhile Justin is still trying to call and get someone to come out and get it.  So I get to the cop and he looks at me like I’m crazy and I explain the situation.  He tells me to throw it away!!!!  I’m like DUDE!!! this is a freaking rehab!!!!  So he says well then burn it!  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?????  If I set a weed plant on fire at a rehab what on earth is going to happen?  Anybody want to guess?  So he refuses to take it in his car.

I carry the weed back to the Men’s Recovery Center where I hear that Justin made contact and someone will be out “sometime” to pick it up.  Oh dear!!!  This isn’t like a piece of mail or something you just hold for someone until they get there.  This is a freaking pot plant!!!!  So I can’t just leave it laying around.   I have to guard it for I’m working hard to keep 30 men clean and sober for crying out loud. 

So as long as you have to sit around with a weed plant and wait on some DEA person to come and “relieve” you of your pot watching duties, you may as well smile and have fun with it!!!!

 Disclaimer:  No animals or drug addicts were harmed in the discovering of this weed, holding it for authorities, or making of this blog.  :)

I was greatly humbled and honored to be invited to speak to the middle and high school students at Plainview-Rover, AR this week.  Justin and I drove down there Tuesday 10/21 and had a great time. 

The students were very engaged, and I pray that all the information I presented them with will help deter them from turning toward a negative lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. 

I’m working toward becoming a Certified Prevention Specialist which might some day pay off, but it’s the real life testimony that shows people the consequences that destroy lives and families. 

I love sharing my story for that purpose.  I love knowing that all the pain and agony that myself and my family endured can help save lives.  I wish I could show and tell all the world to try and deter them from taking that road.  Just as Numbers 17:10 says, “And the Lord said to Moses: “Place Aaron’s staff permanently before the Ark of the Covenant to serve as a warning to rebels.  This should put an end to their complaints against me and prevent any further deaths.”

I love that whole passage.  Not just because it uses my very own name, Aaron.  But because the entire chapter is a quick story of my life.  I was a dead piece of wood, until one night before the presence of the Lord I sprouted, budded, blossomed, and produced ripe almonds!!!! 

It’s just a beautiful place when you finally get to a point where God uses what you have done wrong, to do something good.  It’s fun.  Our men in our rehab program finally start to see that at about 5-6 months in.  That life is bigger than them.  That they have to give away what they have.  That if they want blessings they have to give blessings to make room for more.  Then at some point they learn to use their own examples to teach and lead others.  It’s a BEAUTIFUL process!!!

Hello my friends!  It’s me again!  Coming to you with another deep conviction on my heart that I now know is from none other than the Lord himself.  It has been a humbling conviction.  A humbling lesson.  And now a humbling teaching. 

We are all on a journey.  No doubt about that.  We all search and seek for something, and even something more.  We all want purpose.  We all want significance.  This is why Rick Warren sold like a bazillion copies of his book Purpose Driven Life.  It is something we all long for.  We long for an identity. 

The sad part of this ongoing search is that nearly all of us have found that identity and purpose and have just yet to embrace it.  We have yet to identify our identity.  Or we just refuse to accept it. 

These scenarios come from either pride, ignorance, or stubbornness.  There is something in our life that keeps us from stepping into that identity.  That purpose.  That destiny.  Something is holding us back.  Something binds us. 

Let me tell you what I think that bondage is, and I hope you don’t get mad and stop reading my blog over this.  I believe that something, 9 times out of 10, is none other than ignorance. 

I’m not calling you dumb.  I’m certainly not calling you stupid.  I am however implying that you just lack information.  That you are uninformed.  That you may be uneducated about this particular thing.

Now, let me break down some of those walls with one of the most simple and comprehend-able concepts out there.  I am going to tell you what your purpose is.  I’m going to tell you what your identity is supposed to be.  I am going to give you the needed information, and make sure that you are informed.  I’m going to give you this very simple little education. 

Are you ready? 

Let me start with one horrifying statement……ready?  If you can’t handle it then go read something more sugar coated. 

Here goes……we ALL have the exact same purpose and identity.  Now, for the record, I am talking to believers right now.  Believers, I am going to get after you here.

If you are a believer then you better stop walking around (or sitting on your butt) talking about how you don’t have a purpose and you don’t know what you are supposed to be doing. 

The one’s that get me the most are the ones that say “I don’t know where to start”.

Some of you have been waiting around hoping that God will one day mail you a letter with clear instructions on what your particular duties are.  Guess what…..IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY!!!!

We all have a purpose and you need to stop looking for it.  It’s right here.  Summed up in one word.  SERVE!!!!  That’s it.  Serve where you are.  Serve where you go.  Serve with what you have.  Serve with what you get.  Serve with what you know.  Serve with what you can teach.  Serve with your love.  Serve with your compassion.  Serve with your physical body.  Serve with your praying spirit.  Serve the rich.   Serve the poor.  Serve the clean and serve the dirty.  Serve the black, the white, the brown, the in-between.  Serve the old and serve the young.  Serve the healthy and serve the handicapped.  SERVE!!!!! 

You don’t have to be a minister or a pastor to serve.  As a matter of fact you typically can serve more people with more things than those of us who work in full-time ministry. 

Let me tell you why this is your “purpose”.  Let me tell you why this is what you are yearning for and can’t figure out.  Let me tell you why you are so empty at the end of the day when you lay your head down on the pillow. 

You see God through his son Jesus gave us an assignment.  He gave us a duty.  He gave us the greatest responsibility ever on earth.  That duty is to serve EVERYONE. 

He told us to make disciples, that takes service.

He told us to clothe the naked, that takes service.

He told us to pray for one another, that takes service.

He told us to give, that takes service.

He told us to feed his sheep, that takes service.

He told us to love, that takes service.

Do you see the pattern?  Do you see the point?  We all have the same purpose.  We all have the same identity.  We all have the same calling, we are just all suited to put it to use in different areas and places.

Your purpose is to give yourself away.  Your purpose is to help others.  Your purpose is to love a stranger. 

I had an email conversation with a new friend who follows the blog yesterday and and she told me that she just didn’t know where to start.  I hear that allot.  Folks, are you in a local church?  Start there, and serve!  If you are not in local church then find one and guess what, serve!  If that is not enough, find a shelter or a drug/alcohol rehab and serve!!!  Find a center for women and children who are victims of domestic violence and serve them!!! 

The most valuable thing you have in this world is your time, give that away for someone else’s sake and you will find your purpose.  You will find your calling.  You will find yourself doing what Jesus asked.  

I leave you with a quote from Helen Keller. 

“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world.  So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.”  – Helen Keller