Table of contents for January 2018 in Guideposts

Addiction, it has been said, starts in pain and ends in pain. Never has that been more true than with the opioid crisis our country is now facing, with so many victims beginning their descent into crippling dependency with “pain pills.” Pain pills sound so innocent, so harmless. And for most people they are. They are a temporary treatment to relieve transitory suffering. For some of us—doomed by a predisposition—the suffering is more than transitory. It is a deeper suffering, a suffering of the soul, that we seek escape from. Opioids can become that escape, that relief for the predisposed addict. Before I got sober, my primary drug of choice was alcohol, but in fact I would take anything to escape. I wasn’t totally loyal to the grape. It was…

CARE PACKAGE Two years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The day I went to meet with doctors to discuss treatment was cold and rainy. Then a group of children about 11 years old burst into the waiting room with boxes wrapped in bright paper. One young girl presented me with a green box. On top was a label: “This is given in honor of Mr. Edward Crosby.” It was signed by the Moselle BETA Club. The box contained gum, tissues, wet wipes, lip balm, nail clippers and mints. I had a special appreciation for those items as I underwent treatment. To me, the box also offered hope, encouragement and love. A quick internet search revealed Mr. Crosby was the students’ principal and a fellow cancer patient and educator.…

I SAT IN MY OFFICE AT A CHRISTIAN camp west of Seattle. Outside, rain dripped from fir trees. The day was dark and gloomy. Through the window, I could see the fields and woods where I’d worked and lived with my wife, Deb, and four kids for the past three years. I was the camp director, leading a yearround program of camps and retreats for church groups. It was a dream job for me and my family. What could be better for kids than growing up in the woods surrounded by good people? I was about to lose it all. In a few minutes, two executives from the camp’s parent company would be sitting on the other side of my desk. They’d requested a meeting earlier that day. They didn’t…

ON A ROLL For several minutes, I’d been standing in the aisle at the craft store, praying and staring at the display of stretchy cord. Did I need one more roll? Did I have too many? I dropped some rolls in my basket, then took a few out again. Lord, please help me buy the right amount. A group from our church was going on a trip to the Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf in Jamaica. I was in charge of crafts for the vacation Bible school program for the students, but I had no idea how many to prepare for. For our first craft, the students would make bracelets with their names on them. The letter beads were cheap, but the stretchy cord was pricier. I needed to…

She Reached for the Stars Twenty-two-year-old rocket scientist Tiera Guinn Fletcher (page 44) pays tribute to those who helped her achieve her dreams at guideposts.org/tguinn. Honoring Dr. King Be inspired by this collection of quotes from the great civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. guideposts.org/mlkquotes Tips for Positive Thinking Is it your New Year’s resolution to be more positive? Check out our practical advice. guideposts.org/positive2018 Inspiring Others to Aim High In our exclusive video, actor, producer and director Tyler Perry (page 24) discusses raising your spiritual sights in his new book, Higher Is Waiting. guideposts.org/tperry…

HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN TO THE point where you couldn’t pray about something anymore? For two years after we married, my wife, Angie, and I prayed to have a baby. But nothing happened. I felt helpless. What was the point of all our prayers? Why keep hoping, only to be disappointed? We took the next step and made an appointment at a fertility clinic. We underwent all the tests. The doctors recommended IVF, or in vitro fertilization. Even with insurance, it would still cost us $10,000. Out of pocket. I walked out of that clinic feeling completely defeated. How were we going to cover an expense like that? Angie still might not get pregnant. We would be right back where we started— except broke. Then a friend from church had…

“ It’s more in my nature to be optimistic. I’m one of those people who gets up on the right side of the bed in the morning. I get up and have a cup of coffee and go to the gym before I talk myself out of it.”DICK VAN DYKE, 92 “There is an overwhelming power in boundless compassion and unconditional love.”ERIC GREITENS, Navy SEAL and author of Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life “If you consistently experience God’s mercy on a daily, ongoing basis, then you know that there are no second chances. There are infinite chances.”T.D. JAKES, from his book Let It Go: Forgive So You Can Be Forgiven “If you risk failure, then you also risk success.”TOM HIDDLESTON, actor “To every conversation bring a gift:…

We gotta go,” said my husband, Alan. “We need to get ahead of that freezing rain.” I hugged our son Ryan tight. “Happy birthday, sweetheart,” I said. His cheek was cold against mine on the frosty February night. Together with his big brother, Aaron, we had spent the weekend with Ryan at Iowa State University, where he was a junior. Alan, Aaron and I got into the car for the two-hour drive from Ames to our home in Austin, Minnesota. Within an hour, Aaron had dozed off in the back seat. Alan’s attention was on Highway 35. “Here it comes,” he said. Pellets of freezing rain began hitting the windshield. I was tense and needed something to distract myself. I texted my friend Lorene, who lives in our town. She…

Sherry Colgin knows: It’s disheartening to find your body can’t do what it used to. But don’t give up on exercise. How well your body ages has to do with genetics in part, but it has even more to do with lifestyle choices. Evon Schones, wellness director at Good Samaritan Society– Loveland Village, in Colorado, shares healthy ways to adjust to the physical changes of aging, whether you’re dealing with illness, injury or normal wear and tear. Get your heart pumping. “Cardiovascular exercise is one of the best things you can do at any age,” Schones says. It helps protect you from heart disease, arthritis and depression, among other diseases. How to tell if you’re working out hard enough to reap the benefits? Use the “sing or speak” test while…

FROM THE OUTSIDE, THINGS looked okay. I had a nice apartment, good friends, a longstanding job as a lawyer with New York City’s Department of Finance. But inside I felt empty. Day after day, I tracked down corporate scofflaws, calling them up and confronting them about the thousands of dollars they owed the city. It was necessary work—somebody had to do it—but over the years, steeling myself, I found I had become so callous. Life was drained of its colors. I used to drop in at a tavern in Greenwich Village after work and unload on a bartender there, Angelo. The place had these big paintings on the walls, brilliant acrylic portraits. One showed folks sitting around a card table playing bridge with all the details beautifully painted, even the…

After completing the California Mission Trail—and beating cancer a third time—Edie Littlefield Sundby (My Mission Trek, page 16) took on the 800-mile trail of Spanish missions through Mexico. Joining Edie were mules, horses, trucks and, most important, vaqueros—cowboys who served as guides on the trail. Unlike her trip through California, Edie slept in a tent on her trek through Mexico, where the trail wasn’t clearly marked. “The wilderness was the hardest part,” she says. “Everything had thorns, and the cactus had names like Devil’s Crawl and Devil’s Dagger.” Her last vaquero quit 38 miles short of the border, three days before Christmas, so Edie completed that last stretch with her husband, Dale. Edie shares more from her journey in The Mission Walker, in bookstores now. For decades, the burns that…

HONORING PAPAW Roberta Messner’s October 8 devotion in Daily Guideposts 2017 really struck a chord with me. She wrote about her Papaw visiting every Friday when she was a child. He drove a bright turquoise truck and always arrived with a chocolate bar and five dollars for Roberta’s college fund. The story reminded me of my own grandparents. When I was a child, they often pulled into our driveway, bringing us groceries and taking us out to eat when my mother was ill. My grandmother always had chocolate with her because she believed chocolate could improve almost any situation. (And she was right!) As Roberta’s devotion reminded me, small kindnesses often make a big difference. In honor of her Papaw, for the closing program of a women’s retreat I’m planning,…