In our season of fall TV viewing, there’s probably nothing more compelling than this show on Netflix about Charlie Sheen, well in small doses when one is ready to watch the train wreck rehashed and explained by the train back on his current track. Let us pray that he stays sober in all ways. It’s unbelievable that Charlie Sheen is still alive. It’s pure brokenness in the world of drugs, and money and wild lifestyles fueling addictions to self. In a ME world, it gets bad fast…

And yet Charlie Sheen is still alive, coherent to talk, and as compelling as he was to many but this next generation now wouldn’t know him and the train wrecks of today are on other media streams or already deceased. Drugs are the worst – and I pray no one starts because it proves bad again and again. All this big scale brokenness reminds us of brokenness even bigger at the level of pure evil in the world. The devil is in the disasters, but we are still able to see the warnings coming and stop and shelter and survive. We surely see life examples of devastation so that we try to steer clear.

And yet, they said that people were paying money to see the train wreck in Charlie Sheen. And surely others paid much more of the price to try to rescue him over and over…  So, who are the helpers? The Netflix documentary mentioned his father, Martin Sheen who suffered immensely through these episodes of his son (although not interviewed for this series, the record as plenty of intervention attempts). His ex-wives are interviewed as they are surprised too that he is still alive. Even the former drug dealer to Charlie was recruited to help step Charlie down in intervention that “thought outside the box” and mixed lower and lower doses of crack until Charlie was able to step back up onto the sidewalk… It’s a story of rebuilding the tracks back or at least putting the train car upright. And there are victims of time, like his children, who will never regain a normalcy that rarely existed. If you wish for someone else’s life for yourself, DON’T. Take the cards handed to us and make our best plays. Our known is usually better than the unknown. 

Intervention by invention, those helping Charlie Sheen were also helping themselves in rescuing someone they love. Charlie’s one quieter non-media brother interviewed stated over and over again about the love that was given. LOVE came first, in the middle, and will be the lasting force forever. 

Intervention because of LOVE began at the time of creation, when God created the heavens and earth and separated darkness by instilling LIGHT and direction and motivation and sharing the LOVE. Genesis sounds like poetry of creation – so clearly over and over again intervention by invention and pre-prepared rescue was already planned as the Way. Intervention by invention is what got Adam and Eve back on track, Jacob and sons back to building nations, Moses back on the mountain, David back to praising God, and each and every person (past, present and future) to be rescued by Jesus. Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life – and Light of the World to overcome all darkness. God Wins.

Intervention by invention at conception and for perception and surely by perspiration. It is hard work to block out darkness, but time and time again, day after day, it is done and shown and lived and all for the love of shining the way.

Let us pray all trains get back on track, all people get the pulling up they need, and that the people themselves WANT to pick up their mat and roll it up and keep walking forward as Jesus commands – and “sin no more” for the sake of the whole story of saving. We do love to watch the dawning of a new day – and today is that day for so many – we pray. We pray for all who are lost to see they are found, pray for all who are wayward to want forgiveness and reconciliation and to be taken back into the fold of the Lord as children wanting for their Father God. And we pray that we remember that the LOVE is given by God so we will love until it hurts. Intervention is by Invention.

God is LOVE – and no matter which earthly train gets wrecked, we won’t ever get off HIS track from His LOVE. 

Amen

—

The History of Creation – Genesis 1:1-19 NKJV 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. …