Philmon D - A Mother's Advice

“I know now what you were trying to tell me when I was younger.”  Philmon Duhart writes in a letter to his mother, recently deceased.  “You would not believe where I am now.  I am surrounded by people who turn to scripture to solve life’s problems.  I finally understand what you were telling me.”

Philmon wrote to his mother as part of a class assignment in the Christian Development Program (CDP) at the Kansas City Rescue Mission.  In years past, Philmon would turn to his mother for advice, only to be disappointed when she encouraged him to turn to the Bible for help.  It seemed impractical, out of touch, to read an old book to find relevant answers.  Still, she insisted that Philmon would find the help he really needed in God’s Word.

It wasn’t until his mother was gone, and Philmon was truly desperate that he took her advice.  Drug and alcohol abuse had paved a downhill road to a drug detoxification center in Kansas City.  When the staff recognized that Philmon was serious about making a change, they encouraged him to contact the Kansas City Rescue Mission.  “I talked to the staff there (at the detox center) and they referred me to the Kansas City Rescue Mission.  They told me it was a spiritual place and they thought I was a good candidate for it.”  

After a week of evaluation, Philmon was accepted on the CDP at the Mission.  He entered a new environment where the guiding principles are taken from scripture, where decisions are made after prayer, where relationships are built on grace.  It was only a matter of days until Philmon Duhart had rededicated his life to Jesus Christ.  He discovered a new way of living.

“When I was on the streets,” Philmon remembers, “my will, my thinking was my survival.  It’s how I made it through, but I wasn’t going anywhere.  Now I realized that God protects me.  When temptations come into my life now, I can turn to Jesus.  He protects me.  I had no protection out there before.  Now I feel relaxed… if I worry about something, I just turn it over to God.  I let Him fight my battles for me; I used to fight my own battles before.” 

Today Philmon is a graduate of the Christian Development Program and serves at the Mission as an assistant case manager.  He knows his present and future looks much different than his past.  “I didn’t have God before,” he insists.  “I didn’t have God as my Protector.”  He has great hope that his life is changed forever.  The lessons of dependency on God, accountability to others, and discipline of God’s Word have transformed Philmon.  His mother was right all along, of course.  Watching from heaven, she must be very proud.