Cartels. Exotic cars. Guns. Gang wars. Tent cities of – literally and figuratively – wasted lives.
Everybody with any access to media knows the story: British Columbian’s get a firsthand look at the carnage, and locals and people with local connections play top roles, even from overseas prison cells. Postmedia crime reporter Kim Bolan has been reminding us of the British Columbia connection to the global trade in psychoactive substances in a series of front-page Vancouver Sun articles. The world’s police and border agencies have not been impressively successful in slowing the torrents of drugs and money.
We’ve been hearing about this for 50 years. The United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention marks World Drug Day every June 26. Wikipedia quotes think tank Global Financial Integrity’s Transnational Crime and the Developing World as estimating “the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652 billion in 2014 alone.”
What can Christians do? We deplore gang shootings and other crime, the catastrophic levels of street homelessness and overdose deaths. We can support missions that focus on the victims and participants, we can bless the beggars who interrupt our walks, all in the name of Jesus.
Jesus said, “if two or three of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:19-20 ESV). How often do we bow in prayer and recite, “in Jesus’ name,” but fail to take seriously the holy reality of his presence with us: “There I Am among them.”
Apostle Paul declares, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV). This is a gathered prayer “without anger or quarreling” (v. 8); “with modesty and self-control” (v. 9).
We are granted enormous authority with God when we pray this way. We join in his purposes “to unite all . . . things in heaven and things on earth,” (Ephesians 1:9-10 ESV). People have something far better than drugs when they find the reality of Jesus’ life.
Let us pray together, “in Jesus’ name,” against this destructive drug trade – even if legalized – and for the lives of our neighbours to be transformed by Jesus’ life.
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