Finding Rehoboth: A Place of Destiny

October 2018

Adam Taylor, The News Journal. Southern Delaware has a bigger heroin problem than does its larger neighbor to the north, state and local police say. But when an addict hits bottom here, he or she could be offered a tent rather than a bed in a halfway house. Treatment services are sparse, requiring addicts hitch rides or drive 30 miles to counseling sessions and support group meetings. There are no state-funded detox or inpatient rehabs downstate, as there are in New Castle County. And experts say there is a culture of denial among residents in Kent and Sussex counties about the widespread abuse of heroin.

William Bethard is a lifelong Sussex County resident who entered the vortex of opiate abuse at 18 when he got hooked on prescription-opiate Percocet pills. He snorted his first bag of heroin on the Fourth of July three or four years ago he can't remember which while working in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant in Rehoboth Beach.

Bethard went outside, higher than he'd ever gotten on pills, and watched the fireworks display. He had never been happier. But his life quickly slid toward the abyss.

I liked my paycheck and my benefits. And in I was trying to figure out how I would put four kids through college when I had no extra money in the bank.

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Fast forward to , to the middle of the Great Recession. They say the economy is showing signs of improvement, but I don't see this in Florida, where the foreclosure rate is still one of the nation's highest. Yet right in the middle of these uncertain economic times, while the unemployment rate is hovering around 10 percent, I sensed God telling me to make a career change.

Get Spirit-filled content delivered right to your inbox! Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. Everything in my flesh screamed, No! Yet I knew I was facing one of those Peter-get-out-of-the-boat-and-walk-on-the-water moments. Because I have been in one place for 17 years, the thought of change was terrifying. I didn't even want to look over the side of the boat, much less stick my foot in the waves and try to walk. But two weeks ago I put my toes in the water.

Like Peter, I have wavered a few times since then. The sound of the crashing surf is scary and I've looked back at the boat more than once. But I know that I know that I know that this faith-stretching exercise is going to end well.

What has carried me through this season of transition is the comfort I receive each day from reading my Bible. I don't read it just because Christians are supposed to have a nice devotional life. I read it for survival. Since the New Year began I have focused all my reading on the journeys of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mainly because these patriarchs pioneered this thing we call faith. Their life lessons provide a framework for our own adventures with God. I read last week about Isaac's difficult life journey. Things were not easy after his father's death.

His brother Ishmael was bitter because Abraham gave Isaac the first-born's inheritance. Then a famine came and Isaac had to move his family to Gerar, where hostile Philistines were cramming garbage in the wells that Abraham had dug.

Life in Gerar was not easy. Every time Isaac would dig a new well, the Philistines would claim it as theirs.

In one instance, Isaac named his well Esek, which means "contention. It seemed like two steps forward and three steps back. He wasn't making any progress. I didn't even want to look over the side of the boat, much less stick my foot in the waves and try to walk. But two weeks ago I put my toes in the water. Like Peter, I have wavered a few times since then. The sound of the crashing surf is scary and I've looked back at the boat more than once. But I know that I know that I know that this faith-stretching exercise is going to end well.

What has carried me through this season of transition is the comfort I receive each day from reading my Bible.

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I don't read it just because Christians are supposed to have a nice devotional life. I read it for survival. Since the New Year began I have focused all my reading on the journeys of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mainly because these patriarchs pioneered this thing we call faith. Their life lessons provide a framework for our own adventures with God. I read last week about Isaac's difficult life journey. Things were not easy after his father's death.

His brother Ishmael was bitter because Abraham gave Isaac the first-born's inheritance. Then a famine came and Isaac had to move his family to Gerar, where hostile Philistines were cramming garbage in the wells that Abraham had dug. Life in Gerar was not easy. Every time Isaac would dig a new well, the Philistines would claim it as theirs.

In one instance, Isaac named his well Esek, which means "contention. It seemed like two steps forward and three steps back.

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He wasn't making any progress. But then, Isaac journeyed just a bit farther. It was right after this experience that God appeared to Isaac and reconfirmed to him the promise that He had given his father. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of my servant Abraham" Gen.

All of us will encounter multiple obstacles on the road toward our promise. The contentious wells of Esek and Sitnah tend to drain the life out of us rather than provide any refreshing. Their waters are bitter. They are the hard places where we are most tempted to quit. But the lesson here is simple: We must keep walking by faith, even when we feel trapped in Philistine territory. We must keep trudging ahead.