Does He Deserve to Be Rescued? Rags to Riches to Rehab

Ted Williams’ story traveled in and out of the media spotlight last week faster than the flash of a camera bulb.

Initially, he was hailed as a rags-to-riches story when the golden-voiced homeless man was “discovered” and offered a number of lucrative positions.

But then, he was decried as a rags-to-riches-to rehab story when it was revealed that Ted “had issues” and was, perhaps, not handling his rise to fame with sufficient aplomb.

Messy. The whole story got messy fast.

And the media learned a rapid-fire lesson about why they are reporters and not social workers -they can’t handle the truth served up cold.

The media like stories about “deserving people” benefiting from the kindness of others. They don’t really like it when something unsavory comes to light about those on the receiving end of a helping hand.

The media likes to dress the truth in designer clothing with theme music and high-def graphics but when that’s all stripped away, they don’t have the constitution required to look the human condition straight in the eye and not lose their lunch.

The truth about humans is that we’re messy. We’re not easily controlled by others with our “best interest” in mind. Our problems are usually a complicated cocktail of circumstances and choices.

And deciding what is good for other people, who is “deserving” and whether or not people have caused their own troubles is risky business.

We wrestle with that in churches, too.

I’ve heard many a “good stewardship” conversation about deciding how to distribute financial assistance to those who ask. We Christians can be phobic about not wanting to be “taken advantage of.” As if the Lord’s first commandment to the church was “protect Me from being used and ripped-off at all times by ensuring that you only care for those who are worthy of help.”

It’s just not that easy.

I once saw a television show where two firefighters were trying to encourage a dying co-worker by revisiting people he’d rescued. It didn’t turn out the way they had hoped.

One elderly man was furious that he’d been saved when his wife was not – now he was left with a life of loneliness. A neighbor of another rescued man informed the firefighters that the rescued man had lived only to murder his entire family.

The visits went on like this until one of the firefighter observed something to the effect that “lucky for most people we rescue them before we know if they’re worth rescuing.”

The hard truth is that none of us is worth rescuing. We are made worthy by our Rescuer.

In God’s eyes, every single one of us is a “riches to rags to rehab” story.

Riches: We had it all, every one of us was designed to be gloriously, perfectly human.

Rags: We tossed it away and traded our glory for rags – every single one of us. We all choose sin over obedience and make ourselves homeless wanderers begging scraps from the world.

Rehab: When we call on the Lord and find our rescue in Jesus Christ, we enter rehab – the process of breaking our addictions to sin and self and learning to function as we were intended. To live within the richness of our relationship with Him.

It’s messy. Every single story we live out is messy compared to the One, Perfect Son of God.

Read Psalm 107. God rescues people from every circumstance – ones that have happened to them and ones of their own making – even through foolish rebellion.

God is reckless and generous with both His grace and His gifts. The church needs to be more like Him.

God saves the hard questions and the discipline for those of us who are already safe inside the lifeboat. Until then, He doesn’t seem to spend much time asking how we ended up in bad shape in the first place.

And He seems very unconcerned with being “ripped off.”

God sends sunshine and rain to sinners and saints alike. There are many rebellious, unrepentant sinners out there enjoying the very best of the beautiful world God has created, often letting others pay the price. God seems content to work out the consequences for that in the long-run.

Which is why I think He’d rather that the church lavished money on the occasional con-artist than to risk withholding His riches from those who are in desperate straits. He doesn’t seem to live with that kind of fear.

If you’re someone who has made poor choices and find yourself in a bad spot because of them, God will rescue you if you call on Him. That doesn’t mean He’ll make it all go away, but He will walk with you through the process of recovery.

If you’re someone who feels good about the choices you’ve made and struggle with others who haven’t, remember that the wisdom for making those choices came from God, the strength to make those choices came from God and any circumstances in your favor were arranged by God.

Riches to Rags to Rehab – it’s my story and I glory in it as I glory in Jesus Christ, the One who rescued me.


What’s your story?