Fresh Start Devotionals

Two Friends From across the street everything looked fine over at Gary’s house. Really, he appeared to live an idyllic life, you might even say he was living “the good life.” Gary rose to the top of his profession rather quickly, and his marriage seemed solid. After all, not everyone makes it past their tenth anniversary. Gary was focused. In just three years at a Fortune 500 company, Gary had proven himself with hard work and dedication. His hard work was paying off, but it was also taking its toll on him. Just to unwind after a hard day’s work, Gary would enjoy a cold one. Often, on business trips, Gary would relax with Jack Daniels. Soon he was spending more time in the bottle than with his wife. Until one day when his wife said, she’d had enough. Maybe it was because he spent so much time in the bottle, but Gary never saw the “other man” or the divorce coming. The pain was more than he could bear, so he tried to drown it in his bottle. Emilio, Gary’s next door neighbor had prayed for months for the right time to share his faith with Gary. One afternoon, Gary crossed his driveway to talk to Emilio. At first, Emilio listened, but after a while, he shared the hope he’d found in Jesus with his hurting friend. And with time, Gary placed his trust in Jesus. Gary’s life isn’t perfect now, he still has the residue from his past mistakes in his life, but now he has two friends to help him as he navigates life’s challenges. One lives across the street. The other lives in his heart. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).