He was struggling with drug addiction in the last three years of his life.
While driving under the influence of meth, he crashed into a telephone pole in 2016. He plead guilty to one misdemeanor.
He then overdosed in a motel in Costa Mesa in 2017. He had to step down as mayor of West Covina. The Orange County, California DA's office declined to file charges against him.
Finally, he succumbed to a final overdose in another motel in Ontario. This happened just yesterday.
Terrible fate. There was still so much good that he could have done, which did not happen.
I began meditating on God's love, the sins which capture people and hook them in, and why is it that so many people are unable to break free.
Mike acknowledged his struggle with addiction. He called himself an "addict" many times, and that he was working his program as best as he could to break free.
In a city council meeting last year, I confronted him on that lie. "You are not an addict, and I advise you to stop saying that."
Sadly, that went nowhere. He insisted on the label, and he insisted on staying with Alcoholics Anonymous (I suppose).
I then realized something: condemnation so powerfully hooks people, that they cannot break away. In the case of Mike, it seemed pretty clear to me that he could not come to God with help. It takes the love of the Father for us to break free of all the lusts of the flesh which afflict us:
"15Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John 2:15-16)
Lusts of the flesh all connect to addictions. That's what they are!
The reason why? The individuals in bondage do not know the love of the Father. The love of the Father is not in them. Why does this happen? We struggle too much in our own efforts. We want to come to Him after we have cleaned ourselves up.
All that stuff is of the world, and it will never last. It will never suffice.
Now, about our sin ... it cannot stop God's love.
God sent His Son, His Only Begotten, to die for us, to rise for us, to live for us and through us.
God the Father sent His Son while we were still sinners!
"8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." (Romans 5:8-9)
Our sin cannot stop God's love. If it could, God would have never sent His Son, or worse yet could not have sent His Son!
Consider also the types and shadows in the Old Testament:
"I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated." (Malachi 1:2-3)
Jacob did not deserve God's love at all.
He lied, cheated, deceived, put his own needs ahead of others. He played favorites among his four wives and his twelve sons and daughter.
Yet God loved Jacob.
That's how God loves us! Unconditionally. When we understand how great, how wonderful God's love is for us, then we fall out of love with the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life.
Lean on His love. Ask Daddy God to give you a broader, wider revelation of His love for you! (Ephesians 3:16-19)
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