A few years ago, a close friend of mine fell deep into alcoholism. It was heartbreaking to watch a bright, capable young man crumble into dependence on drink. One night he took his car and, completely drunk, drove all the way to Lonavala. I kept calling him again and again, pleading with him to stop, to turn back, to pull over somewhere safe.
He didn’t answer most of my calls. When he finally picked up, his voice was slurred and angry. I thought he was too far gone to hear reason.
Months later, after he managed to quit drinking, he met me over coffee and said something I’ll never forget. “Bob,” he said, “you remember that night you kept calling me when I was driving drunk? You thought I couldn’t hear you, but I did. And through all that haze, one thought wouldn’t leave my mind, ‘Am I so worthy that Bob keeps calling me?’ Because that was the time I felt the most unworthy. I couldn’t stop drinking. I had disappointed everyone, including myself. But your calls told me something else, that someone still thought I was worth saving.”
I was silent for a long moment. His words hit me harder than anything I’d heard in years. We often think that lecturing people, scolding them, or giving them a long sermon will bring them back. But sometimes, it’s simply the act of not giving up that becomes the sermon.
We live in a world where people are discarded easily: Fail once, and you’re written off. Struggle with a weakness, and you’re labelled hopeless. Lose your way, and suddenly everyone pretends they never knew you. We call it being practical. But all it really shows is that we’ve forgotten how grace works.
My friend didn’t come back to sobriety because someone preached to him about sin. He came back for many reasons, but one of them being that someone believed he was still worthy. That belief lit a spark inside him when he had no light left of his own.
There are people around us right now who are quietly fighting their own demons—addiction, depression, failure, shame. You may not know it, but your patience, your phone call, your refusal to give up on them might just be the thing that saves them.
When we look at someone at their worst and still treat them as worthy of love, we echo what God does with us every single day. He never stops calling. Even when we drive full speed in the wrong direction, He keeps dialling, whispering, “You are still mine.”
So the next time someone disappoints you, don’t walk away too quickly. Don’t decide they’re beyond help. Remember that your persistence might one day make them sit back and say, “Am I really that worthy?”
And maybe that question, asked through tears and awakening, is the very start of their journey back home…!
The Author conducts an online, eight session Writers and Speakers Course. If you’d like to join, do send a thumbs-up to WhatsApp number 9892572883 or send a message to bobsbanter@gmail.com
