Four years ago today, one of my best friends, Taylor, showed up at my house because he had nowhere else to go. He had a good foundation, but for a long time he had been using shoddy material to build his life. Addiction rotted his body, relationships, emotions, thoughts, and soul.

Four years ago I couldn't see any good in the situation. Everyone who loved him was drowning in deep hurt. Darkness and pain surrounded his life and his relationships. All I could see was evil.

Evil had blinded Taylor. It had taken him by the hand and guided him down a path of ruin. But in time, ruin brought humility, and God works in confessed brokenness.

God used addiction to break Taylor. The God we serve uses even evil to work his good. He used evil to destroy the rotten structure of Taylor's life down to the very foundation so that Christ could build it back, restore it, and inhabit it.

Four years has brought a lot of change and a lot of good, and I've learned so much from Taylor's humility in those years. Though it was with much pain along the way, I am incredibly grateful for what God has taught us. He used the power of the cross in our weakness. He used even evil for his glory, and it has been a good four years watching Jesus heal and shape Taylor's life in a way that only He could.