Story of the Week: The Road to Grace
In this week’s story, see how the Holy Spirit guided Wilma from fear and darkness into grace and light.
Wilma Van Dyk clutched tightly to her baby boy in the winter of 1981. He rested quietly, unaware of his mothers’ worries. She had left home as a teen, tormented by her past and determined to figure things out on her own. The infant stirred in his sleep and she tightened the blanket surrounding him. Wilma knew her addiction was paralyzing her. Hopeless and exhausted, she was afraid to think what the future might bring.
Today, on a typical Sunday you’ll find Wilma cheerfully welcoming church attenders as she serves at Woodmen Heights. She’s a woman who knows her identity in Christ and is secure in God’s powerful presence in her life.
A DIFFERENT PATH
It's been a long journey from 1981 to the present. Once a slave to addiction, Wilma has experienced God’s miraculous transformation in phases and layers, shaping her into the woman of faith she is today. “I was a falling down drunk in my 20s. I was a controlled drunk in my 30s. I was a dry drunk in the beginning of my 40s and since then I’ve been a recovering alcoholic,” she shares.
As a child raised attending church weekly, Wilma was not a stranger to the teachings of the Bible. She’d sat in pews, listened to sermons and sang hymns. But somewhere along the way, she found herself on a different path.
In her late teens, she was haunted by anxiety, unforgiveness and wounds from her childhood. She left home in search of comfort and security. Alcohol provided a momentary reprieve from the pain that overwhelmed her.
She was a single mom at 20. Alone and without options, Wilma found her way back to her family.
In her 30s, Wilma still struggled with addiction, but she’s gotten better at covering it up. She worked with a colleague who lived a life of faith beside her. His words about the hope of Jesus lingered in her mind, reminding Wilma of the truths she’d heard as a child.
AN INVITATION
Then, an invitation from a boy at school changed everything. He asked Wilma’s son, Rob, to attend a program at a church. Wilma recalls, “The first time I walked back into a church, it felt like coming back home. But I wasn’t yet ready to commit to the Lord.”
She soon started attending regularly and found herself sitting quietly at a Good Friday service when she heard a gentle whisper from the Holy Spirit: Come back.
Wilma remembers this as a turning point, a first step back toward Jesus. Things seemed different after that. She continued to attend church, raising her son. She was still drinking but pretended she had control over it.
A PRAYER
Seeds were being planted but alcoholism felt like a mountain Wilma could never climb. Then, after hearing a pastor share his own story of addiction, she prayed the most genuine, desperate prayer of her life: “Lord, I can’t do this on my own. Remove the desire to drink from my life.”
Wilma experienced a miracle: God took away the desire completely. She stopped drinking.
But she still hadn’t dealt with the deep hurts that plagued her since her youth. She filled the void with busyness and distraction.
Wilma remembers, “I had switched from alcoholism to being a workaholic. I was mean, aggressive, self-centered, and my identity was in my work. I traveled constantly and worked long hours.”
A WHISPER
Alone in her car on a long trip for work, she heard the unmistakable, quiet voice of the Holy Spirit. He cautioned her that she was headed down a dark path and it was time to leave her job. In that moment she realized she had put her identity in the world and not in who God made to her to be.
For years, she had avoided her church’s Celebrate Recovery ministry, feeling the nudge to get involved but using her busy schedule as an excuse. But finally, four years after becoming sober, she could no longer deny God calling her to pursue recovery and wholeness through this faith-based program. “That process freed me from fears, anxieties, areas of unforgiveness, life’s hang ups and hurts,” she shares.
A LOOK BACK
Wilma and her son soon moved to Colorado Springs and made Woodmen their church home. Looking back on her life so far, she marvels at the ways God faithfully drew her toward hope and healing.
Wilma stands in awe of what the Lord has done: “God reached out and said, You’re part of my family now. The fact that I matter enough to Him that he would reach out to me — He’s brought me from bitterness, resentment and fear to living every day knowing that I’m here to model Jesus’ behavior. Instead of anger and fear, it’s love and grace. I think that’s the world needs.”
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