News-Record.com

We are ALL human. What this story says to me is that a young woman in crisis reached for what she knew to be true (God), and offered that truth to another person, too. [And since that defining moment, she's been clean. I pray for her as she continues in that battle.]

Let's consider what the word "saint" means in Scripture. In the Greek, it's "hagios" - "most holy" - and it's used in reference both to the Holy Spirit and to human beings who are believers and followers of Jesus Christ, and who thus have the Holy Spirit living within them.

The followers of Christ are called "saints" throughout the New Testament. But we also know that even as believers, we still have a sin nature and we won't be perfect or sin-free until we get to heaven. Growing up, I often heard pastors say that Christians are "saints who sometimes sin."

Ashley Smith knew where to turn when the crisis came. God is always ready when we cry out to Him. And we don't have to be perfect to be heard. Hallelujah!

AMEN! well said chosenfast.

People seem to get a thrill from singing the praises of "heroes," setting them up on a pedestal, trying to emulate them. As was pointed out, no one is perfect. But another commonality seems to be ignored all too often: all people have the seeds of great deeds in them. In Smith's crisis, she reacted the best way she could think to, doing some things we admire, some we don't.

Is it such a bad thing to simply sum it up by saying she acted human?

If there was any wrong done here, it wasn't by Ashley Smith. She did what she thought she had to do to save her own life (by giving the gunman crystal meth, I mean) -- and disclosed that fact in her book even though she had no especially good reason to do so. (The fact that she herself used meth might have turned off some members of an audience otherwise receptive to her message.)