With a woman to look at culture from a Christian worldview, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

Eastern Kentucky's long been an epicenter of the opioid epidemic that's ravaged Middle America.

As jobs declined and a sense of futility set in the region region drug use spike coal mines were replaced with

bill mills. Recently however the region has seen hopeful signs of recovery. In the

town of hazard 43 businesses have opened creating 171 new jobs about a quarter of which are started by those Other communities in Kentucky are seeing similar growth.

As one small business owner and former Attic putic, quote,

when somebody gets clean, they want to change the world.

They have ideas of how to change the world.

You do something just to prove you can do it.

This is a powerful reminder of the importance of purpose and how underneath

the social epidemics we face is this catastrophic loss of meaning and purpose. The antidote is when people

find the true why of life, and when they do, there's an awful lot to celebrate.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with the Point.