The afternoon, though, brought my favorite part of Summit each time I come. We were given a number of scriptures to consider about issues that we still might be keeping back from God and our recovery process: pain or shame from the past, current struggles, and fear about the future. We each had a card on which to write what was uncovered in the process. We were then invited to nail those cards to large wooden crosses. We waited in lines with our cards and nails, until someone handed us hammers. Even though there were a lot of people behind me, I found that I wanted to hammer my nail quite a few times - I felt like I was securing that struggle firmly in Jesus' hand.
As I was handing the hammer to my friend in line, I remembered the issue I had written on my card at last year's Summit. I laughed to myself when I realized that the struggle I had given to Jesus in this process was one that had been lifted from me in the past year. I had even commented to my friend at the beginning of the summer, "I don't know why, but I just don't have that struggle any more." I had forgotten that I had nailed it to that cross! God had answered my prayer in taking that struggle from me.
Before Saddleback's Friday night CR meeting, our Memorial Road group gathered for some debriefing and prayer time. We sat and talked about our favorite moments from the conference, some truths and tools we were taking away, and our renewed excitement for recovery and the CR ministry. We then had some prayer time, for some specific requests for our group, and some of our friends back home.
The evening ended with the Celebrate Recovery meeting: my favorite way to spend a Friday night. I thank God for the CR program, for our elders who have allowed us to benefit from it, and for the leaders at our church who bravely stepped out to start the ministry.
Grateful Believer,
Angi
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