Stressed Out!!!

Calendars get filled up with meetings and things we need to do. Our to do lists overflow and become unmanageable and frightening. We have expectations to meet, things we need to do, and things we want to do. All of this leads to one thing, and that one thing will rob us of our serenity. That thing, is stress.

All of us have stress and to be honest, we will always have things that stress us out. We won’t be able to change that. As long as we’re here on earth we’ll have stressful situations, deal with stressful projects or have people that stress us out. So, what do we do about it?

One option is to let the stress take over, burn out and eventually go crazy. That’s not a very attractive option, is it? Another option is to try and manage it. Try to get organized enough, get the perfect to do list, get the most inclusive calendar, and learn different techniques to manage the stress when it comes on. There’s nothing wrong with calendars, lists, or taking deep breaths, but they probably won’t work in the long run.

Just like our hurts, hang-ups and habits, the only lasting option, is to admit that we are powerless over time, our schedules, and other people, and give our stress to Jesus. You and I need to admit that we are powerless to control our calendars and that our to do lists are unmanageable.

Now, I’ll be honest, I stink at this, at handling stress. I’m a worrier by nature and I tend to internalize my stress. But I’m trying to do this in my own life. I’m trying to turn over my worries and stresses to Jesus, early and often. So, with that disclaimer in mind, let me share what’s been working for me.

There are a few passages of Scripture that are so powerful during times of worry, stress and fear. I’ve written these down on post cards and have them all over the place. They’re in my office, on the refrigerator at home, on my dashboard in my car, and they serve as bookmarks. This has helped me to keep them in the front of my mind and made them easier to memorize and focus on as I get stressed.

Here are the verses:

Philippians 4:6 & 7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I could write about those verses everyday and not get tired of them. If you’re a worrier like me, or if you’re stressed out, this verse is a great one to memorize and meditate on.

Another one that speaks to me is:

2 Corinthians 4:18, So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

So much of what stresses us out is temporary and, sometimes, not all that important. This verse reminds us to focus on Jesus instead of our problems.

1 Peter 5:7 tells us to, Cast all your anxiety on Him, Because He cares for you.

And Psalm 4:8 says, I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

There are many, many more verses that tell us to give our concerns, our worries, our stress to God, these are just four that I’ve come to rely on, sometimes on a daily basis.

So, what’s stressing you out today?

What’s looming on your calendar or your to do list that’s causing you to worry or fear?

How are you going to handle it?

Are you going to let it take over and burn you out?

Are you looking for the perfect system that will help you manage it?

Or, will you turn it over to Jesus today?

Maybe write down those verses, or verses that speak to you, and read them every time the stress begins to take over. Try to memorize them and talk to Jesus about your worry, fear and stress. I can tell you in my own life that it makes a huge difference. The stressful situations and people won’t disappear, but our reactions can to them can change.

Like pretty much everything in recovery, it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

Grateful Believer,

Johnny

{Taken from the National CR Blog, posted September 20, 2010}

The Lonely Mile

Do you remember the emotions you were feeling when you walked into your first recovery meeting?  If you are reading this and have never been to a recovery meeting, you know the emotions I’m talking about.  You feel them in your gut every time you start to think about going for the first time.  And for those who have walked that lonely mile across the parking lot and into your first recovery meeting, you know that it is a daunting task to go inside.

I believe it is important for us to never forget those emotions of our first recovery night.  I know for me that when I walked through the doors of my first AA meeting I was greeted warmly and accepted right away.  That meant the world to me and calmed my anxieties, though I would have never admitted that in the moment.  So, it is my prayerful goal to share that same warmth and friendliness with every newcomer that comes through our doors on Friday nights.  

This week as I was scrolling through Facebook updates, I saw this update from the Celebrate Recovery page.  “It's Friday......woo-hoo....you know what that means CR's all over the country are going to be meeting tonight. Can't wait to see who God is going to send. Remember it's all about the NEWCOMER. Let's roll out the red carpet, someone is coming home tonight!” (Mac Owen CR National "A" coach)

Mac is right.  Every Friday night we should roll out the red carpet and welcome home every newcomer that walks through the door.  As God blesses us with newcomers on Friday nights, let us be Jesus’ hands and feet and welcome them home!

Grateful Believer,

Micah

From alcoholic to missionary

From alcoholic to missionary. God took my mess and made it His message.

Three years ago I was going to church, doing my “Christian duty”. I had started teaching a women’s Bible class and was active in the children’s ministry. I knew I was just coasting along, but I didn’t really care. I went to Celebrate Recovery one night with my sister only to help her with her kids because I KNEW I didn’t have any problems. As I listened to the testimony, I realized that my story sounded similar to the person speaking. So I decided to go to Newcomers 101, just to see what all this recovery was about.

Ok, I realized I had problems, things I needed to address because they were standing in between me and my relationship with my Father. So I started going to Friday nights and thought I was on the right track. Suddenly, God shook me and turned my world upside. I literally felt like He grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “Jamie, I want more from our relationship.” I fell to my knees, broken and cried out for help.

My Father grabbed my hands and said, “I have been waiting for you to ask.”

Shortly after, I started a step study and began going to a new church. Through my step study, I had to face some hard things. I could no longer sit in my denial or continue to live in my old ways. God had given me new spiritual eyes, ears, heart and mind and the old Jamie wasn’t cutting it.

My new eyes and ears saw and heard God begin to reveal Himself to me. I was sitting in church one Sunday, it was Missions Sunday and they were playing a video encouraging people to be involved in missions. I knew this video wasn’t for me; I had never been out of the country and always felt my mission field was in my own backyard. A quote came on the screen, “Missions is not about those who are already in the pew, but for those who are at the gates of hell.” I felt at that moment that I was supposed to be in Rwanda. I really thought I had gotten someone else’s call at first. But looking around, I realized God was calling me to something bigger, something so divine. I was in the middle of my step study during my first trip to Rwanda. I wanted to finish step 5, which is: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs before I left, so I could get rid of some of the burdens I had been carrying for so long.

 

Fast forward to the future, I will be moving to Rwanda for 3 years within the next couple of months. I look back and see how God worked through Celebrate Recovery, freeing me from the burdens so I could be all His and relinquish everything so He could get inside and go to work. I still have to work at it every day. God recently presented an opportunity for me to make a 15-year-old amends. I think He is still working on cleaning out the junk to make room for the Jamie that I need to be to serve Him with my whole heart.

Because of Celebrate Recovery, I had the tools and the spiritual eyes to be able to see what I was carrying around and the boldness to admit to this person that I needed their forgiveness. I don’t want to ever go back to the old Jamie. Go God!

He uncovers the deep things of darkness and brings dark shadows into the light. Job 12:22 NCV

Grateful believer,

Jamie

God used this place to change me

It was probably close to 7 months AFTER my first night at CR that I actually wanted to be here.  It finally clicked – God was working in me and I could feel it & see it.  I was enjoying meeting new people, I loved the worship service, I loved the encouragement I received, I liked going to open share and actually talking, I just loved all of it!  I met some amazing women who became my accountability partners, and I had a sponsor that was attentive and eager to help me heal! 

I remember driving to CR that night and being so excited to get there, it was the first night I really, truly wanted to be there!!  I had just sat down to eat dinner and my husband called, he was working in Midwest City and had locked his keys in his truck and he needed me to come unlock his truck for him.  I’ll be honest, I was ticked.  This is the first night I really wanted to be at CR and I just wanted to worship and hear the testimony and I didn’t want to leave.  (Insert pity party here.)  Ugh…I jumped on I-35 and headed to Midwest City, while driving I was mumbling to myself in frustration and cranked K-love to try to get in a better mood. 

While driving I had an Ah-Ha moment, Satan didn’t want me at CR.  God was using this CR place to change me and Satan wasn’t thrilled with the changes he was seeing!  He loved the old me.  He knew getting me out of there would get my mind off the healing and take my focus off my desire to be there, once I figured out his (Satan’s) plan I just laughed out loud.  When I showed up to help my husband I was cracking up, and I was so excited that I figured all this out, I was rambling and talking really fast telling him how Satan had done all this to get me out of CR and that’s the reason why he locked his keys in the car and I was just so excited that it had happened.  My husband just looked at me wide eyed, shaking his head (giving me that you’re crazy nod) and said, “Well good, I’m glad I could help.”  I unlocked his truck and jumped back on I-35 and walked in right when the testimony was starting.  Satan didn’t win and I was pumped!

Now, almost 2 years later, I still have to remind myself of this story sometimes.  I don’t always walk in the door on Friday night with a smile on my face, but then I stop and remind myself GOD used this place to change me.  To be honest, I don’t always want to be here on a Friday night - but then I stop and remind myself GOD used this place to change me.  I can’t forget that, I can’t forget why I keep coming back.    I come back because it’s a place that I see friends, a place where I’m comforted, a safe place to share, a place that keeps me accountable, and a place that I can encourage others.  God used this place to change me – and THAT’s why I keep coming back.

Grateful Believer,

Karyn

We must not become tired of doing good.  We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 

Committed to Giving Back

It has been an amazing five and a half years at Celebrate Recovery. God has truly done some amazing things among us. We have been privileged to witness his work in restoring marriages, healing people’s wounds from addictions, abusive situations, broken relationships, various painful hurts and bringing balance to people’s lives from various hang-ups. We have received so much blessing from the Lord. In 2011 we have decided as a program to be committed to giving back.

We get the opportunity to start CR at our inner city church, Capitol Hill. There are CR leaders on Tuesdays leading Step Studies in preparation for our fall kick-off. And we are excited to see what the Lord has in store for that new CR program.

In addition, several of us get the opportunity to go to Honduras – July 9-17 – to share the good news of Jesus through Celebrate Recovery. We are traveling to Catacamas, Honduras, which is the home of Mission Predisan and Cerepa Addiction Treatment Center. This mission of Predisan and Cerepa is to serve individuals and populations in the Predisan service area so that they can experience wholeness – physical, spiritual, social, economic and environmental – according to God‘s redemptive plan. On our trip in July we have the opportunity to train the Predisan and Cerapa staff and residents how to start and maintain a Celebrate Recovery program. We will also spend our mornings constructing a low ropes course for Cerepa. For more information about Predisan go to http://www.predisan.org/ and for Cerepa go to http://www.cerepa.org/
We are excited about this opportunity and have begun our fundraising. We could use your help to get over the top.


Here’s how you can help:
This Sunday, April 24, we will announce our trip and financial need to the Memorial Road church family. You can give any size of gift that you like. Checks can be made out to “MRCC” and please put “CR Honduras” in the memo line.

Then, on May 27th and 28th we will have a garage sale on the southeast corner of Memorial Road and Bryant (old Piggly Wiggly grocery store). We are accepting donated items for the sale now. You can donate by contacting Andrew Claxton at 410-4230. And we would love to have you come check out the sale too beginning at 8am on both days.

You can also support us by keeping the trip in your prayers. Please pray that God will work through us and we will be able to show the people of Honduras the blessing of a Christ centered recovery program. Thank you for partnering with us in this exciting opportunity!

Grateful Believers,

 Micah and Andrew

Meet the Team & Principle 8

Hi, my name is Andrew and I am a grateful believer who struggles with same sex attraction and anger.

I serve Celebrate Recovery at Memorial Road Church of Christ as the E on the TEAM.  E stands for encourager.  I help plan special activities and events as well as handle set up for Common Grounds.  I also am responsible for encouraging our leaders and participants.  It is a great fit for me and something I love doing.

I’m here to talk about the last principle #8  -  Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.  “Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.” Matthew 5:10

This is a tough one for me right now.  (I think it’s almost always the case when I am asked to do a lesson or write something, that more often than not it is something I’m having a hard time with at the moment).  I love the first part of this principle, “Yield myself to God to be used to bring this good news to others.”  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Sounds nice and simple.  Then it gets difficult, “both by my example and by my words.”  This is a daily battle for me. 

I have a desire to do God’s will and I want to help others to have a relationship with God, but I am constantly surrounded by the world and find myself giving into temptations.  On my way to work I still get angry in traffic and sometimes don’t handle it well.  At work I am surrounded by gossip and it’s difficult not to join.  I constantly find myself not setting the example that I want to set. 

Like others have said, it’s important that you have worked the other seven principles as well.  Especially spending time with God daily and when doing so asking Him to help you yield yourself to His will.  Angi set up a great challenge last week- 90 meetings with God in 90 days!  Not a bad idea for all of us.  It is difficult to really yield ourselves to God for His use.  I would love to have more free time, I would love to have a girlfriend, but right now I am busy with opportunities that God has given me.  And you know what?  I love that too. 

Grateful Believer,

Andrew

Meet the Team & Principle 7

Hi, I’m Angi. I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ who struggles with depression and binge-eating disorder.

I serve Celebrate Recovery at Memorial Road as the ministry leader for women. I love this role - and have the honor of helping women get their testimonies ready for our Friday night “large group” meetings. I also handle any special issues that arise for our women C.R. leaders, and other female CR participants. I love our CR leaders, and pray that I can be an encouragement and source of help for them. There are a few more things I get to do for C.R., but the above are my main duties.

I want to talk about Celebrate Recovery Principle 7 (R) which reads, “Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His work for my life and gain the power to follow His will.”

Frankly, this principle makes me cringe. I immediately feel guilty when I read it. I have trouble with consistency, having always found it difficult to commit to doing anything daily. I am thankful that God encourages me to start over, and that a big, booming voice doesn’t come from heaven, saying, “Seriously Angi? You sound like a broken record!”

But, today I am going to get a fresh perspective on this principle. First of all, this is not only about Bible Study, and a healthy, consistent “quiet time” with God, but also my “daily inventory.” This is the self-examination piece of a daily reserved time. It is a time to reflect and consider my actions and thoughts of the day. I can take an honest look and give it all to God. It’s like sweeping the floor daily, rather than putting it off for a long time, letting it get into a big, dirty mess that will take a lot of energy to clean.

When I do my prayer, study, and journaling time with God, I have felt free and light. Worry is washed away as I give my concerns to Him. It is easier for me to resist temptation, and to make the right choices in my day. When I have ignored this principle, or talked myself into starting “tomorrow” or after some big event, I am more likely to resume sneaky, unhealthy behaviors; stay in denial about aspects of my recovery; and give in to selfishness.

I like this phrase from Principle 7: “...gain the power to follow His will.”. My reserved time with God gives me POWER! It doesn’t just keep my mind and will aligned with His, but it also energizes me spiritually, putting me in the place I need to be to follow Him. That’s motivating!

So, I am giving myself a challenge and invite you to hold me accountable. Have you heard that some people in recovery get sober by attending 90 recovery meetings in 90 days? Well, along those lines, I will have 90 meetings with God in 90 days. I am excited about the blessing and power I will experience in this plan!

You can follow my challenge by clicking RIGHT HERE!!!   (  Here's the official blog address: www.principleseven.blogspot.com.)  Let me know in the comments on either blog that you are coming along with me on this challenge. My track record proves that I can’t do this, but I know through God, I can. In fact, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Phil 4:13.

Grateful Believer,
Angi