What are you thankful for?

I had a bad day.  It was July 13, 2011.  The whole day wasn’t bad really, just long and by the time we got to our rooms I was in a bad mood.  I was tired, ate dinner later than normal, and was cranky.  We were on our CR trip to Honduras and had a morning of manual labor and then CR workshops.

When Micah and I got back to our room I unloaded all of my “problems”.  He listened and then asked me, “What are you thankful for?”

I don’t know if you are like me, but when I am venting the last thing I want to do is focus on what I am thankful for.  And if I do manage to think about some things I am thankful for I have a special ability to turn that into something to vent about too.  “Yeah, I have great friends, but….”

It’s all about our perspective isn’t it?  That night in Honduras while we were eating dinner two small boys came in begging for food.  This past weekend some friends and I went to San Antonio and had a great time, but I was disturbed by how many homeless people I saw sleeping in doorways and wandering around with vacant eyes.

It is so easy to see past some of my blessings, because I receive them everyday.  Every day I eat, have a home to go to and a bed to sleep in.  If these things were taken away I wouldn’t know what to do.  However, I focus my time and energy on things that don’t matter as much.

What do you focus your time and energy on?

What are you thankful for?

Grateful Believer,

Andrew

Step 12

Hi, my name is Erin and I am a grateful believer in Christ who struggles with people’s approval and being a workaholic and celebrates recovery in my marriage.

Step 12 states “Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others, and practice these principles in all our affairs.”

As a newcomer, this step seemed to be the most unattainable to me.  Spiritual experience?  Share with others?  Practice this in my daily life?  I never thought I would see the light at the end of the tunnel much less share those horrible, dreadful things with others.  Yet, as I went through the Celebrate Recovery program, I began to see God’s good in my horrible, no good situations.  I begin to wonder if others shared similar stories.  I felt compelled to tell my story.  I began thinking about sharing with total strangers and even to friends and family.  I prayed that someone who was going through something similar would find hope and strength to follow God through their hard times.  

I still love telling my story.  I love being totally open and honest.  I have been telling my story to the ladies of Capitol Hill’s Celebrate Recovery.  These are women (and men) who never realized there was another way out of their pain and bad habits.  Hearing stories of recovery and God’s unconditional love, has brought them back Monday night after Monday night.  These people love hearing stories of the real you and adore even more once you open up.  This is a place where we can complete the first part of Step 12.  

The second portion of Step 12 seemed to come a little easier (and be a little less frightening).  I believe that God is in control and never wastes a hurt.  I try to use all the other steps in my life, such as taking a daily inventory and making immediate amends (Steps 9 and 10) and being in constant prayer with God (Step 11) to continue my recovery.  I fall off the wagon but my support system steps in and encourages me to continue working.

To any newcomer, please listen to our stories and know that there is hope and joy in your recovery. 

Grateful Believer,

Erin

Step 11

Step 11 has been and probably always will be a challenge for me, but it is without question vital to my spiritual health and recovery in Jesus.  Step 11 says, “We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and power to carry that out.”    

This step truly is a maintenance step for me.  Much like when I neglect to have my car serviced and tuned up, if I recklessly abandon all spiritual outlets of renewal and encouragement, I will eventually feel the effects of it.  If I disregard going to God’s Word and throne room for wisdom and guidance, eventually my spiritual tank light comes on telling me that I’m near empty.  And the thing that really zaps me and leaves me empty is if I ignore my deep, spiritual need for community.  For me, I improve my conscious contact with God when I am around other Christ followers in an authentic, God-honoring group.  

So, I believe that Step 11 reminds us that we need to daily fill up our spiritual tanks.  I’m not much of a Nascar fan, but I do enjoy watching the movie Cars. The opening scene of that movie illustrates well the truth and importance of this step.  Often times, we are prideful like Lightening McQueen and believe that we can do it on our own.  We believe that a pit stop to refuel and get support is a waste of time.  We believe we just need to try harder to accomplish our goals.  The truth is that we all need a pit stop to recharge.  

For our recoveries, that is exactly what a daily time with God is all about.  It is a spiritual pit stop from the craziness of the world going on around us.  God’s Word fills us up with encouragement, wisdom, strength, joy and hope.  That is why Paul admonishes us to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16).   

The practical strides to carry out Step 11 are really up to you.  You need to decide when you will do this on a daily basis.  Pick a time and do it.  Decide what you will read.  If you are undecided, a gospel account is always good to begin.  Decide how you will meditate.  Sitting quietly thinking about God’s greatness?  Perhaps, you think best as you write or type.  This works for me.  The bottom line is that you must get started to experience the benefits of truly seeking out God’s presence through prayer and meditation.  So, get started!

Grateful Believer,

Micah

Step 10

Hi everyone, my name is Braden, and I am a grateful believer in Christ who struggles with lust and a fear of intimacy. Hi Braden. Hi everyone.  I have been asked to write about Step 10 which says:

We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

And its corresponding verse:

“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”

I Corinthians 10:12

That doesn’t sound fun, convenient, or easy to me: more inventories, admitting when I am wrong (my wife nods in agreement), and the whole falling when I think that I am standing firmly thing.  When is the step where upon being completely recovered, I get my picture in the Celebrate Recovery Hall of Fame in between the pictures of John Baker and Andrew Claxton, and I never have to think about recovery again? When is that again? Never?! Boo.

To me, Step 10 is a daily application of everything that I have learned through recovery thus far.  In Step Study Participant Guide 4, John Baker writes, “Steps 10 through 12 are where we will live out our recoveries for the rest of our time here on earth.” I believe that recovery up until this point has been about resolving the hurts, hang-ups, and habits that had developed in my past, but from Step 10 forward, I am responsible for resolving my hurts, habits, and hang-ups that are happening in the present.  Step 10 is designed to ensure that I am continuing to work my recovery by making it a priority daily in my life.

The enemy of Step 10 in my recovery has been complacency.  It is really easy for me to look at the growth that I have had in my life the previous year and a half and think that I am rockin’ and rollin’.  I start to think that my hurts, habits, and hang-ups are under control, and everything is cool.  Ironically, I was telling myself the very same things before I started recovery.

One of the main ways that I fight complacency in my recovery is by taking a Step 10 daily inventory in my journal every night.  Each night, I ask myself four questions:

1. What did I do well today?

2. What did I not do so well today?

3. What did I learn from today?

4. Do I owe anyone an amends? If yes, who?

Through these four questions, I am taking an open and honest inventory of my day: my ups, my downs, and my lessons learned.  I use what I write in this inventory to identify weaknesses in my life that I need to work on, strengths that I need to take advantage of, and any resentment that could be festering.  This ensures that I am continuing to work my recovery while I am on the path to the person that God has planned for me to be.

“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”

                                                                                      -Lamentations 3:40

Grateful Believer,

Braden

Step 9

There is something powerful about the words “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you.”  If said from a broken and sincere heart, they can begin the healing process in a once severed relationship.  Step nine states: “We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so when injure them or others.”  So, we take the list we made in step eight and with God’s help are ready and willing to make amends with those people on the list.

Every amends that I owed was important for my recovery; however, the two that meant the most to me were the amends I owed God and my parents.  I had made a conscious choice to turn my back on God and live a life of habitual sin.  I became apathetic to the fact that I was slandering the Lord’s name by my actions and words.  Though I went to church when the doors were open, my faith was null and void.  I was a hypocrite.  So, I sat down to write an amends letter to my Father in heaven.  For me, it was really a love letter.  I knew that He had never left me.  As a loving Father he let me go and allowed me to figure things out.  When I came back home, He was looking for me and called me by name and wrapped His arms around me.  I had been gone for four years, but when I made the conscious choice to turn back to God, I felt like I had never left.  I feel the most confident and comfortable with myself when I’m in His presence.  So, I asked for his forgiveness and thanked him for His faithfulness.

My amends to my parents was a difficult one too.  They trusted me.  When I told them I was going to someone’s house, they trusted me to go there and stay there.  However, the majority of the time, I would end up at a party drinking and engaging in sexual sin.  I routinely lied to my parents to fulfill my selfish wants and desires.  Coming clean with them about this bad habit was difficult for me to admit and certainly hard for them to hear.  Nevertheless, it was the right thing to do and they extended their forgiveness to me.  It has taken time for the trust in our relationships to be reestablished, but the Lord has blessed this process too.

Making direct amends when possible was a turning point in my recovery.  It was never easy, but through this vigorous step God refined my faith and I grew.

Some people have asked me over the past six years, “When does the ‘except when to do so would injure them or others’ come into play?”  First, let me say, do not use this as an excuse to avoid a tough amends with a person who deserves to hear from you.  This exception clause is for special circumstances only.  I believe a good example would be a person who struggles with lust.  I would venture to say that a person who lusts after another is doing that in their own minds.  It would be inappropriate then for that person to go and apologize to a list of persons who were the objects of their bad habit.  It would do more harm than good because these people were not even aware of the other person’s actions.  In the end, my best advice for anyone struggling with the thought, “Is it going to cause harm to this person if I seek them out to make amends?”, is to consult with their sponsor and accountability partners.  Together, you and your accountability team can prayerfully ask the Father to help you make a wise decision.

Grateful believer,

Micah