Going The Speed Limit

I have a confession to share. It's one of the many reasons I attend Celebrate Recovery and just about every week I need a new blue chip for it. Hi, my name is Gabby, I'm a grateful believer in Jesus and I struggle with impatiently driving behind old ladies in the fast lane and navigating through a school zone while running behind.

Yes, I like to pretend that I am Jeff Gordon while on the road, so sue me. Just kidding, please don't, unless I accidentally sideswiped your car, then I'm sorry. I'm only saying that when I am unable to go the speed that I WANT to go I get upset.

If the German Autobahn allows people to go as fast as they like, then why should I have to slow down? Captain Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean best summarizes speed limits when he described the Pirate’s Code, "They're more like guidelines anyway." Daily I like to believe that I can go as fast as I please, but with the Lord and Celebrate Recovery I am reminded that sometimes I need to slow down.

I remember when I first started coming to Celebrate Recovery; I had just ended an addicting and abusive relationship and needed some guidance. Immediately I joined a step study and began to work the steps of recovery. I knew that step studies took over nine months to complete but by month two I was wondering why I wasn't "healing" and "letting go" of my past hurts sooner.

Recently I have been reflecting on the importance of having an accountability team and have found what huge role they play in my own recovery. My support team is like the speed limit signs that are found on the streets. With assistance from my sponsor and accountability partner, I was able to adapt to my own pace and make progress within my recovery.

Whenever I'm trying to speed down the recovery highway, my sponsor will pull me over and remind me that there is not a quick fix. When I am drifting away, paralyzed from fear, or just stagnant in my recovery, my accountability partner will come up and honk her horn (in a loving way, not the mean tailgating nonsense) reminding me that I need to pick up the pace. Either way, having a support team is essential for me to continue taking one step at a time.

Grateful Believer,

Gabby

OUTSIDE THE SAFE ZONE

One of my least favorite activities is moving. For some odd reason, going to a place that I have never been before does not sound exciting. In fact, for a control freak such as myself who thrives off of consistency, predictability and structure, it is terrifying.

I remember when my mother first decided to move my sisters and me to Oklahoma the summer before my senior year of high school. For a bunch of city folk from Chicago, moving to Oklahoma brought on culture shock.. I thought my mother had lost her mind.

In Chicago, I felt safe. I lived in an area where gunshots and drugs were not uncommon. Profanity, premarital sex, and other various compulsions were normal but in my mind that was my normal. After living there for 17 years, it was another part of the modern day culture that I expected to remain a part of my life.

After the move, I felt like a fish out of water and I soon began to realize that my idea of normal was not really normal. I learned that the hurts that I felt, the habits that I had developed, and my hang ups were not originally what God wanted for me. Obviously with the decision to move, my mom had not lost her mind, but in fact was being used by God to try and renew my mind.

I truly believe that God moved my family to help me become the person that I am today. I didn’t realize how hurt and broken I was, because in my previous environment, I felt as though that was all that I knew. Now I see that God purposely moved me from one environment to another to save and protect me.

At the time I could not see it, but the move brought me closer to Christ and introduced me to Celebrate Recovery. With God’s help through CR I was able to overcome a destructive habit and finally walk away from addictive and abusive relationships. By being pulled out of my safe zone, I was able I was able to step out into the unknown and become the person that I am today: happy, healed, and made whole.

Have been pulled out of a situation in which you felt comfortable? Is God pulling on your heart strings, trying to help you grow into the person he would like for you to be by changing your current environment? My advice is simple, seek God.

Give it up to Him and he will guide you exactly where he wants you to go. Jeremiah 29:11 reads,  ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’

Grateful Believer,

Gabby

Why Am I Not "Recovered" Yet?

Hello!  I am a grateful believer in Jesus Christ who struggles with lust, overeating, and am recovering from divorce.  My name is Bryant.

 

I came across these words of encouragement from the Celebrate Recovery Texas State Rep, Paul Schnee and wanted to share them with you. 
If you are new to CR and wondering why some people have been in the program for so long, you need to read this.  If you are a CR veteran and have felt discouraged about continuing to "be in recovery", you need to read this.  If you have never attended CR yourself, but you have a friend or family member who has been in CR for a while, you need to read this.  If you have clicked the link and are on this webpage, then you're on it for a reason -- you need to read this.

 

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Not long ago someone asked me why I wasn't recovered yet. They were judging me as weak because I continue in Celebrate Recovery. CR happens to be one of the greatest spiritual growth and discipleship ministries available to the modern church. But it is a process.

And I am weak. Seriously, can I earn my way into God's favor? Can I use my own strength to recover? Will I stop learning and growing this side of God's kingdom?

 

I'm a work in progress on the road to sanctification (recovery). Only Christ can finish what he has started:)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! (1 Corinthians 10:12)

...let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance... (Proverbs 1:5)

Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:4-5)

 
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I celebrate ______________

My name is Nate. I am a grateful believer in Jesus Christ and I celebrate CONTINUED GROWTH.

It feels like I’ve been in recovery for a long time… it’s been five and a half years to be exact. In a lot of ways it feels like I should have a Master’s Degree in recovery by now. I’ve been through Advanced Leadership Training 2 or 3 times, to the Celebrate Recovery Summit in California 2 times, served as TEAM Trainer and now serve as the TEAM Assimilation Coach, whatever that means. I’ve been a part of 4 Step-Studies and even “included outside counseling when I was ready.”

It’s been a good journey. But… for someone who struggles with spiritual pride, (meaning I often believe that I’ve got this ‘Christian-thing’ figured out) life can get discouraging when I feel like I’ve got all the head-knowledge and insight I need, but still struggle to make it all come together when it’s time to put that knowledge into action.

That’s why I’m celebrating CONTINUED GROWTH.

I recently joined my 5^th Step Study…and even though we are only 4 short lessons into the Steps, I am already amazed and excited about what God is teaching me. I just ‘thought’ I had it all figure out.  It has been a true blessing to see how God is continuing to use the ‘same-old-questions’ from the Step Study Participants Guides to teach me more about myself than I had ever been willing to see.

I am so grateful that God knows me better than I know myself and that he continues to ‘Peel the Onion’ of my hurts hang-ups and habits despite my prideful attitudes and beliefs.

Ephesians 1:17

 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Grateful Believer,

Nate

God’s Power

God continues to do amazing things with this program. This past Friday night we had CR Open House, inviting friends from the community and surrounding churches, and we also kicked off The Landing (CR for teens). It was an amazing night, with 195 participants in the combined groups. God is good.

This week, Monday – Friday, folks from our own CR program will be leading chapel at Oklahoma Christian University. There are even a few of our college students who have stepped up and said they’ll speak at chapel and share a mini testimony of what God has done in their lives. (I’m not sure I would have had the courage to do that when I was in college, but I didn’t have the courage to find recovery in college either! They rock.)

If you haven’t noticed God’s doing some amazing things with our program! The Landing kicked off with 33 students, we’ve planted step studies and The Landing at Capitol Hill Church of Christ, our Divorce Care program is growing each week, we’ve got new step studies starting this week at MRCC, we’re hosting chapel at OC….WHEW! We’re having to work hard just to keep up with what God is doing!


God can and IS using this program to change lives, and I ask you all to specifically pray for these things this week:
…that a student that attended The Landing tells a friend about it, and the friend comes this Friday.
…that a newcomer comes back this Friday night.
…that a college student is impacted by the testimony’s in chapel this week and joins us this Friday night.
…that the ministry at Capitol Hill grows steadily.
...that God continues to bless our program.
…that God continues to work in us.

With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:20

Grateful Believer,
Karyn