Keep Coming Back, Recovery
Recently, a dearly beloved brother shared about how grateful he is to understand the respect God has for our willingness—even when that willingness doesn’t quickly materialize into perfect performance. His words made me think of Paul’s own struggles, as he expresses...
God's In Charge, Led by Spirit, Recovery, Twelve Steps
In my fear that I’ll forget something that needs to be crammed into the few spare hours I have each week, I’ve taken to my old ways of making long lists every day and checking them twice (an hour). Insidiously, I have felt the old insanity returning—the fear, the...
Addiction, Christ, Recovery
Addictions. We resort to them for comfort, but the comfort the addiction brings is actually numbness. Addictions fog the mind, weaken your ability to cope, sap your energy. They give the comfort of forgetting and hiding. Addictions tell you, “You poor thing. There,...
abstinence, Change of Heart, Recovery
When you’re doing abstinence from the inside out, you are hardly even aware of doing it. Why? Because you’re not actually doing anything! Instead, it’s more like you find yourself doing it! Automatically. Easily. There is no white-knuckling, hanging on by your...
abstinence, Change of Heart, Recovery
Slips. Backsliding. Falling off the wagon. Whatever you call them, it happens to all of us. So what do we do when we find we’ve ebbed away from full recovery? We prayerfully acknowledge that we’ve slipped. It’s hard to do, but do it we must. And prayerfully is the...
Change of Heart, Recovery, Twelve Steps
Lust is an ugly word. And the ugly reality is that I am a lustful person. Not for sex, mind you, but for many other things—a thinner body; a better past; a less challenging present; a fantasy future. Fattening foods. (Now that one really gets me in trouble when...
