Why?

Allthough I have been a part of recovery and working with people who are addicted for several years, I still don't have all the answers. Some days I'm not sure I have any answers.

If you check out a word search on the Internet for recovery or addict or even 12 step, you'll find a lot of different opinions and views about what does and what does not work in recovery.

You'll find those who claim that A.A. is a bunch of hooey and the whole "God" concept is trash.

But how do you explain people like Barry who got sober after years of A.A., through an encounter with God?

Barry will tell you that all the pieces of A.A. began to make since after his (what he refers to ) Damascus Road Experience.
There is a lot of finger pointing out there by different groups, all claiming that theirs is the road to recovery.

"Go to these meetings."

"Read our publications"

"Be a member of our group"

All claiming to have a modicum of success when it comes to helping people live a life of sobriety.

I happen to believe that sobriety is a small part of recovery.
It is the aim initially of anyone who come to a rehab. To simply be free of the effects of alcohol and/ or drugs.
I see much more to this than the absence of our D.O.C.

I see, at the heart of our addiction, a broken relationship that started years ago in a garden where humanity lived in harmony with God.

The power to choose brought about our downfall as a species.

It broke our relationship with God....(Yes! Virginia, there is a God.)

But rather than leave us in the destructive state of being, God provided the way out and back into a life with Him.

Our power to choose (and the subsequent bad choice made by man and woman in the garden) has been at the heart of our addiction.

I may in fact have a genetic bent in my DNA that makes me incapable of processing alcohol and drugs like other people.
It truly doesn't matter what the cause it....

At the end of the day, we have lost our ability to choose when it comes to alcohol and drugs.

I believe that there is a simple statement made in Scripture that gives me hope.

Luke 1:37 --- For with God, nothing is impossible.

Flip that around and read the negative side.....
For without God nothing is possible.

I have seen a person awakened to the fact of who God is and what He says He will do.
I have seen that same person who could not stop using...give himself totally to following a few simple steps.

There isn't any power in the steps.
There isn't any magic in the steps.

The power comes through the surrender of life and will to God as we understood Him.
All it requires is a "giving up" of our will.

I can't choose to stop drinking or drugging...I have proven this through my behavior and destruction that followed.

But I have chosen to surrender.
I have chosen to seek God.
I have chosen to walk out 12 steps.

A friend of mine made the statement that "you cannot walk out the twelves steps and not hit your head on the cross of Christ."

I believe this.

I don't wish to debate or argue points about what does and does not work when it comes to recovery.

I just know that in our case, as a faith based rehab, rarely have we seen anyone fail who thoroughly follows the steps.

They lead to Jesus....

The giver of life.

God bless you today.

mb