September is National Recovery Month.
The focus of my blogs throughout the month of September will be on addiction and its life destroying tendencies. The writings derive from my own personal experiences of battling addiction and living a life of recovery.
These specific writings are focused on the ACT acronym.
ACT leads to sobriety…
A – Acknowledge you have a problem and you are powerless over it and you need help.
C – Connect with a power greater than you and people who have solutions that will help you conquer your problem.
T – Take positive, recovery-oriented action every day.
We’ve spent 17 days looking at the Acknowledge and Connect stages of ACT. We will close out Recovery Month by looking at the most important stage and that is to Take positive, recovery-oriented action every day.
Today is a continuation of yesterday’s post (September 23).
Yesterday I made note of one of the most amazing stories in the Bible; the story of The Woman at the Well.
The story of The Woman at the Well, in John Chapter 4, is a powerful story of Jesus’s omnipotence and omnipresence. But it is also a story that represents the responsibility we all bear when we’ve been saved by His grace and love.
When The Woman at the Well was relieved from her bondage of lust and sexual sin, she could have simply thanked Jesus and gone on to live a life of peace and prosperity. But instead, she chose to share the good news with others, so others could also tap into the amazing powers of Jesus.
Every night in my treatment center stay, we would attend an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting. I remember going to my first AA meeting quite vividly. First and foremost, I couldn’t believe I was going to have to sit still for one hour, as I’ve always suffered from attention deficit disorder.
At the beginning of every meeting there is a standard procedure that is followed. There are readings that are quite spiritual in nature and there is also a time to recognize and applaud those who’ve accomplished key sobriety anniversary dates.
I received a “24 Hour Token,” for being sober at my first ever AA meeting. I still have that token today.
It’s also important to note that there was a peace and calming presence in that meeting like I had never felt before. Today I know the presence was and is God.
My inaugural meeting was a ‘Lead’ meeting which is a meeting where someone shares their story.
The person giving the Lead was a lady who was a nurse.
She was also an opiate addict and an alcoholic…which was no coincidence…God was still answering my 3- word (God Help Me!) prayer from several nights earlier.
I sat still for an hour and would have stayed longer if the meeting was longer than an hour. I hung on every word that came out of her mouth. I could relate to just about everything the nurse shared. There were times I felt like she was sharing MY story.
Like the Woman at the Well, she had been relieved from her bondage by a higher power and a big part of her recovery program was sharing the good news with others.
By sharing her experience and strength with me, I felt a small slice of hope.
A few things I am convinced of today:
- God does His work through His People.
- A huge action step in staying sober involves not only listening to others but helping others and giving others hope.
- There is power in community…When two or three are gathered as His followers He is among them. (Matthew 18:20)
More to follow tomorrow.
Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
P.E.A.C.E.
Jay@EagleLaunch.com
