Celebrate Recovery

Many times a newcomer in CR will ask me how long recovery will take. Many times I will respond “how long have you been trapped in your behavior?” Even though our hurts, habits and hang-ups do not develop over night, we hope that we can get through the process of breaking them with as little pain and in as little time as possible.

Recently a man walked into our CR meeting whom I met in 1985. Addiction had stripped him of all self-worth, self-decency and self-respect. He had been through one recovery program after another, but nothing seemed to work for him. He claimed to be saved, so I asked him to look at his life and review the evidence of his salvation. I can not judge a man’s salvation, but if he is not bearing fruits of salvation and the evidence of a changed life, there is something wrong.

I told him that he had two problems: a love problem (Matthew 6:24) and an endurance problem (Hebrews 12:1-4). He wanted salvation without repentance and commitment. He wanted victory without perseverance. This person could recite the 12 steps of AA and even give you the page numbers out of the Big Book. He had been in and out of church and had knowledge of scriptures, but he had failed to connect all his head knowledge to his heart. We must allow God to work in us the Word of God.