“A Fight For Our Life”

One person said “If you think it’s hard watching an addict/alcoholic slowly destroy themselves, just think what it must feel like to live it”.  No one beats us up more than we beat ourselves.   Stopping and starting, finding freedom and losing it, doing our best to do right, or live right but always coming up short. The mental anguish can be overwhelming. Each failure moves us deeper into depression.  Shame and guilt drives us into isolation from family and friends, and for some reason we think we are the only one that continues to go through this pain.

Understanding the disease of addiction helps us to understand the battle we fight daily. Now that we know the disease centers in our mind and can attack us from so many dangles, it was a great day when we learn that “we’re not bad people trying to be good but sick people trying to get well”. Welcome to our sickness!

Finally we know what were up against, a fight for our sanity, a fight for our freedom, a fight for our lives.  The good news is we can now fight back by following the millions of people that have went before us and daily they find freedom. We learn how to share in our groups with our sponsors, and peers, we get important feedback from those that have traveled this road.

Now that we are equipped with tools to fight back we can’t allow our mistakes to overwhelm us. We examine each failure and work hard at not letting it happen again.  Today we know what the enemy looks like and the enemy is in-a-me. We now know that we are in a fight for our lives, but this time God is leading the charge and He uses people to carry the message of hope.   

Stay Woke: Millions of people are free from their addiction, you don't need four years of college, do what they did!

“When there’re no change there’s no change”

One great writer wrote “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day”. Those that learn how to “live the Word of God” or “live the program” learn how to apply the process of recovery to their lives. They connect to the God of their understanding and begin to say “yes” to what is right, and “no” to those things that are wrong.

Change will be the obstacle that will confront every recovering person head on. When there’re no change there’s no change. Those that refuse to change stay the same. No one arrives at the rooms of recovery with just a drug or alcohol problem. They have a “living” problem. Negative behaviors have to be confronted and a plan put in place to combat that behavior. At the end of the day something has to change in the individual. Change begins when you step out of your comfort zone.

Stay Woke: Embrace the change, God is taking you to a place that you will surely fall in love with.

“The Fear of the Unknown "

When you ask a recovering person “what is it they fear when they arrive at the 4^th step” many can’t tell you exactly what it is. Some believe by facing their past it will unlock something that will cause them to have a nervous breakdown or even worse drink or use.

Some just need a little push to get them started. Others need to be held by their hand until they can walk on their own. And still others have to re-examine their 3^rd step experience. At the 3^rd step you look too God who chips away at that fear.

Learning how to step out on faith and believe everything will be alright is a good indicator that you are trusting in God. Overcoming fear is very important part of recovery and every recovering person will have to face it.  Fear and faith cannot live in the same house, only one can rule.

Stay Woke: On the road to maturity recognize God didn’t bring them this far to leave them.

“Looking through the rear view mirror of my life”

Drug and alcohol addiction takes you on a journey far from your original destination. The Word of God the process of recovery and the Steps will help you find your way back to you.

The quicker you surrender to God’s plan the quicker you arrive. Many find a better person than the one before they started drinking and using. Letting go of old behaviors will be the uphill battle, and most of the time we don’t know why we continue to hold on to them.

Throwing your hands up in surrender makes for a less stressful journey. Even the valley’s and rough places are bearable because today you are convinced God ordered your footsteps and was with you even in your addiction.

In your journey you met joy, love, peace and happiness, and they become a welcomed part of your life, so much so you protect them with all your being. As you look through the rear view mirror of your life you see that God was holding your hand the whole time and things could be a whole lot worse.

Once the smoke clears and your convinced you’re on the right road call life you recognize the new you, and it’s that day you find out that you’re not that bad. Still under construction the mistakes become learning tools that make you better and you don’t beat yourself up when you fall.

Stay Woke: Today God is my source, my direction, my help. If I keep my hands in His hands I can rest comfortably knowing everything will be all-right.