i am in recovery

I had my first (and second) pastoral assessment session today at Bridgeway Counseling Services. In some ways I wasn't really sure of what it would be like to sit down and talk with these guys. The men we're trying to help seem to often be guys who are at the end of the rope. They need help now or they will go to prison or maybe they'll overdose. There's potential that they could hurt someone or themselves if not for the help they receive. Some of these men stand to lose everything. Many of them already have lost all they have and care about. Some of the guys get it and, I believe, want to make a change in their lives. Some of them think they can manage things and are only willing to go through the motions in order to get out and start using again. The interesting thing... the thing I wasn't expecting was that I thought that I would pity these men. Instead, though I've never taken drugs and haven't ever abused alcohol, I somehow feel like one of them.

I mean, really... who isn't in Life Recovery? How many times have I been like one of the men who refuses to give everything over to God with the thought that I can manage my own sin? The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous aren't simply pulled out of thin air. Truly, they have biblical foundation (I'll likely discuss the 12 Steps as time goes on). In fact, I believe that every Christian would do a great service to their spiritual walk by exploring the 12 Steps and seeing how they apply to his or her own life. I say all of this to come to this point. What makes one man better than another? Is it not true that there is nothing that distinguishes man from man? Is it not true that my sin is not any more or less sin, a disobedience of my being to the will and good pleasure of God, than any man or woman in addiction recovery or teaching a 4th grade class or incarcerated or walking the aisles of Target?

Sin is sin... only Christ distinguishes saint from sinner. It is only by his blood that I have been purchased and by his stripes that I have been healed. Please pray that I (along with the other pastoral counselors) may help the patients of Bridgeway understand these fundamentals of a new life in Christ.