update your twitter page and follow us as we’ve changed the name. you can simply follow the link to the right of the blog’s homepage. trying to establish continuity with the logo and branding of CR at CrossPoint. taking sometime to get there but we will!
thanks for following our updates. peace & grace.
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Notice this says came to believe and not come to believe. So what’s the difference? Come to believe is an immediate action. It implies that I will come to believe right now, that God will restore me to sanity. As if some magical tap of a wand or something will do that. Came to, implies that over a period of time and after developing a faith and trust in God, I will look back in retrospect and see that God had restored me to sanity.
Certainly God’s grace can accomplish this but we do have some work to do.
What about the insanity that this step speaks too? Are we crazy? I mean like certified, mental hospital, can’t function…crazy. Not me! Whatever the precise definition of the word may be, we call this plain insanity. How can such a lack of the proportion of the ability to think straight be called anything else?
See we’re not crazy, we just have messed up thinking. Look at the bad choices that you made behind your addiction or hangup. Back in my drinking days, I could drink one weekend out of the month and abstain the other 3…….and guess which weekend(s) unearthed all of my ugliness and bad decisions? The one where I drank. See it’s my thinking and my drinking that made my life suck.
My best thinking got me right where I am today. A sober drunk in a program of recovery.
As we discover who we are and what God has planned for us, we’re faced with an identity and brand for recognition. How will people recognize us? How will they know where our events and meetings are without having to be faced with the humiliation of asking? Not everyone in recovery is a veteran and not everyone will be okay announcing that they are looking for us. As we launch Celebrate Recovery at CrossPoint we want to be sensitive to people’s privacy and anonymity. We also want to Celebrate the new lease on life that Celebrate Recovery through God’s grace affords us. I hope this logo will be uplifting and inviting. Just as CR @ CrossPoint strives to be.
We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.
–Martin Luther King
Admitted we were powerless…that our lives had become unmanageable.
I recently had to reconfigure my wireless network at home. 4 computers and a litany of peripherals. Somehow my network became unsecure for a day and The Kolb’s faced threats from intruders….mostly neighbors that we know and trust. As I sat in the home office resetting, reconfiguring and rebuking technology, I realized that I was powerless over reaching into the monitor and manipulating the system to do as I wanted. Unless you’re an I.T. pro, this will resonate with you.
I wanted to throw my computers out the door and into the street just as the UPS truck was approaching my house. I was frustrated, tired and irritable at the time it took to resolve the issue and angry at the tech ‘support’ folks whom were no help at all 10 hours away in India.
Worn out, I eventually surrendered…..got up walked away, fixed a meal and left the issue at hand alone for a bit. When I returned refreshed and with clarity, I was able to fix the problem and move on.
This is recovery 101.
Realize your powerless, step away…do something different and see how things change. God wants our best and we can’t give him our best when we’re frustrated, beaten and tired.
Conceding defeat and asking for help are not signs of weakness…they are the keys to the freedom from bondage.
The Road to Recovery
Based on the Beatitudes
Realize I’m not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable. (Step 1)
“Happy are those who know that they are spiritually poor.”
Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him and that He has the power to help me recover. (Step 2
“Happy are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ’s care and control. (Step 3)
“Happy are the meek.”
Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust. (Steps 4 and 5)
“Happy are the pure in heart.”
Voluntarily submit to any and all changes God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects. (Steps 6 and 7)
“Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires”
Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others when possible, except when to do so would harm them or others. (Steps 8 and 9)
“Happy are the merciful.”
“Happy are the peacemakers”
Reserve a time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will. (Steps 10 and 11)
Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and my words. (Step 12)
“Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.”
