Your Loved One Is Still in There: Seeing Beyond Addiction

Seeing beyond addiction and finding hope for a loved one in recovery

Seeing Addiction Through God’s Eye Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He would enter a new town and not plant a church. Instead, He began healing people, and communities of faith would then form around the miracles. Jesus looked at the individual through our Father’s eyes and saw the true child of God hidden within the suffering person.…

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I’m Sober — Why Don’t People Trust Me? Rebuilding Trust After Addiction

Why Doesn’t Sobriety Automatically Restore Trust? You’ve stopped using. You’re going to meetings. You’re trying to rebuild your life. Maybe for the first time in years, you feel clear-headed and hopeful. So when the people closest to you still seem guarded, skeptical, or even cold, it stings. You want to say, “Can’t you see I’m…

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What to Grab in an Emergency

When life throws an emergency our way, we all have instincts about what to grab first: our phone, our wallet, maybe our medications. But for one of our recovery group members, “Mark”, that list included something unexpected—his copy of The Dunamis Effect. Mark is in his 40s and has been facing multiple health challenges, including…

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Post-Traumatic Growth: Finding Your Tribe in Recovery

Post-Traumatic Growth in Recovery Finding Your Tribe

If you’ve ever felt like you don’t fit in at church—or even that you’re not really wanted there—you’re not alone. In my work in addiction, I hear this all the time. People tell me they grew up with some kind of religion, but when life got messy, they felt like the church didn’t want them…

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The Promises of a New Life in Sobriety

In many meetings of AA, there is a scheduled reading (frequently toward the beginning of the meeting) of what are known as “The Promises.” To be more accurate, they are the 9th Step Promises, and many long-time attendees can recite them by heart. In short, they are a brief list of the many things a…

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Recovering Thanksgiving

An article I read the other day lamented that the holiday of Thanksgiving has become just another secular excuse to miss work, overeat, and drink beer while binge-watching football. For most in the United States, the days of dedicating time to recounting one’s blessings and expressing gratitude to God for the abundance many of us…

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Why Does Someone Use In The First Place?

man at desk drinking liquor, why does someone use in the first place?

It’s a question that gets asked often—sometimes with curiosity, but often with confusion or frustration: Why would someone start using in the first place? At first glance, it may seem like a simple issue of choice. But the reality is far more complex. Most people don’t begin using substances or engaging in harmful behaviors because…

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Heal the Family…Heal the Person

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1 in 10 young adults has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and 1 in 7 is addicted to alcohol or some other drug. In a recent Kaiser Foundation survey, two-thirds of American young people said they had someone in their family who suffered from addiction. These numbers…

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