Today's inspiration comes from: The Fix by Ian Morgan Cron |
|
|
No one checks themselves into rehab because they’re on a winning streak.
At least I didn’t.
By the time I stumbled into treatment for my addiction to prescription drugs, I wanted nothing more to do with me. As my dear friend Mary says, “You know you’ve hit bottom when you break your own heart.” Trust me, by the end of my last pharmaceutical jag, my heart was shattered.
When I first arrived at the treatment center nestled in the mountains of Utah, where I would spend the next thirty days working to recover the person I had lost, I’d hardly removed my coat before one of the staff people handed me a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous (a.k.a. The Big Book — the name I’ll use from here on out) in which the Twelve Steps are laid out. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Twelve Steps but don’t really know what they are. The coauthor of the Twelve Steps was a hopeless alcoholic named Bill Wilson who found recovery as the result of a Damascus Road–like spiritual experience in a hospital room where he was dying from alcoholism. From that day forward, Bill never drank again. The Twelve Steps derived from the teachings of a Christian organization called the Oxford Group, but Wilson rewrote them in such a way that people, regardless of their religious background or spiritual orientation, could benefit from them. What Bill Wilson came to understand was that - the addict’s problem was principally spiritual, not psychological or moral, and therefore required a spiritual solution.
Thus, the purpose of the Twelve Steps was to enable alcoholics (or anyone else who wanted fixing and a better life) to have a spiritual awakening. Here’s an amended version of the Twelve Steps. I’ve left the word alcohol out of the first Step so you can insert your chemical or behavioral “fixes of choice.” -
We admitted we were powerless over __________ — that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
-
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
-
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
-
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
-
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics [our fellow sufferers], and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Don’t worry if your first read of the Twelve Steps makes you think, This is the fix? It seems too simple. Well, thank Almighty God for that! The Twelve Steps were written in such a way that anyone, regardless of their social or educational background, could understand and work them. |
|
|
The aim of the Twelve Steps is to draw us as close to God, ourselves, and others in this lifetime as possible. |
The aim of the Twelve Steps is to draw us as close to God, ourselves, and others in this lifetime as possible. |
|
|
People in recovery often say, “It’s a simple program for complicated people.” This Enneagram Four wouldn’t be sober today if this weren’t the case.
More importantly, the Twelve Steps aren’t snake oil. Lord forbid they become another wellness hack that those preternaturally attractive people wearing wide-brimmed hats blather about on TikTok. The Twelve Steps is a proven program that has literally saved millions of lives since these Steps were first published in 1939. All to say, there’s oodles of evidence that they can deliver on their promise to profoundly transform the human heart.
According to Bill Wilson, if you committedly “work the Steps,” you will eventually have a vital spiritual experience that will give you an entirely new and radically beautiful orientation toward life. When practiced as a way of life, they can expel your addictions and recurrent self-defeating behaviors and give you a “new pair of glasses” through which you will see yourself, others, and the world in a startlingly fresh way. The Twelve Steps will displace the broken old ideas that were once the guiding force of your life and replace them with a whole “new set of conceptions and motives.”1
This renewed relationship with God or a “Power greater than ourselves” will reconfigure your personality (your all too predictable and habitual patterns of thinking, feeling, acting, and interpreting your experience of the world) and render your addictions unnecessary. The Steps don’t just help a person abstain from a substance or habitual self-limiting behavior, though that’s obviously the first order of business. More importantly, they address the underlying emotional, spiritual, and psychological issues that caused the addiction in the first place. - The aim of the Twelve Steps is to draw us as close to God, ourselves, and others in this lifetime as possible. They teach us how to live joyfully in a riven world where we will never feel quite at home. They work.
Furthermore, the Steps are not abstract concepts, but straightforward and practical. They are not liberal, conservative, Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim, New Age, or Zoroastrian. You can be a Christian, a Jew, a Zen Buddhist, or an agnostic flat-earther and benefit enormously from working the Twelve Steps.
I’m a “Jesus guy,” but some aspects of my tradition make my teeth hurt. Christianity is often long on “the what” but short on “the how.” For instance, contemporary Christianity is often primarily a belief-based religion in which salvation is found merely by offering assent to a set of theological propositions.
The genius of the Twelve Steps is that it’s predominantly a practice-based program that brings about the profound psycho- logical and spiritual shift that mere intellectual belief in God cannot. Moreover, the Twelve Steps are completely consistent with the gospel. They put wheels on the teachings of Jesus. They transform faith from a belief system into a lifestyle.
- For me, the Twelve Steps have made me a better follower of Jesus.
They have complemented and illuminated my understanding of the gospel; I know scores of Christians in recovery who would say the same thing. Given how helpful they are for the Christian, I’m amazed at how long the church has overlooked them as a design for living.
I have a pal named Gene (not his real name) who was fired from his role as senior pastor of a large, theologically conservative, nondenominational congregation for showing up drunk to church one Sunday. (I would have paid a hundred bucks for a front seat to that show.) He was only a minute or two into his slurred sermon when the elders realized he was completely potted and escorted him out of the sanctuary. There were no altar calls that week. Sadly, rather than help Gene find help, his church showed him the door.
One night after a meeting, he said to me, “Isn’t it ironic that I have found more grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and healing in the basement of churches where Twelve-Step recovery groups meet than I ever did upstairs in the sanctuary where so-called ‘normies’ gather to worship? I wish they knew what they’re missing!”
Now, here’s the good news. Bill Wilson said that the Twelve Steps offered a spiritual solution for not only the alcoholics and addicts meeting downstairs in the church basement but also for everyone upstairs in the sanctuary and beyond who is searching for “home” — a solution to the Big Ache — which is all of us. I have seen the Twelve Steps unscrew countless people’s screwed-up lives. And, yes, you can be one of them. |
|
|
The Twelve Steps are for everyone, addict and those free from addiction. They put wheels on the teachings of Jesus. If we work the steps leaning on Jesus, we become more like Him. ~ Devotionals Daily |
|
|
Find lasting healing & joy amid life's messiness |
The Fix: How the Twelve Steps Offer a Surprising Path of Transformation for the Well-Adjusted, the Down-and-Out, and Everyone In Between |
|
|
+ Extra 20% off $50 with code BIBLE |
+ Extra 20% off $50 with code BIBLE |
Did you know that anyone--addicts or non-addicts--can benefit from working the Twelve Steps and find the freedom, joy, and intimacy with God that their hearts long for? We all suffer from a sense of spiritual homelessness--a feeling that we're not fully at home in the world. To cope with our painful feelings and life traumas, we search for quick "fixes" that eventually become habitual, self-destructive behaviors that ultimately create more problems than they solve.
As a person in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, Ian Cron is no stranger to these destructive habits. It wasn't until he embraced the Twelve Steps that he found true freedom. He knows from personal experience that Twelve Step recovery is more than just a life-saving strategy for guiding substance users into sobriety. Everybody is addicted to something to numb the discomfort of living in a messed-up world, he says, but the good news is that if you committedly "work the steps," you will eventually have a vital spiritual awakening that will give you an entirely new and radically beautiful orientation toward the life God has for you.
|
|
|
If you long for sustainable healing and joy amid life's messiness, The Fix invites you to: -
Journey step-by-step through a spiritual curriculum that has helped millions overcome trauma, pain, and brokenness for over eight decades
- Understand how the Twelve Steps can be a transformative tool not only for people with chemical or behavioral addictions but for anyone who wants to move beyond self-help to a spiritual awakening
-
Catch yourself in the act of self-sabotaging behaviors and understand how each day is a new opportunity to trade in self-willed reformation for grace-powered transformation
With his characteristic wit and transparent self-disclosure, Ian guides us in learning how to work each of the Twelve Steps so we will finally be given a "new pair of glasses" through which we will be able to see ourselves, others, and the world in a startlingly new way--and ultimately take hold of the freedom God has been waiting to give us all along. |
|
|
+ Save 35% on The Fix Workbook |
The Fix Workbook: How the Twelve Steps Offer a Surprising Path of Transformation for the Well-Adjusted, the Down-and-Out, and Everyone in Between |
|
|
Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me: A Memoir. . . of Sorts |
|
Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim’s Tale |
|
|
Embark on a spiritual journey with Jesus this winter!
During our Winter Bible Study Sale, snag deals up to 65% off + get an extra 20% off your purchase of $50 or more with code BIBLE.
Save on resources to deepen your faith: Study Bibles, Daily Reading Bibles, bestselling workbooks, book of the Bible Studies, top selling Bible study resources, and more! |
|
|
this devotion with someone who needs it today |
|
|
*Sale price ends on 01/31/25 at 11:59 PM. Limited quantities available. Sale pricing excludes ebooks and audiobooks. Free Standard Shipping for U.S. orders over $35 excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
*Offer valid until 02/06/25 at 11:59 p.m. ET or while supplies last. Offer valid online and by phone only. Take an additional 20% off your purchase of $50 or more with code BIBLE, after promotions and discounts and before shipping and handling costs are applied. Shipping, gift cards, or customization of products does not qualify towards minimum purchase requirements. *eBooks purchases are fulfilled by our partner, Glose. Please note that: - To access your eBooks, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly in your browser by creating a Glose account using the same email address you use to purchase the eBooks.
-
eBooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook).
|
|
|
|
