I actually like survivor the reality show. It is entertainment. But I have been in recovery for 47 years. This reality show is real and the stakes are high.
A few stories without names. When I got sober in my early years there was an older gentleman who got sober. I remember him as the happiest and most grateful guy to be sober. I believe he made a year and he was thrilled. Mr gratitude he was. Soon all the wear and tear on his body took its toll and he died. I thank God he had that year of freedom and victory.
Also early on I went to a step meeting with my growing crew of friends. In the meeting was a cranky gentleman who profusely put down the God thing in no uncertain terms. The next week we heard he died of a heart attack.
Again early on a frequent attendee of young people’s meeting was told by his doctor that if he drank again he would die. He drank again and we went to his funeral. These people got our attention.
Our crew had a friend who attended young people’s conferences who was a proud member of the gay crew. He was not on the down-low at all. He started abusing non-alcoholic cough syrup. We were worried. The news came he was found beaten to death in an alley.
I learned staying sober was no joke.
I migrated to church instead of AA. My church ran a coffee house in the nearby town. An addict got clean thru the coffee house. He ended up bringing addicts to church and they got saved and clean. They formed a couple of rows of pews upfront. In the course of time, he got better and started working out with too much enthusiasm. He hurt himself. He ended up on painkillers and ended up relapsing. He called his sponsor as he was passing out. He died and the whole row of addicts walked away from the church. The pastor asked me to start something to help. That was the first Lazarus. It didn’t take hold and fizzled after a year or so. Christian recovery is a rough business. It is always a fistfight.
Six years ago my Dad passed away and there was an inheritance. Some of the money I used to buy a triple-decker in Worcester. Lord, I learned a lot about humility. I got beat down and humbled. But by grace, some got clean and went on to successful recovery. But there were some who just didn’t get it. And they died and they broke your heart. And others were just awful people who stayed clean and were miserable people. But it was the good ones whose parents lived and died over their recovery. When they did die they broke your heart. It was the sweethearts who died that nearly killed me.
The funerals got to me. My family knew a family in the church. A single mother who had an addicted daughter who finally took the wrong stuff. The daughter had two little ones. Lord, the funeral was a tough one. These were people we knew. There were times at the house in a meeting I would ask if anyone knew someone who had died that week. Hands raised all over.
You have to understand as a drunk in recovery this is way important. As a born again believer in Jesus this is beyond important,
I am a liberated drunk who is blessed with a day of sobriety, I grieve over needless death to addiction.
As a Jesus follower, I grieve over my brothers and sisters who exit life without the chance of knowing Him.
The junction of faith and recovery matters!
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