Other Factors

As I have written posts I find areas that are different and at the same time are the same. AA focuses on just alcohol addiction. Yet their members deal with all the other ism’s. Faith-based programs like Celebrate Recovery deal with all the afflictions of their fellowships. They may deal with chemical addiction in the same way as AA. But unlike AA who farms out codependency to the Alanon CR keeps all the different issues under the same tent.

In the faith-based area Teen Challenge with intensive religious treatment targets a focus on addiction. But Celebrate Recovery is packaged as a one size fits all package. Celebrate Recovery is like modular homes. More or less you can deal with anything using the basic framework. Churches use CR for all the thorny issues. So you have everything sent to CR. This is the big difference between AA or NA or OA and CR. At CR one size fits all. AA decided at the beginning they would do only one thing, alcohol. CR decided they would do everything. But can CR do everything well?

This is a trait of the Faith community which carries strongly into recovery. The weakness is a temptation to say we can handle all things thru God’s power. But we forget to ask God if this is the way he chooses to do this particular thing. We faith troops have a real tendency to run out on thin ice without checking with the Lord first if this is wise and in HIs Plan.

My dad was not a Pentecostal or conservative pastor, but he was a wise pastor. He told me, ‘Pray like God is the only answer and work like you are the only answer’. I learned the hard way this was true. God does not tolerate arrogance nor laziness. And Lord help us! We Faith folks can carry the smell of arrogance. We faith folks can forget all the time that nothing happens worth having that is not bathed in prayer.

A news flash! On our own, we faith folks don’t automatically carry the scent of Jesus. We need to be close to Him to carry that scent. A lot of the time we are not close and we smell like we are not close. We smell like sheep lost in the bushes.

Bad Chuck!