Vision? Where is the beef?

If there is a continuum from uber giddy positive to borderline negative I end up on the somber side. I guess I am a partly sunny guy. I say that to ask where is the positive payoff for recovery or faith?

For an AA or NA person following the path leads to life second to none or the promises will be fulfilled. All this is within the brackets ie this life. In my early days in AA there was an unspoken belief if someone died sober they were in a better place. That concept remains to this day in secular recovery. It is assumed that even the still suffering who don’t make it back will go to a better place. There are of course different boundaries on this. But the blessing is for now if you work the program and an assumption of a future with God.

Faith folks understand the goal is following the faith which leads to the next life. Again the spectrum of understanding is broad. The spectrum runs from salvation by good works to salvation by grace thru faith to merit thru social action. The common goal is a future with God.

My point is recovery folks will judge faith folks. And faith folks will definitely judge recovery folks. But the common ingredient is the desire to live well and move on to a better place. The only one who has the answer is the One we all seek. May we all have ears to hear and a heart to respond.