A fact of life in the two Worlds of faith and recovery revolves around the place trauma has in both worlds. If you talk to experts or read the stuff experts post you will quickly find the place trauma has in the struggles of both faith and recovery. Go to the website and I will post links to some of these experts. The bottom line which I did not realize until too late was from the youngest age a trauma lased environment leaves permanent marks on a person. So unrecognized trauma in the recovery community is a huge deal. Hense addiction is a family disease. Trauma begets trauma. Recovery gets this more than Faith.
An addict’s life is a bath in trauma. Grow up in an addiction-filled home and you have a high possibility of being addicted.
You would think that growing up in a faith household would be the opposite. In my experience churches can be rough places. Too, often human stuff invades the church in the most destructive ways. And remember this trauma is not transitory. Trauma is written in indelible ink.
So my message to both faith and recovery troops is to wake up. Your troops are getting hammered and suffer in silence and both communities live in denial.
Finally, it is not ok to harass and shame anyone. It is not ok to leverage people to do things they feel uncomfortable with using the bible or a good program. Physical violence is not ok. To victims, I say all this is not your fault! To churches don’t cover up bad stuff to protect the ministry.
To everyone whoever you are and where ever you go, I have a news blast. There is a God who rules! This is all His stuff. You mess with his stuff you will pay the price. It does not matter if you believe it or not. God’s rules are in the end the only rules.
So for all of us, the most important thing is His Grace. May we find that Grace and live in it!
Faith folks, I say we need to talk less and pray more. Less talk and more prayerful repentance. If we do that there will be less collateral damage in our midst.
Recovery folks police your own grounds. You know you also tolerate predators in your midst. You know the terms. Pigeons are not birds in the fellowships. They are often victims.
Churches, you cover up trama factories to protect your ministries. Do you think the Lord is going to let that go? Do you seriously think the good shepherd is going to give a pass to the wolf?
Wake up! Be God’s hands of healing to the victims. And be the shepherd for the flock.
END OF RANT!
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