I Can't Want This More Than You

"Please take this life preserver friend, you are drowning." Have you ever had a situation where the person you are wanting to help just isn't ready?  I can remember when I was living in Phoenix AZ by myself as a young teenager and a youth pastor from a local church came by to see me. He said that he knew I was hurting & not-living in good conditions, nor a very healthy life. He offered to allow me to come live with he and his wife.  What a generous offer from some incredible people. But, I turned him down as I was just not ready for change. Someone once said "If it is important enough to you, you will find a way. If it is not, you will find an excuse.” I had plenty of excuses for why I should stay in my misery. I had to feel the heat of pain more than my fear of change before I would do anything to change.  Today, when I am on the other end of this scenario, it is heartbreaking when people we love and care about reject the help we want to give. However, God has given me a peace to know that I cannot want their recovery more than they do. All I can do is say I am praying for you and that I am here when they are ready. When the pain gets hot enough to take action, maybe they will give me a call. I just pray and hope the damage to themselves and those around them is minimal.  It is heartbreaking to see people stubbornly reject the people and help the Lord sends them. But, I was there once, and I am grateful I finally woke up and saw the better life the Lord had planned for me. I pray that our lost brothers and sisters will say, "it's time to rise above those negative circumstances in my past and believe what God says about me. I am blessed, favored, & loved by a Father with an amazing purpose awaiting me”  If you are hurting, take action. “And nothing will be impossible for you.Matt 17.20 Rodney Holmstrom

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why do we introduce ourselves?

One of the things that might confuse a newcomer coming into this great ministry is the way we introduce our self and do so every time we meet in a Step Group and/or Open discussion group. The question that often comes up is; “Why in the world would we have to introduce our self every time we come together? I mean, we all know each other don’t we? We all know what the other is struggling with right? So why should I have to state my main issue I am dealing with? These are all logical questions and I think the below content from Tina at Saddleback might help shed some light on this. As you may already know, in our small groups we ask our Leaders to introduce themselves with this statement: “Hi my name is _______; I am a believer who struggles with________.” We ask our leaders to keep it short; to stick to one or two primary areas of recovery. We ask them not to state a host of recovery issues and character defects, etc… especially because we do not run recovery specific groups for cha...
Read more

12 Days Of CR Christmas

Image
One of our great leader Monica rewrote the lyrics to this old Christmas song to tie into the 12 steps. We had a lot of fun singing it and love that it keeps the focus on the 12 steps thru Christmas. Great job Monica! On the first day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the notion it’s not about me; On the second day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the third day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fourth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my inventory, will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fifth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me On the sixth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, desire to be humble, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the ...
Read more

Guidelines are there for a reason

Anyone who has participated in a Step Study or a small group through Celebrate Recovery has heard the five small-group guidelines. They’re supposed to be read aloud before each meeting starts, just to remind everyone or to inform any newcomers. Most of the guidelines are obvious and make perfect sense on the first reading. Anonymity is vital and as people who are submitting to God as our Higher Power, we should realize that we are in no more a position to “fix” each other than we are to “fix” ourselves. There’s one guideline that puzzled and even annoyed me at first, that pesky no. 2. “There is NO cross talk. Cross talk is when two individuals engage in conversation excluding all others. Each person is free to express his or her feelings without interruptions.” At first I really didn’t understand the guideline. “Did they seriously need to tell us not to talk to each other while someone was sharing?,” was my thought. But as the guideline was explained further, I better understood. We ar...
Read more