Recovery Requires Rescue
Yesterday I wrote that recovery is essentially walking away from destructive behavior. It is walking back from bad decisions.
To me, “walking back” is a change of attitude. There is no physical exertion involved. Certainly, once the attitude changes, from stubbornness to regret, for example, the resulting physical actions should become obvious. My point here is that we control or choose only our attitude and that there are no action tricks to take to get oneself out of a jam.
So what happens next after the attitude changes? We see we need to take a journey back to a healthier place, but how do we do this?
My answer is we don’t.
Powerlessness is powerlessness. It isn’t an act intended to cause sympathy in others, especially if our primary character defect is having manipulated or conned others in order to get what we want.
We change our attitude which includes stopping running and hiding, or arguing and defending. We give up trying to save ourselves. We become willing to accept defeat and failure if winning requires cheating, lying, or faking any more.
Urgent and desperate answers fade away as we settle into the reality of our present circumstance and wait.
Wait for what?
Wait for rescue.
True recovery is always a rescue operation. It has to be because what we need rescue from the most is our own self-centered survival-at-all-costs behavior. Recovering what has been mangled in our character is both an inside and outside operation because we can’t really fix the junk in our head with the junk in our head. We need to learn to walk with God and in a community of fellow travelers, people who will encourage us and tell us the truth in love.
We never recover alone. We never heal only through our own efforts. We participate by being present in our situation but do not control.
O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long?
Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.