CRA Christians in Recovery (anonymous)

Magenta said:

Thank you, Bingo, and you are welcome I forgot to mention that that young woman fell off her bicycle on a busy street into traffic, and did not survive, which was why I had wondered if I had helped her in any way, lamenting that perhaps I could have done more before it was too late to do anything at all for her. I just remembered now that her name was Leeanne... Having been in and around recovery rooms for just over thirty years now, I have met a lot of people who have come and gone, some dying in their disease, which always seems such a tragedy. Praise the Lord! For there but by the Grace of God go I.

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The word of the Lord never comes back void and we'll never know how or when it may manifest itself. Telling the truth has merit of it's own. Testimony, love and kindness is the way of the program and it comes from christian ethics, from before the 12 step were written. Keep swinging for the cheap seats. With help from the Lord even a rookie can hit a home run. Keep up the good work. Thank you for your support.

The Lord ministered to me through the 12 steps. It made me realize I don't need to get right before comming to the Lord. Getting humble should be a priority also. My priorities were backwards. I dealt with my shortcoming by getting loaded. Through the program the Lord taught me things I never heard of in church and thank the Lord he turned my illnesses into assets and he allows me to be more useful to him by helping others. That is surely a blessing to thank him for. If he can use me I must be more useful than I realized. I no longer need to numb myself. Feeling vacant felt better than feeling anything because I never felt good naturally. That's why I poisoned myself. To kill the pain. I can now feel joy I forgot decades ago and I look forward to waking up in the morning and I don't regret life or think that love is a pipe dream.

I can praise the Lord in all things including sadness because I realize that God made me that way for a reason and it's ok to feel bad because the day will come when sorrows are forgotten and the joys of the Lord will rule the world.

Hi, my name is Bob and I'm a greatly recovering alcoholic/addict with a serious mental/emotional disorder. I'd like to share something this wonderful morning from the Big Book, 4th edition, The story is titled 'Grounded.'
It's about a Native American who lost both parents and much of his tribe, (Comanche) to Alcoholism, he joined the USMC became a decorated Marine pilot then a commercial airline pilot for many years then one night he and 2 others were the first ever arrested for flying a commercial passenger airliner while intoxicated, .13% bac. After going to prison, (not jail) over a year, going through rehab and becoming a 12 step worker. He also became the first person ever to get his pilots license back after getting busted for drunk flying. This is what he wrote on page 529, second paragraph of the Big Book 4th ed:

"It took several years but I learned to be grateful for my alcoholism and the program of recovery it forced me into, for all the things that happened to me and for me, for a life today that transcends and far exceeds anything I had previously known. I could not have that today if I had not experienced all the yesterdays."

This meeting is Open. todays suggested topic is; step 3) "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God" (Jesus)

Bingo said:

"Thanks for sharing."
"My name is Bob, I am a grateful recovering alcoholic. Step 3 was my turning point, after about
three years in the program, going through all the steps with my sponsor, something was still
missing...over and over I went over the steps...I zeroed in on step 3, and Bingo...I realized this
was the all of all things of the 12 steps. Before God, I laid my soul, all of me, tears and all, and
honestly surrendered to God, my truly Higher Power. I assure you, from that time forward, my
life has been renewed with new meaning and purpose. One day at a time, through the bumps
and hiccups, my spiritual life is alive and thriving each day, as things revealed, on my own, would
never know of, or think of. I now know, the decision I made, was meant 'to be' by the grace of God....
no more...no less."........
'Praise God'.....I came...I came to...I came to believe....'God is'.

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Now that's what I'm talkin' about. The true spiritual awakening. I fully understand why Bill W. did what he did in allowing people to chose a god of their own understanding. We are more rebels and would rather suffer alone than to submit to authority but the belief in a god we created from our own understand crashes because deep down inside we know that it's only make believe. Many of us had a drill sergeant like god shoved down our throats since child hood that demands perfection and punishes mistakes and ignores our plaintiff cries for help. We want nothing to do with that kind of god and often run away or turn our ears of at his very mention.

I wish there was somewhere we could look to see just how many of us have come to the real god or had our faith restored through the program.

Following the steps is the mechanical part but the program is incomplete until we've had the 'spiritual awakening.' That's really how it works.

I myself grew up believing all normal adults drink alcohol and giving it made me feel defective. I didn't know intoxicated meant ingested poison and sort of thought it meant having fun. I didn't want to stop. Although I already believed in Jesus most of my adult life I sort of expected him to take away the alcoholism but not the alcohol. Stinkin' thinkin' it was and sadly for my loved ones and myself and as cliché as it sounds I had to hit bottom before I would bounce back. I really had to surrender my heart not just think or say some words. I would love to have been the last to suffer as I did but alas, that's not so. Therefore all shame had to be discarded so I could learn how to carry the message. I believe if the message gets through to 1 miserable depressed drunken stoner that angels will rejoice.

So here I am naked and unashamed to proclaim that Jesus saves and some times he uses this program.

Thanks' Bingo, it takes two to have a dialogue. Know that you are valued and appreciated here. Who would like to share?

blue_ladybug said:

M, you never answered my question. WHY did you thumbs down my crazy cat lady pic?

You make kitty sad..

lol

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Hey cat lady. I live in tornado alley and type with 1 hand. Because of atmospheric anomalies here if my post seems like more than 1 page long I'll send it 1 page at a time rather than lose it when lightning flashes overhead. I only have a wireless connection. I usually write from the heart without a script Your crazy cat popped up between 2 pages of the same stream of thought. Magenta knew it, I know it was unintentional so I let it go.

This is usually deadly serious though. you often tell folks when they should be on a different forum or string. This time it's your turn to be corrected. If you want to talk about meds, pain, emotional distress. Drugs, alcohol or suicide you and Tequila (the cat folks) are welcome here. Otherwise go play in the sand or litter some where else or I might send you a Judas hanging to get your attention. instead of this.>

blue_ladybug said:

How do you get a wireless connection without a router?

And all the stuff you mentioned. I've never done drugs, got drunk only once in my life, tried suicide more than once during my life, and lost family members to it. Been on meds since age 5, and have endured numerous times of agonizing pain. I deal with physical and emotional stress every single day.

You'd know all this if you read all my testimonies that I have written on these subjects. They're in the link below if you care to read them.

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I do, that's why I brought it up. Dual Recovery includes emotional, pain, medication, depression and you'd know it if you followed my posts. The CRA title was an accident, I had asked permission to start the group but instead of answering they ran my OP. CiDR (Christians in Dual Recovery) was the name I had chosen for the group but the mod ran it as CRA instead.

This is the first social media site I've ever taken seriously enough to join or support 10 months ago and I think I met you on my first day. I'm not angry, you'll get no dog poop from me. Have an apple!

blue_ladybug said:

How do you get a wireless connection without a router?

You'd know all this if you read all my testimonies that I have written on these subjects. They're in the link below if you care to read them.

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I have a wireless router to modem connection is how.

blue_ladybug said:

So do I, but my internet is through the phone company..

ANYHOO..............

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Our goes to the cable company, then uplinks via satellite. to who knows were. We don't have land based phone lines either. A Big electric storm it all fails.

blue_ladybug said:

So do I, but my internet is through the phone company..

ANYHOO..............

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I know what you mean about not wanting to revisit a painful past and I thank you for sharing your testimony with us. It may make a difference in someone's life. Here it is again folks> Bless you Blue.
https://christianchat.com/blogs/my-testimonies.175003/

This is for people who are willing to build their new homes upon the rock. It's not for everyone. If you are willing to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, miracles can happen. Any program where the Lord is absent is powerless.

The 12 steps of CRA, by calibob. Adapted from DRA (Dual Recovery Anonymous) by Hamilton and Samples:

1. We admitted we were powerless over our dual illness of chemical dependency and emotional or psychiatric illness - that our lives had become unmanageable.
   
2. Came to believe that a Higher Power named Jesus could restore us to sanity.
   
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of our Higher Power (named Jesus), to help us to rebuild our lives in a positive and caring way.
   
4. Made a searching and fearless personal inventory of ourselves.
   
5. Admitted to our Lord, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our liabilities and our assets.
   
6. Were entirely ready to have the Lord remove all our liabilities.
   
7. Humbly asked our Lord God to remove these liabilities and to help us to strengthen our assets for recovery.
   
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
   
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
   
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when wrong promptly admitted it, while continuing to recognize our progress in dual recovery.
    
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of our lord's will for us and the power to carry that out.
    
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others who experience dual disorders and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

He is God... We are not. "Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. 6: 33, (aka; sermon on the mount.)

General William Booth. Founder of 'The Salvation Army' once said; " It takes more than a bath and a clean pair of breeches to save a man's soul.' Simply eloquent. How true, it takes work, hard, soul searching work. A believer can coast through steps 1 & 2. I rested at 3 for decades. I'm an alcoholic among other things you see. And I just wanted it taken from me. I resisted doing the work. I wasn't ready able or willing to face the fact that no human power, even my own could relieve me of my dis-eases. I was ashamed and afraid. The pain was more than I was willing to face. I'd rather get loaded than face and deal with the truth.

The fact was I was being childish and cowardice. the past was to painful and rather than face the pain and cut it out. I let it fester. It very nearly killed me. I let it destroy 2 marriages and let it separate me from 2 children. I'd rather hide in my addictions than face them. Denial played a role too. denial is when the addicted sub conscious lies to the part of the mind that thinks it's in control. We accept the fantasy that it's all due to people, places and things beyond our control while we neglect to take responsibility for our actions. It's a trick of the subconscious mind. It's easy to deny. in case you haven't learned yet, in rooms of recovery denial stands for; Don't Even No I'm Lying. It's a common delusion.

Dont just think this program is for stoners and locos. Allow me to extrapolate this From 12 steps and dual disorders:

"Some of us have additional disorders and impairments, such as learning disabilities, head or spinal injuries, seizure disorders, vision and hearing impairments, or terminal illness." (pg. 34 & 35)

In the case of chronic illness vs medication, abstinence may not be an option. Mood altering medication, taken as prescribed is not considered a relapse or failure. (see your doctor,) There are worse things.

(Back to step 4.)
This is the step wher the rubber meets the road. this is where we start walking the walk, for real.

My sponsor had me take a few sheets of paper and create two columns. One for people that I perceived had done me wrong. The other for people I should make amends to. After it was all listed he asked who in the first column did I bear grudges against. Then before I answered, he asked if I didn't think that harboring bitterness and hostility affected my spirituality? I was stunned. Forgiveness is a two way street. The bottom line is, "Let go, let God.'

This meeting is open, who'd like to share?