Reflections on Recovery, Part 4 - Hope in Repentance

l am recycling through the steps now.  Thursday night, we revisited step 2 - hope, one of my favorite steps.  The final scripture to ponder was this:  They were in captivity, and again the Lord did deliver them from bondage by the power of his word. (Alma 5:5)  The idea was that addicts and sinners (which is all of us) can be saved by the atonement of Jesus Christ.

However, some people think that by the power of his word means instant, miraculous healing.  Frankly, that is rare.  Like Paul on the road to Damascus, it can happen in a word: Saul, Saul.  Why persecuteth me? But for most of us, conversion and salvation are a process over time.  By expecting it to be otherwise, recovering addicts may give up when there is no lightning flash, thinking that God too disappointed in them to help. (LDS Family Services Addiction Recovery Program, p.7)

The story of Alma the Elder and his followers is a perfect example of the latter process.  In the story, these people had been followers of King Noah, one of the most self-indulgent and lazy men in the Book of Mormon.  Alma had actually been one of the priests in Noah's court.  The Lord sends a prophet, a man named Abinadi, to prophecy to the people that if they did not repent, they would be conquered by their enemies and led into captivity and cumbered about with burdens.  Alma was the only one in the court who listened and believed.  The others put Abinadi to death and Alma fled for his life.  He secretly preached the Word and others followed him.  They left the city just before it was conquered.

But sin carries its own natural consequences.  Alma and his people were captured by a group of Lamanites and were placed into bondage with heavy burdens laid upon their backs.  Even so, God did not abandon them.  This was his promise: And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord. (Mosiah 24: 14-15)

Eventually, God did deliver them of their burdens: Yea, and they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens and delivered them out of bondage for they were in bondage, and not could deliver them except it were the Lord, their God (Mosiah 24:21)

When we choose to sin, we also receive the inevitable natural consequence of that sin.  We can repent and be delivered from the burden and bondage of sin.  Sometimes that eases the burden of the consequences in that God strengthens and encourages and even forgives us, which will save us spiritually and eternally.  Nevertheless, sin's consequences may still need to be borne for a season.

So as we recover and repent from sin and addiction, always remember that Jesus Christ is with us every step of the way. Take comfort in His promises of scarlet sins as white as snow.  Consequences are painful; broken hearts hurt.  But sometimes God has to allow our hearts to break before we will allow him in.  Never give up hope.  God will never give up on us.

 

 Copyright Gebara Education, May 2015

Reflections on Recovery Part 3

I am still attending 12-step with my friend and learning a lot.  I do, however, have one concern.  Every 12-step meeting includes a sharing time.  Those who share introduce themselves by first name only and then a personal self-statement.  "I'm _________ and I'm an alcoholic."  "I'm ___________ and I'm an addict."  While I understand that this is done to remind the participants that addictive diseases are progressive and, once you have developed an addiction, you will need to abstain every day for the rest of your life, I have a problem with a self-defining statement of each person's most negative character flaw.  To say, "I am --- anything," to me is an invitation to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Last week at meeting, someone introduced himself and said, "I'm _________ and I'm a gratefully recovering addict."  I liked that.  It was a more accurate description of this person (who has been clean for 7 years) than saying "I am an addict."

I AM is the name used by Jehovah to Moses: "I am that I am.  Tell them I am has sent thee."

I AM truly is a self-defining statement.  When we use it, we are describing ourselves and reinforcing whatever character trait we describe. Jehovah/Christ stated this as His name because he has the absolute perfect and most complete character of all.

To the woman at the well in Samaria, Jesus said, "I am [he] who speaketh to thee."  King James scholars who translated the New Testament added the italicized word he to make the sentence flow better in English, but in doing so they diluted the message of the original Hebrew of the phrase I am.  This is the first recorded instance of Jesus clearly stating that He was I AM, Jehovah of the Old Testament and Christ of the New.  The woman understood immediately what He meant and ran to testify to her friends, "Is this not the Messiah?"

Saying I am is a powerful statement.  That is why I feel concern that those who have repented completely and been forgiven by the Savior would make that statement linking themselves to the sin of which they have repented.  Does that not reinforce the very character flaw they have worked so diligently to expunge?  The Lord said, "I will remember them no more" referring to repented sin; why on earth would we continue to define our very essence through referencing that sin?

In his book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis represents this interchange in the addiction of the character Edmund to the witch's Turkish Delight, which leads him to do some abominable things.  When Edmund is rescued, he has a private interview with Aslan in which he confesses his sins and is forgiven.  Afterward, in response to Edmund's siblings' questions, Aslan said, "We will talk of it no more."  Wise advice.

Shakespeare also illustrated the concept of repentance and forgiveness in his play As You Like It. Oliver, the eldest son of Sir Rowland de Bois, seeks every opportunity to neglect, abuse, and even despise his younger brother, Orlando.  When Oliver finds himself in a life or death situation with a lion, it is Orlando who save his life.  Oliver has an immediate paradigm shift and he repents of his earlier treatment of his young brother.  Sometime later, someone comes to Oliver and say, "Are you not he who was always trying to kill your brother?" to which Oliver replies, "T'was I but t'is not I." Oliver remembers so that he will never repeat his sin, but he no longer defines himself by the sin.  T'was I, but t'is not I.

I would love it if 12-step programs would follow the same self-defining statement of Oliver when introducing themselves: I'm _______.  T'was I, but t'is not I any longer." 

That would be as I like it. 

We will speak of it no more.