"The Fires Will Put Themselves Out"

I was on a roll.

I started telling more people about what AA did to me, or how the program works you into the grave rather than bringing you up out of yourself.

Then I met a former heroin addict, Ned. who as a third-generation recipient of AA dogma. His grand-parents and his parents all had "worked" the program.

For him, the whole set up rubbed him the wrong way.

He protested saying "The Lord's Prayer" at the end of every meeting, and the other people in the room started to give him a hard time.

He had a sponsor who lectured him and belittled him on how to live his life, yet Ned had run a business while tripped up as an addict. His "sponsor" presumed to lord over Ned his greater number of years of sobriety, but Ned refused to play along.

Good for him. But I have also learned that none of us really have anything to boast about, but our weakness and infirmity (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)

I was glad to be talking to more people who had left the "program" and find life -- and perhaps that more abundantly, outside of the confines of the four walls.

Then he told me about a counselor, one who treated him with respect and dignity, regardless of his drug or previous affiliations. She did remind him, as is true for every human being, that if Ned gave up the drugs, he would have to find something else to attach to.

We were made for love, not just to love, but to receive this love, and God alone is the all-encompassing never-ending love that we need! Christ is the sign and certainy of this love, dying for our sins and granting us His Everything by making us one with Him! And all that I have to do is believe, a hard call for many people, who have been taught to rely on self.

He also shared with me that he was a very angry man, one who felt that he was going to hit or kill someone. I have been there, the intense feelings ofv unret snad rage which I could do nothing about, until I started to realize that I did not have to do anything about them in the first place! He takes care of me, regardless of how I feel. My thoughts and feelings do not block God from working in my life. In fact, my trying to feel and thing a certain way frustrates God's grace in my life.

The biggest issue in my life, the upsets and resentments that had assaulted me for much of my life, were starting to calm down. While the program teaches adherents to stomp out every fire by confessing the upset then doing something good for somone else, the Bible teaches every believer use the shield of faith (Ephesians 6: 16) to quench the fires of the Enemy.

I loved what Ned told me next: "The fires will put themselves out."

I could not agree more!