Recovery Articles

Advent Recovery Reflection by WT

“Go spread the news of Emmanuel

Joy and peace for the weary heart

Lift up your heads, for your King has come

Sing for the Light overwhelms the dark”

-Keith and Kristyn Getty*

The holiday season can be a real struggle for me. It is the absolute peak in some moments and the bottomless depths in others as I recap another year nearing completion. The stress of increased work, shorter daylight hours, obligations in church and the community, deadlines for the end of the year coming due, higher financial expenditures, months to come of cold and nasty wet weather, fighting for some restful scraps of family time, and of course the anxiety of the whole new year looming to come. When it is especially challenging for me is the two weeks following Christmas day. For me it is the stress of the whole year to come sandwiched with tearful thoughts of another year past. The running, running, running, and now this sense of needing to grieve all that suddenly came to a quick end. Seven plus years in recovery and I still must actively fight this emotional battle. Years as a Christian and I still must hold to God’s promises that ground my soul when life seems unmanageable.

Depressive symptoms can be a real battle every believer must wrestle. I have loved reading to my children this adapted book “Little Pilgrim’s Progress” which is for children on the Christian allegory “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan. Just like the characters Christian and Hopeful, during this season I can get off the path of God’s promises and run into the monster called “Giant Despair” who then throws me into “Doubting Castle”. What a great analogy for depression. But you know how Christian, and his companion on the journey got out of the dungeon? As a believer, he had a key in his pocket called, the “Key of Promise”. What a great analogy for God’s word. He then unlocked the cell and walked step by step (Steps symbolizing God’s promises, so verse by verse) out of the castle.

Men, in this time more now than ever, take God’s biblical promises and find some you can hold on to in this season. While my battle with depressive symptoms may not always be caused directly by my own sinful choices, my emotional responses with my loved ones sure can be. Snapping at family, living inconstant dread, and sulking in regrets are absolute dry drunk attitudes and need to be replaced biblically. Something that aids me is to list core emotions (for me anger, fear, and sadness) I face and have promises from God I hold to (See additional resources at the bottom for examples of passages that have helped me). I love to tape some of these passages to the bottom of my boots for meditation or put in a notecard I carry in my pocket. That’s why I chose this newer song by the Getty’s called “Sing We the Song of Emmanuel”. What hope and celebration this gives to the weary heart! God in flesh, dwelling among humanity, to redeem to no longer be slaves to sin, but to righteousness (Romans 6:16-18)! Christ in our suffering is gentle and lowly (Matthew 11:28-30). He calls us friends (John 15:15). If you see Him in your Bible, you have seen the Father (John 14:9). Men, we hold in our possession God’s perfectly sufficient and infallible word of promises to His redeemed children.

Advent Recovery Reflection by TF

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.”

Reflection

Christmas brings hope, a foundation for healing. Just as the world awaited a Savior, I can rejoice in knowing that God meets me in my brokenness with renewal.

Verse

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

-Isaiah 40:31

Prayer

Lord, fill me with the hope and strength You bring.

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.”

Reflection

Christ’s coming reveals that my worth is not tied to my mistakes. Knowing my value in Him initiates healing and reminds me I’m worthy of restoration.

Verse

“But God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

-Romans 5:8

Prayer

Help me see the worth You place on me and restore me with Your love.

“Truly He taught us to love one another.”

Reflection

Jesus’ example taught me compassion, essential for healing. Loving

myself and others as He does is part of being restored.

Verse

“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

-John 13:34-35

Prayer

Jesus, teach me to love as You love and to see others

and myself with grace.

“Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices.”

Reflection

Kneeling in surrender helps me let go and seek God’s direction,

central to healing.

Verse

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

-Psalm 46:10

Prayer

Lord, I surrender to You. Guide me as I listen for Your voice.

“Chains shall He break…in His name all oppression shall cease.”

Reflection

God frees us from all chains—physical, emotional, spiritual—bringing light

to areas of darkness and initiating restoration.

Verse

“He brought them out of darkness…and broke away their chains.”

-Psalm 107:14

Prayer

Break my chains, Lord, and bring me into Your light.

Advent Recovery Reflection by LA

“Go, tell It on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

Go, tell it on the mountain, that Jesus Christ is born.”

For much of my life, I was not only unwilling to speak on godly things in any public forum, but I was unwilling to even engage with them, at least not with my full weight. If asked three to five years ago, my mind would likely take me to a pulpit, a wireless microphone under a podium ornamented with an open bible from which life-altering truth would spring. But a deep shudder would come not far behind the visual. Noone would be willing to glean anything spiritual from someone contently living in sin, I would think, someone adept at destruction, one who proudly called evil good and good evil. God’s providence, however, often works most powerfully through even the most ambivalent human hands. Before I knew it, my rap sheet was replaced with accountability, and my life as a gay man turned into something I would never have imagined. In the African American Baptist tradition, “Go Tell It on the Mountain” exists in more variations than can be counted and, having served in the choir for the past seven years, I’ve sang nearly all of them. One thread remains, though, regardless of added verses or extended vamps: the call for us as believers to boldly proclaim the birth of Jesus our savior. Only, the idea that this call for proclamation can only come across a raised platform or over a speaker system is narrow, an idea that barred me from sharing the gospel nearly my entire life. Christ’s immaculate birth into the folds of sinful humanity was prophesied amid national and spiritual upheaval in ancient Israel, the very word of it came from God’s mouth to the often persecuted ancient prophets’ ears centuries before it happened. But Christ’s birth was not divine fodder or an arid demonstration of bravado; God sent his Son as a lamb, the ultimate unblemished sacrifice to do away with sin, both its penalty and its power. For members of the laity (like myself), this proclamation is too wonderful, too weighty. But I’ve realized that this proclamation can take many forms. When we refuse an activity that fits squarely into our middle circle, we proclaim Jesus’ birth. When we carve out time from hectic lives and attend meetings and share with brothers who are struggling, when we snatch the reigns of our day, our time, our attention away from acting out, we shout from the mountaintops that Jesus Christ is born!

As Jesus prays to the Father,

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

-John 17:22-23