The Joy of Recovery

            What would it be like if we were all completely honest when we walk into church?  What if we were all comfortable enough to just stand up and identify our faults, whatever our struggle?  How fantastic would it be to just stand up and state, “I am struggling with anger (or whatever the issue is) today.”  Even better, how comforting would it be to stand up in church, small group, or prayer meeting, say these things, and receive a response not of judgment, but of prayer.  So why don’t we do this?  Why do we teach folks to treat their spiritual battles and short comings as dirty little secrets?  What would happen in our hearts if our church services were more like a recovery group meeting (think AA), and less like a secret society?

            And why aren’t they?  We are all recovering sinners, each addicted to our own vices.  We could all benefit from the accountability of the group.  The thing that hinders us the most is the inability to show our weakness for fear of being judged as unchristian and evicted from the secret society of the church?  Shame on us as a church, that we are more willing to evict our fellow Christians than to help mend and strengthen them.  It is unconscionable.  It is unacceptable.  Most importantly, it is not Biblical.

            Toward the end of the book of James, we are admonished, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed…” (James 5:16 KJV) Did you hear that?  Not a word about a special phrase, a secret handshake, or a dress code. No secret society.  Just a simple directive to bare our hearts to one another. Confess your faults, issues, battles, vices one to another, not so you can be judged, but so you can be covered in prayer, be healed, be stronger, be victorious—be recovered. 

            I am not a perfect Christian. I have faults.  Sometimes I cave to anger, envy, fear, pride. I’m not always as strong as I wish I were.  I fail to depend on God as much as I should.  I crave the type of spiritual interaction that James admonishes us to have--the honesty, the openness, the reality.  I covet the prayers of my Godly friends.  Sometimes I don’t even know where to start and my brokenness yields only the words, “Help me”.  In that moment, the prayers of others are so important to me that words fail my attempt to convey it.  My soul cries out for the healing brought about by these prayers—restoration, rejuvenation, recovery.

            So I pray these things.  May we stop treating church like a secret society. Give up the pretense on Sunday morning and just be the broken, needy people God loves. May we break free of our inhibitions. You can’t get to Heaven on someone else’s opinion anyway.  May we find the inner fortitude to be real with one another.  (Inner fortitude = God) May we find the freedom to be healed of our faults. Overall, may we discover the joy of recovery.