Addiction Recovery - Come Sit With Me

Remember that one 12-step meeting I told you about...

The one where the man was released from jail early Sunday morning and had two choices:

Call his dealer to pick him up or walk to a 12-step meeting.

He chose the walk to a 12-step meeting.

He walked in a bit late.

He walked around the outside of the circle to the only chair available.

This made him the last one to share when sharing time came around.

The words out of his mouth gave me chills:

"I LOVE ADDICTS."

In that moment, I broke the biggest rule of 12-step meeting circles:

Don't share out of turn.

Don't interrupt.

I yelled, "I LOVE ADDICTS, TOO!!!!"

After the facilitators gave me the look, I just took everything in that he said like a sponge.

He went on to talk about how there is zero judgement in these circles.

No one believes that they are above anyone else.

No one looks down upon anyone else.

We are ALL worthy.

We ALL have value.

We are ALL loveable.

We are all welcoming and welcomed.

And, it's true.

If there isn't a chair, every single person in that room stands to find a chair for one person.

You can totally sit with us!!!!

Too often... far too often... people like to use religion to justify their judgements of others, to justify their holiness above others.

Fact: my God doesn't justify it ever.

Everyone is welcome.

Everyone can totally sit with Him.

And until you believe that yourself, you can totally sit with me.

 You got hammered at the bar on Saturday but came to church on Sunday….

You can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’re a drug addict but came to church on Sunday….

You can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’re divorced and the last church you attended condemned you for it….

You can sit me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’ve had an abortion and it’s slowly eating away at your heart but you came to church on Sunday….

You can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

You’ve been unfaithful to your spouse but came to church on Sunday….

You can sit with me, you’re right where you need to be.

Here’s the thing, people don’t come to church on Sunday for you to sit in the pew and quietly judge them because you feel that you’re somehow better than them.

People come to church because in their deepest, darkest, most painful moments they heard about a man named Jesus that could save their soul and they’d like to know him.

The man that just snorted cocaine off his kitchen table isn’t a bigger sinner than you who told your boss a lie on Monday so you could leave work early.

The woman that had an abortion 10 years ago isn’t a bigger sinner than you who flipped a man off in traffic last week because he cut you off.

The drunk man laying on the bar isn’t a bigger sinner than you who occasionally has too much to drink at home in private.

The woman that just got caught cheating on her husband isn’t a bigger sinner than you who had sex with your now husband before you were married.

Stop judging others because their sin is different than yours.