Skipping Over the Big Stuff
Step 2 of the Twelve Steps of AA says, “We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Christians in recovery often report that the second step is one they can skip; after all, they are believers. It is risky business for folks in need of recovery to assume that their faith absolves them of the responsibility for working a thorough second step. But I also think it is risky for Christians who have not had a collapse in their life to assume that they have their faith thing all together if their measure of their faith is merely church attendance. A collapse brought us to this place if we are in recovery. That is actually a gift!
Whatever else contributed to our crash, our power dynamic with God is off in some profound way if we are missing the mark in terms of living by what we profess we believe. This is not unusual; every believer wrestles with such things. Crises are the gift that teaches us that we have a condition that brings this to our attention and provides us the opportunity to address it.
I do not know what you believe about yourself or what others have told you about yourself. But what God actually said about mankind (including you and me) was that he was pleased with what he saw when he finished his work of creation. I have struggled with what I believe about God and myself; it turns out that my beliefs in these areas really matter in recovery.
When we wrestle with issues like sin, shame and our intrinsic value in step two, this is actually a privilege and worthy work. “Coming to believe” asks us to wrestle with God’s view of us versus our view of us. Despite everything we have been told or thought, there is this one true thing that we must wrestle with: God sees humanity as very good. We may not have always lived up to his vision for us but perhaps that is because we have never known that he saw us in this benevolent and loving way.
“Christian spirituality involves a transformation of the self that occurs only when God and self are both deeply known. Both, therefore, have an important place in Christian spirituality. There is no deep knowing of God without a deep knowing of self, and no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God. John Calvin wrote, “Nearly the whole of sacred doctrine consists in these two parts: knowledge of God and of ourselves.”
~ David G. Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery
When we start showing up in a healthier space, it is a beautiful thing to see how the character of God is represented in us, through us and between us. If all of us show up and bring our small, beautiful image-bearing selves into our community, TOGETHER we make a lovely representation of God’s image.
