July 5 - Redirected Strength

The problem isn't always a lack of strength. Sometimes it's strength aimed in the wrong direction. Pastor Mike and Cristi bring humor and hard-won honesty to what it means to let God redirect what's already in you. The problem is not always lack of strength. Sometimes it is strength aimed in the wrong direction. Mike opens with the assumption he carried for years — that alcoholics and addicts were simply weak, that they just needed a stronger will. Then he lived it, and learned the truth the Big Book names on page 45: our human resources, as marshaled by the will, were not sufficient. It was never about a lack of willpower. It was willpower pointed at the wrong things. Recovery is realignment, not weakness. Cristi makes it personal. Early in their marriage she was trying to be the man and the woman in the relationship — putting all her effort into proving she was strong, that she didn't need anyone. What she had to learn was that the strength was real and had carried her through seasons when she genuinely had to hold everything up alone — but coming out the gate with "I am woman, hear me roar" only created conflict that didn't need to be there. She connects it to her own past assumptions about mental illness and thoughts of suicide as weakness, until she experienced them herself and understood: it has nothing to do with weakness. Then the honest turn — her children telling her they finally see happiness on her, that she's finally let a man lead and complement her life instead of overtaking. Not control, Mike is quick to clarify — Scripture's requirement for the husband is not to rule by iron grip. Leadership by example. As Cristi puts it, if a man has to say he's the head of the household, he's already lost. You follow because he's already walked the path. In Christ, even my stubbornness and drive can be shaped into perseverance and faithfulness. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | redirected strength | willpower and surrender | marriage and recovery | mental health | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.