Journeys

The Church is an experience of exodus: we leave the place of slavery to enter into the ‘Promised Land’ of the Kingdom.  There are those who have been blessed to be born to families, some for generations, who have been on this exodus.  Others of us get picked up along the way.

Sobriety is its own kind of exodus.  We abandon the ‘pig pen’ with all its rationalizations and excuses, seeking the promise of a love that seems almost too great and too generous to imagine.  That has been my journey, and it was that journey that led me to the Church, and I discovered these journeys were really the same.

I believe that sobriety and recovery naturally prepare one for the Church, and that in following the body of knowledge commonly referred to as the ’12 Steps,’ we find a reduced form of Orthodoxy.  So, to be an Orthodox Christian, whether one identifies as an alcoholic/addict or not, means to be one who is ‘recovering.’

What are we recovering from?  The fall, for starters.

Where are we going?  We are moving towards union with Him.