Walk in the Light

I woke up early and enjoyed a breakfast of bacon and Belgian waffles, poolside with my husband. We prayed for a peaceful day. A time and a place where my Step Study Sisters would feel welcomed, comfortable, and safe.

I cleaned around the pool and made sure the slide, or as I refer to it, “the fountain” was running well. I strategically placed our plastic Adirondack chairs with footstools and side tables underneath the shade of the trees in the tree line to the left side of our home.  I fluffed the cushions and put them carefully on the faux wicker furniture that adorns our front porch.

Flowers were watered and candles were lit. I turned the televisions in both the den and sunroom to “The Message” satellite radio station, and turned the volume down to a background noise level. I placed my Bluetooth speaker out by the pool and tuned in my “Worship” playlist, trying to set the tone, and create quaint areas inside and outside conducive to prayer, meditation, reflection, and writing.

At my request, my husband even led our horses into their stalls, in the event that a sweet sister needed to share a hurt, habit, or hang-up in complete safety and confidence with a four-legged critter, knowing that our horses would never gossip.

Finally, food was set out and I awaited our guest. Why all these preparations? Well, you see, our Step Study Group is working on Step 4. And I wanted this day, this mini-retreat of sorts, to be a safe, comfortable and welcoming place for them to do the hard work. Working alone and independently, yet with loving sisters near-by.

Step 4: “We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40 NIV

Lessons 9-11 in Book 2 are what our Ministry Leader refers to as the “pick and shovel” work. We are preparing for Step 8 as we move into the final two books of our Step Study.

Step 8: “We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.”

Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31 NIV

Some people may wonder why on earth would we want to dig so deep into our past and bring up all of the hurts others had done to us or remind ourselves of the hurt we may have caused others. One of my favorite sayings in Celebrate Recovery sort of explains the why, “we are only as sick as our secrets.” If we have hurts, events, or emotions in our past that we never really dealt with; but rather just tucked away to forget about, odds are we really haven’t forgotten them at all, much less dealt with any of these hurts. We may have even built up resentment towards these people or events that effect our present day behaviors.

This “pick and shovel” work, this digging deep into our past, this working through our hurts allows God’s Spirit to reveal in us the things He wants us to leave behind. This act of writing it all down and then sharing it with our Sponsor, brings about the healing that James, the brother of Jesus, tells us about in James 5:16:

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

I love this verse so much. We may have already been forgiven of our hurts, habits, or hang-ups (sins), but perhaps we haven’t confessed these hurts, habits, or hang-ups to someone we trust, and therefore haven’t enjoyed the freedom that comes through healing.

I am so proud of the ladies in our Step Study Group. They came to the mini-retreat to work. They came to prepare for the healing they are about to receive as they complete Principle Four:

“Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.”

These ladies inspire me to continue to dig deep and discover any hurts I may have repressed or overlooked from my previous Step Studies. Just as the Bible is the living word, continually working through the 12-Steps and 8-Principles of Celebrate Recovery brings about the continuous healing of Jesus.

As the beloved disciple says in 1 John 1:7:

“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”

A huge shout out and thank you to my Step Study Sisters for the blessings of our mini-retreat this past Saturday. Keep walking in the light my sweet sisters!