LaFemme

So I am curious because there seems to have been a lot of God talk lately.

It sometimes seems as though the expectation is if you are a person who believes in God (especially Christian) then your path to recovery is going to be AA.

As a person of faith I am curious if there are others on this board who are like me...a believer in God pursuing recovery in their own unique way

Btw, I believe God helped me get sober but that I am essentially in charge of staying that way. I have always had a relationship with God and did not find him in recovery.

6 months today

Ghostly

HEY LF,

I'm a believer in God. I don't do AA. I think AA is great, and I haven't ruled it out, just not for me right now.

I personally find that when I do not feel as close to God, it is because I have let it get they way. When I pray regularly, go outside in the cold taking in deep breathes and think of Him, or even just talk to Him, I feel so much closer to Him.

So...I think how close I feel to Him in recovery is a least part up to me. Sometimes I feel closer to Him than other times.

Congrats on 6 months!

Dee74

Well, I'm not sure I've seen many people have that expectation here....

I started out this journey as an atheist but so many things happened and converged I decided I'd have to be an idiot to ignore them.

My concept of God in recovery is pretty simple - God moves mountains, but most times He hands me the shovel .

what others make of that is really none of my concern - I certainly don't expect anyone else to follow my beliefs because my relationship to God as I see it is a personal one...it must be

D

Ghostly

Awesome post Dee. Thanks for that.

yeahgr8

Yeah that is a bit weird that people should think if you're Christian you go to AA...IMO a practicing Christian would have to do as much work as an agnostic/athiest in AA...

Mind you i am in Europe and the meetings are very different over here...i.e. very non-religion based, from what i understand of some US meetings i can see why this would happen over there though...

Celebrate Recovery is Christian based isn't it?

Obviously i am in AA but am very interested to see more on this thread:-)

topspin

Wow,
Time really flies !?!

Congrats on 6 months LF !!!!



"An important milestone," ....(Heard this , years ago;.from a very reliable source )

Peter G

Tops how've ya been!

Oh, and yes, congratulations LF, 6 months is smokin'.

Itchy

Congrats on six months LF!

Well said Dee.

To answer your question Femme, for me only, I use AA and am more of a confirmed agnostic (oxymoron alert!) and definitely not of the faithful if that involves a religion, any religion. I believe that religion is inherited, you get it from your parents. AA doesn't push religion, though some of its members do, as they do in private and in public and in the workplace. Which for me is inappropriate. I like Pascal's wager as a starting point and am an objectivist by nature, even though I do believe in a higher power.

So I am sure that there are Christians who don't do AA, just as I am the flip side and go to AA but am anti religion.

reggiewayne

Hi Lafemme. Congrats on your 6 months! That is awesome!!!

I have found a real concept of god through AA. I never could quite understand God when I was going to Evangelical Christian church's. All the rules, the holy spirit, the fact that Jesus was god in the flesh, the virgin birth, etc... all of these things seem to get in the way of me forming a relationship with God. For me, AA allowed me to be open to a god of my understanding, to seek him, to keep it simple, and to not get bogged down in all of the rules.

Everyone is different, but the way AA approaches the "God thing" just works for me. So, I consider myself a believer in god and AA, but not necessarily a Christian. I'm just trying to stay open, pray, and ask him to reveal himself in a way that I can understand.

Good topic!

LaFemme

Hey Dee....expectation might have been a poor word choice because I didn't mean people thought a Christian should do AA more that they were surprised if one did not

Itchy....I did not inherit my religion....my parents are agnostic//atheist....altrhough we do have a Christmas Tree but I have Jewish friends who do as well...lol.

Just a funny thought but are there any practicing Jews here....I don't think I know of any?

cabledude

A lot of Christians come into AA and discover that atheism is their true belief.

Just the reverse of the stereotype that rattles so many. The job for developing and producing the short film 'AAs and God' was given to one such former Christian, currently longtime atheist member to complete, because we don't care in the least what you believe or don't believe is true for you. No one is interested in the specifics of your personal beliefs.

The thing to look at that I believe is important are the results people get from what they do. If you see lots of long time people doing something successfully to maintain their sober state, and they are not pilled up or smoking dope, just doing life well without a drink or drink substitute, then that path is worth considering for yourself as one that works.

If you examine a path that appeals to you and there are few or zero members that are sober over 5 years, then that tells you that path is not effective, no matter how attractive it appears or how warmly you respond to it. Every choice of path is out there, and it is incumbent on you to ask the question of the followers of that path...how many of you have passed 5yrs (the usual early sobriety marker) without drinking or smoking dope.

The members will often assure you that they are doing so well at 8 weeks or14 months that it's a sure thing that all will be peachy forever, but because alcoholism doesn't work that way, determine what the actual results are for people who give that path their best shot.

The ones who are on no path at all, except what their heads tell them to do aren't worth your attention, as they blow in and out like chaff on a windy day.

LaFemme

Hey cabledude...I like the idea of surveying the effectiveness of a program based on how well the members are doing 5 years in but don't know how I would find enough people who aren't doing a formal program to find out how well they are doing ....kinda hard to fiond them you know

That said I have 2 sober friends...one with 15 years the other with 3....neither has a formal program although I think the guy with 15 might have had one when he first got sober

cabledude

Why not do a little survey in the Secular Recovery Group (5yrs, no booze or dope and no AA involvement)? That would be a much bigger sampling of people (probably hundreds at least), and you could get a good idea about what your chances are very quickly.

Be brave, make the effort to search for the truth.

If there are lots, then you know. If there are few, then you know.

LaFemme

Are you talking about the secular recovery group here on sr? There's maybe 5 of us who are regulars?

Most people who don't use a program aren't in support groups. I have done a lot of research and have found a lot of people who aren't in a program who have a good amount of recovery...but I have not found them in one place...you have to look for them

LaFemme

And that was one of the reasons I posed this question here....I was actually looking for believers who were not in a formal program...my friends in the secular forum typically don't fit that bill but they are kind enough to overlook my praying and occasional God talk...lol

cabledude

K, just a thought...I think it's fun to do when possible and in the right crowd. Fun to watch the 'I've been completely alcohol-free for 6 years and did it all on my own' people get real quiet suddenly when you toss in the dope thing.

Demut

I have always had a relationship with God as well, ever since infant baptism. The reality I have learned though, is that many people enter recovery with skewed perceptions of God, many are ex-Catholics who share unhappy memories of a child being raised in the church, many, well all of us, have made our drug of choice our God. I'm not sure I have witnessed a connection on these forums where all of us Christians adhere to the program of alcoholics anonymous,, but the point I'm trying to make is that I have witnessed countless individuals find their God through and within the program of AA, on retreats etc. There is a program of 12 step recovery that uses the Bible and mirrors the program of AA but is soley based on scripture. And there are many I know who maintain sobriety with the support of their own church. Just another fine example for how we're all so very different, yet so very much alike!
~d

Untoxicated

Congrats on the 6 months! That's huge!

I felt a lot like you for a long time.

As a former atheist turned Christian (just recently), I seemed a bit more at home with secular folks than I did with the Christians. As I explore myself, I'm finding that I feel at home with all folks - those folks didn't change*, I did. (*they certainly could have but for all intents and purposes here my acceptance level of myself changed and with that, my acceptance level of others )

I didn't use anything but a conscious decision to get and stay sober. By making that choice things started to happen: I am working with a counselor to discover who I am, I have found God and started to pray, and I haven't been happier in years.

If someone were to ask me, "did you use self, God, or a recovery program to get and stay sober?" I'd reply, "yes!"

(By the way today is my 90th day - )

Mark75

Many believers live their lives in ways very similar to "the program"... my best friend, he's NA... as in non alcoholic ... he's a deeply spiritual man, who, btw, is christian... He's is often amazed to see the similarities between his path and mine... That may beg the oxford group question, I don't know... but I think that comparison would be somewhat prejudicial and actually miss the point...

I was always fascinated and inspired by spirituality and catholic theology... the difference now is that I have more faith and use the power more often in my daily life...

Let me turn the table a little, LaFemme, if I may... What are the differences you see between your spiritual path and the spiritual path of AA.... the program, not the fellowship and especially not the individual (too many differences there...)

Or maybe that's unfair, but I am curious too!!

doggonecarl

I fit the description. Add me to your list. I have my faith, and I have my recovery. My faith touches every aspect of my life, including my recovery. But I wouldn't call my recovery faith-based...if that makes any sense.