A Letter to Celebrate Recovery

Hello, my name is Nick; I’m a grateful believer in Jesus Christ who struggles with codependency and pride.

LAST WEEK:
Big shout out to Steve (@smparrill) for taking us through one of my FAVORITE lessons of the year…YES!

#1 YIELD myself to God
#2 EXAMPLE is what matters
#3 SERVE others like Jesus did

This is what it’s all about! Isn’t it? Recovery isn’t dwelling on past mistakes. Recovery isn’t holding on to the pain of our past. Recovery isn’t believing we are the names and labels we’ve been given. Recovery isn’t fixing others and ignoring ourselves. Recovery is learning who we are IN Christ…

And this only happens AFTER we acknowledge Jesus Christ as our one and only true higher power. That’s it. End of story. We call him Savior. We call him Redeemer. We find freedom in the shadow of a bloodstained cross. Acknowledging who he IS means we YIELD to his will, we SURRENDER, we wave our WHITE FLAG, we allow him to LEAD the way. We acknowledge his ways are BETTER and that he wants something FOR us, to BLESS us, to PROSPER us. We recognize God as FATHER and believe He will work all things for our GOOD!

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. That doesn’t mean it’s all cotton candy, unicorns, and rainbows. That simply means, I’m gonna mess up, manure is gonna hit the fan, I’m going to struggle, sometimes it’ll feel like my world is crashing down, BUT I know God is in control, He’ll never turn away from me, He’ll never let me go, and He wants what’s BEST for me because ultimately it brings Him glory.


THIS WEEK:
This week is TESTIMONY week! And, on top of that, it’s CHIP NIGHT! For whatever reason I was promoting last week as CHIP NIGHT (most likely because I also schedule the Weekend Experience and that took place in December while Friday was still November…anyways, just sayin’) and it wasn’t last week, it’s THIS week! That means we’ll clap and cheer and celebrate milestone dates for sobriety from all sorts of hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, we’ll cry, clap, and cheer as we hear a testimony of victory and hope found in Christ! That puts the CELEBRATE in Celebrate Recovery!


NEWS & UPDATES:
Here are 2 things I want to draw to your attention…

#1 The Landing – This week marks the FIRST run through of The Landing. I’m so EXCITED for our launch team to be coming together, growing together, and serving and helping our students learn to cope with the hurts, habits, and hang-ups they’re all facing in our schools, homes, churches, and community at large. Do you have a student that falls somewhere within the 6th grade – 12th grade range? Bring’em! Invite’em! Let’em know they GET TO be a part of something from the VERY BEGINNING, the VERY START! We WANT them to be here, to provide feedback, to help us…in turn help them…which eventually leads to helping many MANY others! This all happens on Friday at 7p.

#2 Anniversary Celebration – Oh dang! It’s that time of year again! 3 years ago Celebrate Recovery invaded the 4 (or more) walls of New Life’s building and we haven’t looked back since. This year we celebrate 3 years of life change, 3 years of getting better, 3 years of growing, 3 years of family, 3 years of recovery. We’ll kick everything off with a potluck dinner at 6p and then some AWESOME worship music and a time of reflection on where we’ve been and casting of where we’re headed! Whether you’re currently attending, have attended in the past, have thought about attending, or don’t even know what Celebrate Recovery IS…I want you to be there. Mark your calendars: Friday, December 14.


THE END:
The end. Just kidding. I love you! I’m excited to see you this Friday! I’m excited to worship with you, pray with you, cry with you, and CELEBRATE with you! See you Friday at 6p!