And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:5

In the beginning, all I cared about was relief. I needed a reprieve.

This was the overwhelming focus of each day: when would things level out? And when would I feel better?

In the dawn of new sobriety, we have blinders on for some time. It’s a stretch to consider anything but our own state of being.

The only thing that has improved is the removal of drugs and alcohol. Our vice is gone, but our broken spirit remains.

This is why we keep things simple. This is why we focus on a day, an hour, a moment at a time.

Zooming out is often the straw that takes us back out. We enter sobriety in desperate need of an anchor by which we can stay in sobriety.

If we look around too much and consider the uphill journey ahead of us, our selfishness will often win us over and direct us backward.

And make no mistake, usually all that’s left at this point is our selfishness.

Sobriety in and of itself doesn’t do much more than give us a needed reprieve and opportunity to inject something worthwhile into our life.

Alone, it can offer some hope. But if that hope is to transform us and give us lasting satisfaction and contentment, it must be attached to action, to confession, to repentance, to true change.

These things look impossible, but are being achieved through willingness, honesty and slow, steadfast progress every day.

The key is to view it rightly as a continuum of recovery rather than a moment of healing.

Moments fade, but the life we need must burn on ahead of us.

God, change me and anchor me to your will.