And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬

This is a great picture of the beginning of recovery. The beginning of the long trek back from my own selfish ways. The beginning of the rest of the life that I now see has been a gift.

You’ve got to think God gets frustrated with our petty bouts of drinking and drugging. Addiction to us is an insurmountable wall between us and life.

But to him it’s a fickle quirk of humanity.

He knows that it just takes a turning of our spirit and mind and life away from our own selves and toward something bigger for us to begin to heal. He knows it’s possible even when we doubt it.

When we finally turn to the solution, it is very much like being vomited out of our previous way of life.

We stink.

People keep avoiding us.

It’s going to take a while to repair things. And we need to clean ourselves up first.

But we can’t help but be excited in these first moments back in the sunlight.

Yes, we have to get the poison cleared.

This often requires medical attention. And it always entails steep spikes of emotions that will drag us backward if we don’t root ourselves in place.

Once we’ve cleaned up and settled down, it is very common to begin to want to tuck tail and run. Because now sobriety is more than an idea, it’s a door we’ve walked through.

Now we’ve got to follow through into the unknown. With our emotions bound together in one stringy thread.

God makes this possible. Others help us put one foot in front of the other.

God, help me keep following through.