For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭36

It looks easy once you’ve been around a while. It looks effortless to stay sober.

And in some ways, it is.

But it doesn’t start that way.

In the beginning, it is painstaking and slow and without the hope that it seems so many people have.

The first steps toward freedom are a gruesome crawl that doesn’t seem worth it.

Days sometimes get worse not better.

The only thing that keeps us coming back are the encouraging words from those who’ve gone before us.

Don’t compare how it feels in the beginning to the ease that old timers seem to live with.

They’ve put in the reps. They’ve gone through the slog of early sobriety. It was just as hard.

The key is that annoyingly simple little piece of advice that we get plastered with from day one.

Keep coming back.

No matter what.

This new life can be the easy way for anyone who puts one foot in front of the other, willingly following directions.

God isn’t out to get you. He’s out to free you. And freedom comes at the cost of laying down the act of killing ourselves.

The steps of recovery are often summed up in this way: trust God, clean house, help others. It really is that simple.

As time goes by, our one day at a time life becomes the easier, softer way that we wanted all along.

God, free me from the fear of things never changing.