I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 12:1

Stopping certainly can feel like being sacrificed.

Really stopping doesn’t always happen when we put down the bottle. Sure, we stop polluting our bodies and come up for air, for reflection. We admit there’s a problem. Heck, we often quickly admit that finding God is a solution.

But it’s not till we decide to follow Him that we really stop.

For many, this turning of our will and lives over to the care of God simply starts with entrusting our sobriety to a friend, a mentor, or a group. Maybe God is still a stretch.

I don’t think he minds; we’ve been more stubborn at many other times. And if it’s the difference between trying a new way of life and striking out alone, then I’ll be the first to tell you: use your own conception of God to make a beginning.

Just don’t close the door on the possibility of more; the sober agnostic will agree: willingness is still indispensable.

Are you willing to believe that you’re not God?

And once we’ve come to believe in God—even one that we don’t understand yet or are pissed off at—we can begin the slow work of moving toward him. The first step of which is presenting our bodies to him; freeing them of the bondage of addiction; stepping toward him in faith; letting him lead us up the mountain of our life.

Are you willing to walk uphill?