For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭20

The importance of gathering together should not be ignored.

I was pretty timid about the idea of going to meetings all the time when I was being introduced to the AA program.

I’d grown up with the expectation of attending church on Sunday’s and then returning a couple other times for youth group gatherings.

I was fortunate to be involved in a fair amount of this through middle and high school but did not grab hold of it as though it were a vital component of my life.

In recovery, the insistence on the involvement with others and the communal focus of regularly meeting together is front and center.

This time it’s because we have lost much and have much on the line.

There is magic in banding together for a common purpose. Meetings don’t cure us, but they help focus us away from the common adversary of addiction.

As days turned into weeks in my early sobriety, I began to believe more of what I was hearing. And I began to see that the free gift offered in recovery was a mere derivative of what I had selfishly walked away from back in high school ministry groups.

True, we have the benefit in recovery of brushing up against death’s door and now needing to insulate ourselves from further run-ins.

But the simplest truth is that we need to return to the God who both cares for us and provides a way out for us.

God, thank you for still giving me a way out.