Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

James‬ ‭3‬:‭13

Volume typically separates those who get attention from those who do not.

The solution with the most noise around it is going to be the one most adopted. But we should be careful from the groupthink trap.

In recovery, the short-term loud mouths are not always right. There may be overlapping truth between their philosophy and the age-old wisdom of simply following through with the hard work of the steps, but we should look further than their sales pitch.

Isn’t the real draw the desire to make things easier? Don’t we really just aspire to be able to imitate that person’s conviction?

And there are plenty of loud mouths yelling the truth, don’t be dissuaded merely by volume or aesthetic.

Test, though. Look down the line. Where are the figures of long-term sobriety? And within them, where are the lives worth imitating.

Obviously, length of time isn’t the whole picture. As we stay a while, we will see that there are cold sober broken lives just as there are drunken, broken lives.

Sobriety must be more than sobriety to be worth it. We don’t battle a substance; we trade licks with our soul.

So, we examine the lives of those around us over time. Sometimes it will be immediately apparent by their example, but often it will take time to get to know the truth of people.

But we have brains for a reason, and it would do us well to strive to use them to their fullest at this turning point.

God, open my eyes to see the who you’ve put in my path.