What I love about 12-step programs,

is admitting we are powerless to change ourselves. Verrry radical message for Christians. Opposite of what we traditionally hear in Church -- we have the Spirit, we can do ALL things through Christ, the Christian life is doable, obedience is possible, we can change ourselves, so get out there and do better, believe better. Striving is good. Effort is good. Discipline is good. This is human-wisdom, human-effort, human-power. Pride, not humility. Jesus and His imputed worthiness are not ENOUGH for us. And it's why the Church is so saltless and impotent in our day. So dismissed by seculars.

Sure we can do ALL things through Christ -- that He leads us to do, when His Spirit is working in us so we are dependent on HIM, and not on our human-wisdom. Jesus is not our HELPER for our agendas -- He's our SAVIOR. No Christian gets credit for any dependency on Jesus. Faith is a GIFT, not something we exercise, like a muscle. All glory to HIM, none to us.

The other thing I love about 12-step programs is the community of love they foster -- strugglers honest about their struggling. More unconditional love for failures, than we typically find in Church. And we Christians are all failures. At following/obeying Jesus.

Where do I wish 12-step programs did a better job? In searching for the root of why a particular person is addicted -- what's at the bottom of this? Different reasons for different people. Addiction/idolatry weirds us humans. Abstinence doesn't deal with the root issue. Band-aid. Band-aids have helped lots of people abstain, but abstinence does not deliver the abundant LIFE Jesus promised, that we read about in the early chapters of the Book of Acts. Where there was contagion.

We live in denial of our addictions/idols, even though the outsides of our cups might be sparkly clean.

-- Dave McCarty, GospelFriendships, as addicted to his own worthiness as anyone

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