Be Restored Into What You Were Made to Be

The waters surrounded me, even to my soul;
The deep closed around me. But in my distress
I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help.
He reached down from heaven and rescued me;
He drew me out of deep waters. He led me to a place of safety;
He rescued me because he delights in me.
He has brought my life up from the pit; my Lord, my God.
Jonah 2:5, 6, Psalm 18: 6, 16, 19

JUST POSTED: Jesus Wept… and Then Some (not your typical funeral)

“Whatever’s drowning you in fear, in discouragement, in sadness… Give it to Jesus. Whatever’s over your head is under his feet.” —Adrian Rogers*

Truth be told, my greatest challenge is trusting entirely in what I say I believe in. I struggle with doubt, and the anxiety that comes with it, particularly when faced with adversity so intense it’s scary. It’s easy for folks to say, “Well, just give it to Jesus” or, “Let go and let God,” but all the while I’m wondering, “Where is God when I need him most?” I’ve, at times, wrestled with the question, “Where was God when this (and that) happened to me?” This unyielding conflict between trust and fear can grip my insides and not let go; especially while in the depths of acute crisis.

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” —A.W. Tozer

When I was confronted by fierce opposition, God felt distant to me… disengaged. There have been times that “required” God’s immediate attention to the details and when I needed for God to intervene. And yet I felt I was left hanging… out there on my own… alone. When my quality of life was threatened, where was God? Where is God? Have you ever felt like that… or perhaps even today, feel like that?

Did you know that the most famous person in human history asked the same question… out loud… in front of people, while tortured to death at the hands of the people who opposed him? Did you know that he asked God for a way out from the circumstance that overwhelmed him?

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death… My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” —Jesus Christ

When Jesus, a person of flesh and blood (void of divine privilege), was desperate for divine intervention in the midst of an appalling human tragedy, he felt rejected and alone. Feelings of abandonment and betrayal in the midst of such horrific pain and suffering was indeed his experience. He felt it all as a human being while carrying a burden so heavy I fail to comprehend it.

“My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” —Jesus Christ

Crisis and trauma can suddenly sap someone’s strength from the inside out. Personal tragedy and failure can overwhelm anyone, and break one’s will to go on. Cumulative anxiety and stress takes its toll over time, bankrupting a person’s emotional reserves until…

How about you? What’s your experience? What are you holding onto? How does what you’re dealing with affect how you see things… how you see yourself?

“Sometimes we do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.” —Larry Crabb

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Corinthians 13:12`

What is true about how you see yourself, your life, and the world you live in? How might your perceptions influence what you believe about God? How have unmet expectations and adverse circumstances produced a perception that God is distant?

How has at-risk behavior been reinforced in your life? What are the lies twisting your beliefs and distorting your values? How might these distortions be treasonous to your living experience, robbing you of joy and hope?

Though you may acknowledge God’s existence, how might believing that God is distant from you (or disinterested) contribute to your sense of angst and dread in times of adverse challenge and difficulty?

“A wrong view of God is what leads to wrong thinking and attitudes, which is what leads to wrong behavior. So you can’t change your behavior until you change your thinking. And you can’t change your thinking until it’s based on a right theology (truth) about God.” —James McDonald

How does feeling that God may have left you led to feeling like you’re not worthy of God’s attention?

How does feeling unworthy produce the sense of feeling hopeless that your life will ever improve, or be any better than it’s been?

How does feeling consumed by internalized guilt emote a debilitating sense of lifelessness piling on to the weight of the burden?

“The deepest moral issue is always what we, in our heart of hearts, believe about God.” —John Eldredge

So much of FREEdom from MEdom Project concerns the unveiling of this mystery of who and what we are, while revealing the truth about who God is as it relates to who and what we are; that it’s God’s resolve to ease our minds and to set us free.

So, what about you? Is what you believe about God trustworthy? Does what you believe about God promote courage and confidence? Or, does what you believe about God cast doubt and fear, directed toward distrust and anxiety?

“There is a sorrow that the soul must go through in letting go of what it thought it loved. We have to come to the place where we truly get it that what God wants for us is GOOD. To some degree, our resistance to his will reveals that we do not really believe it is good—at least not the kind of ‘good’ we want.” —Francis Leeman

Why do you need recovery? Recovery from what? What is recovery?

Ask yourself the following…

“Is how I live my life rewarding, or is how I live costing me too much?”

“What do I want most for my life? What all needs to be better in my life for me to be better… to truly enjoy living?”

“Being entirely honest with myself, what’s all getting in the way of what I want? What burdens are so heavy, they’re crushing me? How am I tempted to settle for anything that feels a little bit better?”

“Does what I do to feel better in the moment work for me over time, or does what I do to feel better lead to other problems or make existing problems worse?”

How you overcome those obstacles in the way of what you want most—what you value—IS RECOVERY! To not engage in recovery is to decline and decay until there is nothing left.

Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.  So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. James 1:14-16 (NLT)

When what I am doing (behavior) consistently drags me farther away from what I want and value most, instead of drawing me closer to what I want (and probably need, for that matter), it is clear indication that I NEED RECOVERY. Baited by what feels right, I am hooked yet again, one way or another ingesting the toxins that are infecting my mind and body, increasing the distance between where I am and where I want to be.

Recovery means regaining what I’ve lost, repairing what’s broke, and restoring what’s worn me down. Recovery fully realized is a transformative, life-changing process; not only improving my quality of living, but having a restorative effect into what I was always meant to be. Its impact can be powerful, like being changed into something new.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

The caterpillar is limited in the scope of what it can do. It was not created, though, to stay the way it is. It was meant for something better; to be transformed into the experience of a butterfly. It was made to be something beautiful. It was made to fly.

We were made to be beautiful and free, but life has slowed us down and restricted our movement. We get stuck. It hurts. It needs to change. That’s what recovery is all about. You were not made to be stuck, hardly able to move. You were made to live freely. You’re meant for something good, to be appreciated and enjoyed.

“The search for wholeness compels every person, every hour of our lives, whether we know it or not. We ache to be made whole again. And only one person on earth can do this for the heart and soul he himself created.” —John Eldredge

Is this all there is? Is this as good as it gets? Will I ever be happy?

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
    but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. Proverbs 17:22 (NLT)

Recovery is truly essential to the life I want and hope to experience. Who isn’t flawed? In so many ways over time, life experiences tend to pick me apart, perhaps slowly, but surely. Life is being human, living my life so affected by other humans, who battle their own issues while living in my world. It’s not enough that I make my own mess. Experiencing life with you, I live in your mess too. What a mess!

How has a lifetime’s worth of experiences affected (or should I say, infected) how you see yourself? How have your values been distorted and beliefs twisted by pain and struggle? How has what you’ve suffered fueled feelings of failure and fear, feeding into a deeply rooted sense of inadequacy, and driving misdirected behavioral choices producing undesired outcomes?

Life produces circumstances that are scary enough, but when our own chronic choices produce harmful outcomes, the fear that ensues can be crippling. You’re stuck… frozen in time. You can’t move; even when you know you need to. The profound disappointment of yet another regrettable decision and failed expectation is too much to bear. It’s that fear that produces deep discouragement, depression and despair.

“The problem with fear is when it doesn’t lift after the thing that induced it is gone. Fear that worms its way inside becomes a roving phobia and dread—one of the enemy’s most potent ways of messing with your mind.” —James McDonald

Even the iconic King David of the Bible, swayed by twisted beliefs and distorted values, repeated regrettable behavioral choices that cost him dearly (2 Samuel 11-12). Burdened by fear, David’s erratic behavior produced increased pain and suffering, inciting David to write the following:

My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain.  All day long I walk around filled with grief. A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken. I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart. You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh. My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind. My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance. Psalm 38:4-11 (NLT)

“I want to wake up in the morning saying, ‘Good morning, God,’ instead of waking up and saying, ‘Oh God, it’s morning.'” —Wynonna Judd

Regardless of one’s age, at the root core of anxiety, stress, and non-clinical episodes of depression is fear. Fear is the logical human response to loss. Fear and loss are at the heart of most of what ails us. Loss leaves us with the foreboding impression of risk and distrust in our choices and how we affect or are affected by others. Fear breeds insecurity and a brooding sense of inadequacy, draining us of motivation and resolve. When feeling we’re broken, and that perhaps happiness is merely an implausible idea that’s not realistic, we can trend toward feeling hopeless, merely managing another day with a heavy heart.

How does the weight of life’s challenges affect how you approach your day? Why take on the stress of the next challenge when so sure in your gut it will only lead to certain disappointment?

When tireless efforts lead to betrayal and failed expectations, wounds run deep and the constant trying can feel so futile; like a dark cloud hovering just above you. Perhaps feeling worthless, with damaged self-esteem and diminished confidence, there’s that tendency to isolate, doubting that you can do anything about anything. Who can blame you for giving up? But, how will the behavioral choices associated with giving up truly remedy your discomfort?

How does what I do to manage and cope with anxiety and stress draw me closer to what I want most for my life? Or, how does my “pain management” applications drag me farther away from what I truly want for my life? Am I better? Am I worse? Or, am I stuck in some kind of malaise, spinning my wheels?

“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.” —C.S. Lewis

How will turning to this or that remedy actually help you? Or, is your antidote for discomfort a mirage? The remedy looks good from a distance, but up close, when intensifying your pain, is not so attractive after all. How does settling for counterfeit gains only add to your loss? How does settling for less aggravate your problem, escalating your stress, increasing the severity of your discomfort? The reality is that settling for less pulls you farther away from what you know at your core is best.

The remedy is the means to escape. The truth is that to leave from a place, is to enter in to another place. To escape from something, is to escape into something else. Is it surely less painful there? Maybe for a time. But when the remedy includes the logical consequence of increased pain and struggle, the choice is regrettable. I might even wish I was back to where I was before I fled for what I thought was greener pastures.

The grass is always greener on the other side, right? The other side always looks better from a distance… until you get there. From a distance, the other side appears to lack difficulty and challenge… and consequence. You don’t see the snakes in the grass from a distance; the critters and beasts in the marsh wanting to take a bite out of you. From here, it all looks so much better over there. So, what if you risk it and leave for the other side? Do you find yourself in even more pain on the other side? Do you look back and wonder to yourself, “Hmm… from here, the grass looks so much greener where I came from.” Maybe you’re thinking, “As bad as I felt where I was, here on the other side, it’s even worse.”

Have you ever left a room, only to have the door you walked through swing shut behind you, and then, when you realize you were better off where you came from, you change your mind and turn around to go back, but when you turn the knob to open the door, the door is locked and you can’t get back in? Then you get that sinking feeling. Now what? You have to find someone who has the key to get back to where you realize now you need to be.

“The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; everyone knows that something is wrong when they’re being hurt.” —C.S. Lewis

I tend to not consider consequences, or deceive myself into believing I don’t care what the consequence is, until when? Until I am left experiencing the consequence of my choices. “Now I care.” My feelings tricked my thoughts. My thoughts affect what I believe; what I value. What I believe drives how I choose. Then my choice produces behavior. Once I make my choice, I act (behave) according to my choice. Now I have to live with my choice.

“Your freedom gets limited by an internal reality that is a kind of brokenness or weakness or dividedness inside you… If our will is enslaved to our appetites, if our thoughts are obsessed with unfulfilled desires, if our emotions are slaves to our circumstances, if our bodily habits contradict our professed values, the soul is not free.” —John Ortberg

What am I hoping to find? What is it that I want more than anything?

What am I hoping to find? What is it that I want more than anything? Is it to be loved? Is it to be free? Is to be free of fear? Is what I want most to be free to love without reservation, holding something back, afraid of being hurt again? Is what I want most to be free of fear so that I am free to enjoy my life with those I love?

The more I am separated from that which I truly want, the more it hurts me. I don’t even have to know what I’m missing. Something in me always knows. I’ll buy into the lie that the next big thing I settle for is good enough—even believing it makes me happy—until I experience the hurt connected to what I’ve settled for. The distortions come at a price. Counterfeit pleasure and relief is costly. How much am I willing to pay—lose—before I come to my senses? Must I go broke? Emotionally, relationally, and perhaps even financially, bankrupt?

I don’t need to hit some kind of bottom in order to change my ways, but it’s not in my nature to initiate the change process until I hurt bad enough to need to change. It’s the pain I experience that creates enough contrast between what I really want, and what I’ve been left with. My pain is what motivates me to do something about it. Until I finally want better, why change?

Have I worked hard enough to drill home this point? Until what we believe in fails us, we tend not to dispute what we believe works for us; even if what we believe is working isn’t really working. Did you get that?

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
    he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalms 34:18 (NLT)

FREEdom from MEdom Project exists to inspire hope within hurting people to find healing and redemption through recovery God’s way into the best of a new life experience. Life is meant to be enjoyed by way of relationship. Relationship is meant to be experienced freely, from a place of stability and love, not wrought with disharmony and conflict. Love is not merely a notion, but is meant to be understood through your experience. Happy is a fleeting emotion riding the wave of circumstance. It is not enough to hopelessly survive the noisy disturbance of another day. It’s joy that cuts through your hardships. Joy is not an idea or theory, but meant to be experienced.

The Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)

Before I go on, I recognize that there may be some who consider God’s existence suspect, or simply don’t believe it. For the those who have stumbled onto this website not sure about God, I pose the following question: If God didn’t always exist, what did? Something always existed, and it had to be alive to produce life. It’s the only thing that rationally makes any real sense. This is not meant to defend a religious position, or poke at feelings you might have about this kind of thing, but rather to appeal to—perhaps even challenge—your most logically reasonable sensibilities. I have struggled to wrap my mind around and ever-existent God, but something always existed. If not God, then what? What banged?

“What we know is a drop, what we do not know is a vast ocean. The admirable arrangement and harmony of the universe could only have come from the plan of an omniscient and omnipotent being.” —Isaac Newton

Did you know that Albert Einstein appears to have struggled with this? He did, and even suggested that God had to be the driving force behind what he believed to be logical about science. Contrary to popular opinion, surveys suggest that more than half of the scientists either acknowledged their belief in God, or some form of a supreme being as the logical engineer of the order of the universe.

“We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.” —Albert Einstein

If it’s a problem to believe in something you can’t see, let me say that you believe in what you can’t see all the time: gravity, your cell phone signal, temperature… you get the idea. Your experience is the evidence of what you don’t see, and you believe in that, right? You’ve likely heard people you know and trust describe their experiences believing—even trusting—in God. How can you know that they’re deceived or mistaken or… brainwashed? At the end of the day, what’s true is true, and what’s real is real, whether you believe it or not. Ask, arguably, the smartest man who ever lived.

“The more I study science, the more I believe in God… I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know his thoughts; the rest are details.” —Albert Einstein

Anyway, once accepting God as your maker, everything after that (i.e., the resurrection of Jesus) is at least possible… everything! And if God made life, he must have made it for good, or what would be the point? If God is good, then it would appear reasonable that God wants good for you. If wounded or broken, your maker can make you better. Just as a loving father dotes on his kids, God cherishes you, and wants the best for you.

Now, where were was I? (“Joy is meant to be experienced…”) Okay, here we go.

It’s time to get up and get moving… to thrive, empowered by God to succeed and enjoy your life; free to fully experience the truest essence of love that God intends for you. God made you and wants so much to partner with you and share in the experience of your life. Imagine companionship with the maker and giver of all things? This isn’t rambling-on religious fluff. It’s real! All of it! It’s the truth! God desires to restore you from the broken places into the whole person he made you to be.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NIV)

“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists… If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” —C.S. Lewis

I cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 (NLT)

“Although I love to take control, it is so overwhelming and I know that control is not mine. That is why the load is so heavy when I try to carry it. I do that because I stop trusting that God will take care of it.” —Janet

Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress.
My problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all!
Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins. Psalms 25:16-18 (NLT)

FREEdom from MEdom Project is not just another pretentious ‘Christianity versus psychology’ narrative on how to cure the addictive lifestyle riddled with dysfunction. While never apologizing for that which is sensible about new life empowered by faith in God through relationship with Jesus, FREEdom from MEdom Project is not a slave to religious dogma and recognizes the hypocrisy of people who say one thing but then engage in behavior inconsistent with their words. I tend to struggle with that myself.

Why is trusting my feelings such a problem for me?

“Emotions too often drive what we do. This is not God’s plan for any of us. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”” —Rich Wilkerson, Sr.

The truth is that our brains have been short-circuited by the problem of the fallen nature of all of us to be selfish. There is a scientific reality concerning the human brain that dictates—even predetermines—our thinking, feelings, beliefs, and behavior.

It turns out that the brain is a complex automated system. Neurobiology is the study of cells of the nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior.**

We don’t have to intentionally activate ingestion in order to swallow food. The brain decides then what is nutritionally useful about food and discards the rest as waste. Hmm. We make driving decisions suddenly in the moment before contemplating how to turn the wheel or apply the brakes of our automobile to avoid disaster. We’re able react to things before weighing the balance of potential outcomes. We just do it, seemingly without thinking. However, the brain is always thinking. Constantly.

We also make behavioral choices according to how our brains automatically process information every moment of our lives. We ought to think before we act. Instead, we react impulsively (automatically) to what we feel in the moment, betrayed by emotion, as if we’re not entirely in control of ourselves. It’s indeed our reality that raw emotion tends to override rational thought, and so we behave accordingly. It seems we can’t help but to trust our feelings, as fragile as they may be. We need help filtering what we feel through what we truly know (from rational thought) makes the most sense.

“I can to some extent control my acts. I have no direct control over my temperament. If what we are matters even more than what we do—if indeed if what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are—then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary efforts cannot bring about.” —C.S. Lewis

Of course, the emotional function of the human brain is essential to our life experience. To experience joy we need to feel it for it to mean anything. We were created to feel what we experience. The problem we share is that trusting flawed wounded feelings convinces rational thought to believe in something irrational in the pursuit of happiness. Irrational beliefs trigger impulsive behavioral responses fueling choices that in time, or all at once, produce harmful outcomes that threaten to jeopardize our quality of life.

“Everyone is not okay as they wander through life, and when we know people intimately we will find that much has been stolen from them, that many hearts have dried up and died, and that they cannot find a way out of those prisons by their own power.” —Francis Leeman

We need help confronting the neurobiological reality of what feeds into feelings, fuels thoughts and beliefs, and drives behavior.

Since the fall of the human condition, it is a neurobiological reality that we’re born into selfishness. So we all struggle with an innate sense of what we feel (believe) we deserve. The wires in our brains are entangled to want what we want when we want it, which of course is, well… right now. There is no escaping it, and on our own there isn’t much we can do about it. When it’s a choice between this, which is best, or that, which has appeal but pales in comparison (and potentially harmful), betrayed by emotion we’ll too often choose what feels good in the moment, at the expense of what we mindfully know is best. We then regret the outcome we have to live with, grieving the loss of what we know we value most.

“I was so obsessed with me and the reasons I might be dissatisfied that I couldn’t focus on other people. When I find myself taking the wrong step, I think it’s because I’m trying to protect myself instead of trying to do God’s work.” —Barack Obama^

Because he himself (Jesus Christ) suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:18 (NIV)

What a mess! How do we best identify and examine irrational beliefs? How do we confront and challenge irrational beliefs when we so struggle to accept that they’re irrational? Are we doomed to the logical consequences of our making? Only the One who made us in the first place can fully restore us into what we were created to be… rewire our brains, so to speak.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2 (NIV)

What FREEdom from MEdom Project intends to be is an honest in-depth study and discussion of the transformative life-changing process; going deep into the process of how we think and behave. FREEdom from MEdom Project is a vehicle to unveiling truth for the purpose of opening doors into a new life experience; targeting proven realistic solutions that you already know rationally make the most sense.

Why stumble all over the internet when you can find most of what you’re looking for at one location? The vision for this site has always been to develop one location full of rooms loaded with helpful resources. Contained within each room is an accessible library full of variety and potential for freedom finders to experience something authentically better and hopeful. And most importantly, that freedom finders would come to experience relationship with the giver of new life.

Peruse the menu above and you will find a wealth of opportunity to be informed by credible sources about symptomatic addictive behavior (Addiction ED) and mental health-related issues and symptoms (MH ED). If you’re feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, stress, depression, and perhaps a sense of hopelessness, there are dozens of helpful applicable resources and access to crisis resources and hotlines. I accumulated data for the educational material in Addiction ED and Mental Health ED from online research to make FREEdom from MEdom Project a kind of one-stop resource center for hurting people in need of healing and recovery.

Have you never heard? Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31 (NLT)

FREEdom from MEdom Project intends to be a trustworthy resource striving to bridge the divide between clinically evidenced-based therapeutic approaches and biblical truth about recovery. You will become well-informed concerning the true nature of addiction to self from both a clinical and, yes, biblical perspective. The initial objective is to break through thick emotional barriers resistant to change by awakening rational thought relevant to what makes the most sense.

What really are the differences between guilt and shame, anger and resentment, disappointment and failure, helplessness and hopelessness? How do I avoid sliding into something that feels unavoidable? How do I resist falling into what feels irrestable?  What does it really mean to lay your burden down? How does surrendering to the process of recovery God’s way make the most sense?

Experience freedom from feeling stuck, trapped and afraid

“The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it.” —Dr. Henry Cloud

It wise to adjust your life to the truth. It is foolish to believe you can adjust the truth to your life. FREEdom from MEdom Project goes into the deep places; and with God’s help and direction, hopes to facilitate understanding and growth to help you to realize by experience freedom from the places where you feel stuck, trapped, and afraid. Freed into a life that is all about really living; not merely surviving. The promises in Scripture offer for us direction, finding our way out from under the weight of what burdens us. The Word of God is an arsenal with the weapons necessary to fight through the obstacles along the way to experiencing peace and joy.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:6-7, 11-13 (NIV)

“Without the guidance this program gave me, who knows where I would be today. Today, I am happily living out my life. This program laid a foundation that I neglected to build growing up. It gave me real direction and the resources to make clean decisions. My life is in no way perfect. Life still has its problems, but I now can rationally work my way through them.” —Edward Stermin

The love of God in recovery is so much more than the feeling of being loved. God’s love is about acceptance into his family, without reservation through authentic relationship. God’s love is never suspect but rather affirming and reassuring. You’ll always know to trust it. It’s God’s love that fuels the soul. It is the experience of God’s love that makes all the difference and makes it all worth it.

Through proven strategies identified here, you will acquire tools to cope and respond better to your world as you experience it, confronting present challenges, empowered to let go of the past and move ahead, as wounds are healed by the touch of God’s mercy, restoring quality of life, tethered to the assurance of hope in the experience of what is profound truth.

Jesus said, “I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.” John 5:30 (NKJV)

You will be encouraged to enter into recovery God’s way, just as Jesus did while fully human, wrought with human temptation, struggle, and heartache. Just as Jesus understood it, you need to ADMIT what you’re incapable of; that on your own you’re in trouble and need help. You need to BELIEVE that you can hear from God to judge rightly in your choices. Now be encouraged to COMMIT to your recovery just as Jesus did his; surrendering your will into the will of God; God’s will to bless you with his best for your best. Why would you live any other way? Jesus himself laid out the plans for your redemption; to be reconciled and restored back into right relationship with God; living in the experience of his love.

“The only way for the soul to be free is for all the parts of our personhood to be rightly ordered. The deeper freedom — the freedom that the soul needs — is the freedom for becoming the person I was designed to be.” —John Ortberg

Your sin has been removed from your past, present, and future. The stone keeping you in bondage has been rolled away. Resurrection from hopeless doubt is yours. Deliverance from pain into peace is yours. Step out from shame and despair, leaving behind the toxic waste. Step into the sweet aroma that is freedom into new life.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no one to help me...” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. John 5:5-9 (NKJV)

Allow God to restore you into what you were always meant to be, free to live in the best of what he wants and has for you. Once you have known the substance of real hope, and experienced the evidence of God in your life, you’ll see clearly that living by faith in relationship with God makes the most sense in the deepest places of who you are and what you value.

Since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)

Invite God to move in to live in the deep places within you. Lay the full weight of your burden down and then enter in to bathe in the healing pool of God’s mercy. Soak yourself in the lather of God’s generous favor.

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 (NIV)

I’m Steven. Welcome. Please come in and take a look around. Find something you like? It’s yours.

I am ordained for ministry and work as a professional counselor, certified in addiction recovery. FREEdom from MEdom is my journey into what I believe to be authentic recovery. You’ll find me to be transparent in much of what I write. I need to trust God each day in those vulnerable places where I tend to struggle. I am motivated to do and be better in this life experience and so I write about recovery from the broken places. I am willing to “go there” with you, if that’s alright. It can get uncomfortable, but I suppose it comes with the territory in regards to the change that matters most and, as I’ve insisted because I am so convinced, makes the most sense.

As you navigate your way around this library of material, I want to encourage you… perhaps even challenge you… to consider this:

Just like when Jesus called out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, like a son or a daughter in our time of need, we tend to cry out to our father in heaven, “Lord, Lord, have you not heard me? Where are you when I need you?”

“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” Luke 6:46 (NLT)

Jesus just may be asking, “Have you not heard me? I am here, with you. Why not let me help you? Why not trust me?”

Jesus is telling us that God knows best what we need, and that even when we have been given clear direction from something or someone God has put into our path to steer us back on course, too often we insist on going our own way, doing our own thing. And then, well… you know.

“I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built.” Luke 6:47-48 (NLT)

It is time to call this for what it really is so that the change process into new life can be realized—experienced—in relationship with Christ. It’s time to let go—get out of our own way—and let God do for us, with us, and through us, what only God does best. Please join me on this wonderful journey into the very best of what God has and wants for us.

If you appreciate something you found helpful or are moved in some way, please let me know by providing a comment at the bottom of the page. Your feedback helps me to better see the fruit of this ministry, and perhaps respond with something you might need. If you see anything you like while you’re here, please feel free to take it with you. What’s mine is yours.

“I have gone through the FREEdom from MEdom Project then concluded that it is divine; my heart is deeply touched. I have been touched by your vision for delivering addicted people… May God expand your vision mightily all over the world. I’m moved to pray for this ministry because it is a unique one. I know that this wave shall cause a great revival in our land.” —Leonard Walubengo, Pastor, Nairobi, Kenya

Well, then… I encourage you to seek out the deeper truths of a life restored into the fullness of a far better life; made whole by the One who made you to live in the first place… CLICK HERE!

* Original quote from Adrian Rogers was slightly modified for effect
** Original Source: ScienceDaily.com
^ B. Obama quoted from 8/16/2008 with Rick Warren @ Saddleback’s Civil Forum
` 1 Corinthians 13:12 from the New Living Translation (NLT)

I WAS lost, but NOW I am found.
I WAS blind, but NOW I see!