When Recovery Becomes An Idol

While on the recovery journey, it's easy to become extremely passionate about healing and inviting others into it. But at some point, at what point does recovery become an idol or take the place of our pursuit of God? And if that happens, what do we do about it?

I think anything can become out of balance in our lives. So I was just thinking this, like the definition of sin as missing the mark, that's just making adjustments when. When we're off from how we're designed. So I think anything can become out of balance. But listening to others around us is so important. So if we're open to other people's feedback, they're going to hopefully help us when we're kind of over consuming or over focused with ourselves. And it's not like being integrated in a healthy way.

Yeah, I think there's a couple of questions we can ask ourselves when we're looking at idolatry being, have we set something above God in our life? Has it taken a place of our attention, our worship, the focus of our heart that's really intended to be where Christ sits in our life. And so the two things that came to mind for me is that thought of like, does my story consistently elevate Christ or does it elevate myself? Am I the hero of the story or is God and his work in me the ultimate and true hero of the story? And when people hear that, do they pick up on it? We've talked about another mistake people make sometimes with their story that they actually glorify not God, God or even themselves. They glorify their past by getting over, like, man, I used to do this and I was caught up in that. And it's kind of like the car accident syndrome of I can't help but look away because it's fascinating and we might get stuck there. It's like, well, no, that's not the goal. The goal is to talk about what has Christ done. And I think if we're really seeing Boy consistently that's my heart, is to glorify God and what he's done and bring him praise and glory and honor. I think we're in a good place with that. Another question may just be, has this become my identity? That I have a difficult time, like you talked about Traci being out of balance or just disproportionate in our lives, that when I think of who I am, if I can't really imagine myself apart from my recovery journey and my growth and what I'm known for and maybe sharing my testimony at church, then I'VE maybe gotten a little out of focus, that truly our identity, the goal of our healing, is to reestablish that true identity, that we're made in God's image, we're his child, we belong to him, and we're in Christ and sealed for eternity. And. And that that's how we ought to know and see ourselves versus. Hi, I'm Nick Stumbo, the recovered addict who can help change your life if you just listen to my story long enough. So those would be the two questions, like, am I consistently glorifying Christ with my story? And what's the source of my identity? And I think that can really help us clarify if our own recovery has become a sort of idol to us.

One of the ways I see this play out, and I think this is something I struggle with, and I have heard it from so many people who've been through recovery or really recovery or healing groups, is that you start to villainize the church, that this is like the one area they have to focus on. And if they don't focus on this and talk about it as much as you think they should, that it's like, well, then the church is just awful. Like, we gotta find someplace else else to go. And I'm not saying that that outright is a bad heart to want your church to grow and develop in this area, but when it becomes that you're discounting the evangelism and the biblical teaching and the discipleship that they have and the way they care for families and local outreach, you, like, devalue all of that and place recovery as like the only thing or the primary thing. I think that is an indicator that's maybe become too important in your life or that you're too hyper focused on that. And I think personally, for me, in areas like that, where recovery can feel like maybe it becomes more of what I talk about and less about the Lord. I mean, just spiritual rhythms and practices always bring me back to center. Whether it's reading scripture, it's studying, it's in Bible studies, it's in prayer, it's in journaling with the Lord. Things like that, I think are always helpful to realign us back to that. But I also think having community is important too. That your friends listen to the way that you talk and what you talk about and to give them permission to speak in, like, hey, if I get to the point where you start hearing Jesus name a lot less and my recovery story a lot more, then feel free to jump in. So that's just a thought I have on maybe how to start addressing it.

I think from a practical standpoint, too, early recovery looks different than later. It's kind of like if you were preparing for a marathon or something, you're going to give a lot of time and attention. And I think early recovery, you have a lot of time and attention on recovery plans and tools and things like that. And so the natural, like, as we grow and are reevaluating what our recovery plans look like, it's going to look different over the years, and hopefully it gets integrated into the rest of our lives. Right. And it's not just this one big thing that's our whole focus, but it's more of that holistic approach that God values all these different areas of our life. And so I kind of see it that way, just from the practical standpoint that it can change. So if you're reevaluating your recovery plan, you're going to know, okay, what do I need now? Maybe this year I don't need counseling every week and regroups.

Right.

That's true. That's great. And that illustration makes me think of one of my favorite running jokes. How do you know if someone's run a marathon? Oh, don't worry, they'll tell you that's good. And that kind of applies to this area. Like, if what everybody knows about you is like, oh, here comes the recovery stuff, and here comes, like, if that's all you know how to talk about, that may be an evidence that there's a lack of integrating this into the holistic nature of who you are. Because at the heart, you're still a human being. And you might be super excited and passionate about your recovery, but just make sure that's not the only thing that you ever bring into any conversation. Because for some people, that does become like, oh, here we go again, and they're maybe not ready for that message, and they need to know you care. They need to know that you can integrate this with other areas of life and not just become kind of a one note Sally or Sam, that that's all you ever talk about. So.