After years of suffering from growing up with an alcoholic father, I internalized my pain and had difficulty trusting anyone. Going through Steps 1-3 helped me to trust God as my Father again. Going through Step 4, Inventory, caused me to ask the question, “Why has God allowed me to endure the pain of having an alcoholic and addict father and seek out other alcoholics to spend my life with?” How many times have you asked the question, “Why me, Lord?”
It is natural for us to ask this question when we go through suffering. In our human brains, we cannot comprehend how a loving God could allow people to suffer. I don’t claim to know all the answers to the universal questions of life, but I believe God allows suffering in order to make us realize how much we need Him. That is just one of the reasons. Sometimes God wants to teach us something, sometimes He needs our pain or suffering to teach others, sometimes He simply uses the pain to show us a different path. I don’t know what you are going through right this moment, but know that leaning into God’s promises in the Bible is the only way to make it through.
1 Peter 5:10 says,
“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”
Our suffering here on this earth is temporary. Whatever I have gone through in the past or whatever is planned for me to go through in the future will only last for a little while. I have learned the suffering I have gone through with the many alcoholics in my life is to show others the glory of God and His grace. It’s through Christ’s sacrifice I am able to write these words. It is through Christ’s blood, I am able to be healed of any pain I am feeling. It is through Christ’s resurrection, I am able to overcome and be stronger.
You can realize this same freedom and serenity. It is found working the steps of recovery with Christ at the center of it all. Last week we discovered Step 8 is about making of list of people we may have harmed because of our sinful ways and prepared ourselves to make amends. We are not ready to make amends yet, that will come later, but this is a preparatory step. Make the list and prepare to make it right. I know this may sound strange to make a list of harms I have done when I have had so many harms done to me, but through working the steps, I realized I have also hurt others.