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Card-carrying Christians

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Something dawned on me last night during our BlogTalkRadio interview with a veteran AA recovery survivor who will celebrate 27 years of sobriety in June (congratulations, Tom!). He still goes to roughly three AA meetings a week. Why? Wouldn’t you think that after that long, he wouldn’t need the meeting to stay sober? Well there are at least two answers to that question. The first answer is that you are never out of danger as an alcoholic. Many have lapsed into drinking again after more that 27 years of sobriety, and the first thing to go would be the meetings. The meetings remind you of your dependence on God and others. At an AA meeting, the support is tangible.

The second reason he keeps going back is the one I’m interested in. He enjoys the company. Tom will get up and go to early morning meetings even though he has to leave halfway through to get to his job as a schoolteacher, just to experience that intimacy with people who understand him. He uses the words “honest” and “real” to describe what he finds at those meetings that he doesn’t find anywhere else.

There is something about hitting bottom, proclaiming your powerlessness to change, and need for God that puts you on an equal footing with everyone else in the room who has acknowledged the same thing. In this setting, no one is trying to impress anyone or judge anyone. I would want to be with that group as much as I could, wouldn’t you?

Our acknowledgment as believers should come with a similar set of claims and disclaimers. We are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God; we have all received the free gift of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ; and we are depending on Him every moment for His life to be seen in us. There is nothing that sets one person over another. We should all have a card with these truths declared on it as a reminder that we are all at the same level. Then we could all be card-carrying Christians — all humbly walking together with nothing to prove and nothing to hide. I want to be with those guys, don’t you?

5 responses to “Card-carrying Christians”

  1. Mark D Seguin

    Then we could all be card-carrying Christians – all humbly walking together with nothing to prove and nothing to hide. I want to be with those guys, don’t you? Amen, I know I do… 🙂 <3
    .

    Reply
    1. Jesus Aguilar

      I am Jesus A. and I am alcoholic, that by the grace of God I am sober today. My sobriety date is 02-02-90. and it is embedded in my heart, just as the Word of God is.
      Personally I go to 5 meetings every day of the year, and all of them are morning meetings. Love to start my day in the company of people like me. We come together to alert one another of the dangerous of lowering our guards and fall in the pits of self-pity, depression, loneliness, or despair. We encourage everybody to pray, to meditate and to be grateful for what we have. We remind everybody, that there is a God that loves us and prepares for us a day to bring the message to another alcoholic that has not found his way out of the hell that his alcoholism brought him to it.
      Yes like Tom, I go to meetings to keep my sobriety, but most of it I go to meetings to meet the new comer, the new person that is going to walk through the door, looking like a deer on the headlights. I love to welcome them and give them the 6 magic words:
      (YOU ARE GOING TO BE ALRIGHT)
      Do not want to miss this.

      Reply
  2. John A Fagliano

    CERTIFICATE OF CHRISTIANITY This card certifies that I_____(name)___________ am a sinner saved by God’s grace and therefore: will live by God’s Spirit will not judge others will offer love and forgiveness as freely as Jesus Christ has given it to I the undersigned below:

    __________(signature)___________

    Check for watermark by holding card carriers life up to the light. No expiration date

    Reply
    1. Jesus Aguilar

      Love this

      Reply
  3. TOM

    This year I celebrated 31 years of recovery. When I first went to meetings – that hour or two was the only time I felt safe from picking up the first one. Over time the obsession and compulsion left. It it very rare for me to think about using today. Maybe part of that is my current relationship with God and continuing to go to meeting and sponsor fellow addicts. When I was 12 years sober I went to a meeting in which 5 people who would have been celebrating the same amount of time were starting over. They shared about not going to meetings and not working with others (step work). Each time I go through the steps with another addict I learn more about myself and more about this program. The one thing I’ve learned is that the steps are not only to help me find freedom from active addiction, but mainly to go threw the process of developing a relationship with God. This also ties in with my life as a Christian. In 1978 I was in college and involved with the local activities of what I know as the Jesus Movement. I stopped using – not because I thought I was an addict – but because it conflicted with my spiritual development. It didn’t seem right to go to a Bible study in the afternoon and then go party all night. About a year and a half later I found myself separated from the fellowship over summer vacation. Driving home one night I convinced myself that one beer would not hurt me. Certainly God would not let me be harmed. It went slowly down hill from there. Until being arrested for DUI in 1986.. I thank God for the Christians in the rooms of AA that Led met slowing back to Jesus.

    Reply

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