The CR Door

Alice Mathews, in her book “A Woman God’s Spirit Can Guide,” writes:

God’s Spirit (like the wind) moves into our lives and guides us in many different ways. He can guide us through our disabilities as well as our abilities. At times, God’s Spirit leads through our circumstances, but other times he opens doors in spite of our circumstances. Still other times, we see an amazing convergence of our concerns and our opportunities that God’s Spirit uses to lead us in the path he has for us. And sometimes we just have to keep moving ahead in the dark, trusting that God is leading even we can’t recognize it. In fact, I’ve found most of the time I’m more likely to recognize the Spirit’s leading in the rear-view mirror of my life. That is, I see God’s hand after the fact in ways I wasn’t aware of at the time as situations converge to push me in a certain direction.

This passage must have spoken to me. I have it highlighted in yellow, starred and circled in red pen. It also raises the question - how did I get involved in Celebrate Recovery in Appomattox, Virginia?

I am a small-town girl from Minnesota (Lake Wobegon if you are a Garrison Keillor fan), who graduated from the U of M, moved to Texas, became a CPA, moved to DC, met and married, Dennis, the man of my dreams, quit my job, moved to Florida so Dennis could attend Seminary, returned to graduate school for another Masters Degree this time in counseling, moved back to Virginia, worked with Dennis as a Christian Counselor, went to a Celebration Women meeting, starting going to Memorial and thought it would be interesting to get involved in CR.

Did I get involved in CR because I thought I had problems? Oh No. Yes, I was an example of a person at Step 1 in Denial. As you can tell from my synopsis of how I got to CR, I did not include any of the struggles in my life. I did not mention the losses, griefs, times of depressions, or the harmful effects of my codependency on my life.

But looking through the rear-view mirror, I can see God’s reason for opening the CR door. CR is based on Biblical principles, which support the fact we are all broken and need God’s help. As Isaiah 25:8 tells us, when life gets us down, God does not stop fighting for us. He "wipes away our tears" and removes the things of this world that seek to hurt us.

My question to you today is … Is God opening the CR door for you?

CR is for anyone with a hurt, hang-ups, or bad habit. By the way, that is all of us.

We meet on Tuesday Nights at 6:45 PM at Memorial United Methodist Church, 403 Court Street, Appomattox, VA
Cheryl Gowin and Dennis Gowin lead the group.

Hope to see you there!