Recognition

You are the Man!

2^nd Samuel 12:7

Nathan confronted David about his sin by telling him a story where the subject was David, and after hearing the story, David still didn’t get it.  So Nathan had to tell him plainly, “You are the man!” In other words, Nathan said, “David!  You’re the guy I was talking about in the story!  Don’t you get it?!”  How many times have I been like David?  How long have I been hearing stories and not realizing that they were about me?  My word of wisdom for today is recognition.

Is it true that my real problem may be that I’m just an addict?  Someone suggested that I go to an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.  I went. I heard a lot of people talking about being in recovery.  They talk like they have addictions that are just as serious as alcoholism.  I’ve been to 1 or 2 OA meetings before – many years ago.  It didn’t click before.  I thought the meetings were a little morbid, and I didn’t understand how thin women could be sitting around referring to themselves as overeaters.  It didn’t make sense. People don’t believe food addictions exist, but some women said that eating sugar was the same as taking heroin; and there’s no such thing as a “controlled” substance.

People talked a lot about being addicted specifically to sugar, and the need to remain abstinent from sugar.  The sugar addiction resonated with a lot of women throughout the room. (The meeting room was full of women, there were only 2 men.  I liked that)   One woman said that when she eats sugar, she always gets sleepy.  I was sleepy at the time she was saying it.  Is it possible that the reason I always seem to need a nap, or never seem to have the same energy that other people do is because of sugar?

Going home, I thought about what it means to me to say I’m an addict in recovery who relapsed and is trying to get abstinent.  I took a drug & alcohol class in graduate school.  Am I the woman I was reading about?

I haven’t begun working the 12 steps; but thus far, meetings have been good for me.  Every time I go to a meeting, I hear something that resonates with me.  I’m grateful that someone told me to go.  Maybe I should show my gratitude by telling people about Christ.  I’ve been afraid to share the gospel because I’ve been afraid that people would be angry with me, thinking that I’m trying to shove my religion down their throat.  They might be right.  Jesus Christ is the medicine we all need.  But would a person experience the same relief that I did when I came to OA?  Would they experience the even bigger relief I experienced when I came to Christ?  I regret not having come to Christ in my teens and 20s.  I imagine how different my life would be now if I’d known Christ as a young woman.  Now I’m wondering how my life might have turned out if I’d realized I was an addict sooner.

I remember when Cheers was a hit show on television.  Cheers was a comedy set in a bar.  No one ever got drunk, but it was their social club.  Part of the theme song was, “you wanna be where everybody knows your name, where they’re always glad you came”.  (At least I think that’s the way it goes.)  Maybe OA can be my social club.  They understand food addiction & addictive behavior.  “Civilians” don’t.   Whenever I decline to eat something, I’m told, “But it’s healthy food”, “One time won’t hurt”, “You look good [thin], you don’t have anything to worry about”.  When I worry over my weight, people get all Nike on me and start making “Just do it!” comments.  They don’t get me.

People get me at OA.  And I get them.  Christ gets us all.