Category Archives: Recovery Journal
Forty days without…
This week marks the beginning of Lent. Lent will be from Ash Wednesday, February 22nd, to Holy Saturday, April 7th. This forty day season is a season of fasting that draws us closer to God and commemorates the forty … Continue reading
Posted in Faith, Personal Commentary, Recovery Journal
Tagged calling, courage, destiny, fasting, fear, leadership, Lent, Nelson Mandela, purpose
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To know the power and love of God. (Part 2)
After these powerful experiences in inner healing prayer the dust began to settle and I came to some conclusions about my faith and a way forward. I want to address some of these in really no particular order. My questions … Continue reading
Posted in Faith, Recovery Journal
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To know the power and love of God. (Part 1)
For the first time in months, I have cautiously become hopeful about life. In this post I share about what happened in the last three months of my life to make this happen and how my paradigm of life and … Continue reading
Posted in Faith, Recovery Journal
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Jazz Vespers, the Body of Christ and Improv (P.S. Thank you)
Last night I went to a Jazz Vespers event created by Gillian Grannum. Jazz Vespers are a mix of jazz music, prayer, and performance. These services can range from jazz concerts in a church to more formal and traditional Christian … Continue reading
Posted in Faith, Personal Commentary, Recovery Journal
Tagged Body of Christ, community, improv, jazz, jazz vespers
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This Liminal Space
[Suicide/Child abuse trigger warning: If child abuse and/or suicide are triggers for you, you may not want to read this post or at least prepare yourself.] In Pastoral Counseling Dr. Hammer made the statement that our role as pastoral counselors … Continue reading
I hope God can forgive people like Hitler because I hope God can forgive me (or What Step Four taught me about my sin.)
In my previous post on Rob Bell, where I unwittingly started a debate concerning atonement theories, one of my friends James left this as part of his comments and pushback on my words. “Can you really love this kind of … Continue reading
Recovery Journal: Learned Helplessness and the Theology of the Abused (Part 1)
Part 1: My identity is not in Christ, it is in Seligman’s dogs. During my Introduction to Psychology class at Pasadena City College we covered something briefly that I think was very impactful for my life and I’m sure my … Continue reading
Posted in Recovery Journal
Tagged abuse, benevolence, faith, human experience, learned helplessness, theodicy, theology
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Confronting my abusers.
This last weekend I went home and I confronted my abusers, which sadly means for me I had a very difficult conversation with my parents. I grew up in a dysfunctional and abusive home. Verbal, emotional, and even physical abuse … Continue reading
Posted in Recovery Journal
Tagged child abuse, Christian homes, compassion, confronting your abusers, forgiveness, grace
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The Devil that you know… – Denial Part 2
“…and the truth will set you free.’” – Jesus in John 8:32 November 2008 – I am sitting in a circle of chairs with other men at my home church. It is the third time I’ve attended this group and … Continue reading
Speakfaithfully 
The mixed blessing of sobriety (and why I woke up the other day at 3 a.m. crying…)
A few days ago I shot this out to twitter… I have not written about recovery for a while so I decided instead of leaving this as a vague truism out on the internet, I would vulnerable and put some … Continue reading →