In recovery, we focus on taking things one day at a time. Often, by the time we make it to recovery, it has been unfathomable for quite some time that our lives could ever be any different than they are right now. We’ve heard of lasting change, but it has, thus far, eluded us. We have even seen other people’s lives be transformed, but we stopped applying that possibility to ourselves, so the idea of changing the pattern, of changing the behavior, of quitting for the rest of our lives sounds impossible. In fact, we’ve proven it.
The thought of collecting any “sober time” becomes less daunting once we begin to work the program and allow God into each facet of our lives. He changes our hearts and our thinking, and eventually we do feel able to maintain lasting change, but until then, it looks like a losing battle, a chore, a commitment to a terrible life. So we don’t decide to stay sober-minded for the rest of our lives. We decide to stay sober-minded for today. Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own,” and that is the absolute truth. Each day has enough trouble of its own….no sense in taking on all of that trouble at once. I only need to get through today.
But friends, there was a time in my life that I felt so stuck, I couldn’t even do that. Not even one day. I was so afraid that the day might break me, that I dwelled in the night. I built my life in darkness and wasted years trying to outrun the sun, beating it to bed each morning, just before dawn. I steeped myself in the quiet of the night, and in more ways than one, I lived in the dark.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
Life isn’t like that for me anymore. Praise God. Now I look forward to every morning when His mercies are new. The sun has become, for me, a symbol of everything that I thought I would never be able to do, and its rising and its setting, two bookends to God’s daily story of redemption in my life.
I can do this one day—and when evening comes, and I see the sun bow down to our Heavenly Father, throwing brilliant beams of light across the horizon, I can almost feel Him asking me, “Remember when you didn’t think you could do this? Look how far you’ve come.”
It isn’t reasonable to believe that I could capture the beauty of these sunsets—these moments between myself and God—inside of a photograph. There is not a lens in the world that could capture the nature of His love—not a frame that could hold the magnitude of His glory, but my phone is still full of my attempts at doing exactly that. And let me be the first to tell you, it is not the same thing. The picture does not compare—not even with the latest iPhone. These moments are as fleeting as they are eternal, and all I can really do is drink it in until my heart is full.
But you know what? I’m not going to stop trying…and I’m not going to stop showing people the picture that doesn’t even compare to the real thing. And I know you aren’t either—because I’m on Facebook, and I’ve seen your posts. It is impossible not to try to share that beauty with someone else—even knowing that you really just had to be there. “We share these things so that our joy may be complete,” right? (1 John 1:4)
Listen… Don’t ever stop posting those sunsets.
The way I see it (oh fun! a sun pun!), when I do snap that impossible photo and decide to share it, there are potentially three categories of people who are going to see it: There are (category one) people who saw that exact sunset, (category two) people who didn’t see that sunset, but they’ve seen a sunset, and for the sake of this illustration, (category three) people who have never seen a sunset at all…it’s possible that they’ve been running from it, afraid of what the day might break...these could be the people, like myself, who struggle to go even one day. And each of these people are going to see your sunset in very different ways.
The first group will see your picture, and think, “I saw that same one! Look how great God is!” (and they may even show you the one they took because they can’t help themselves). The second group will see your sunset, and they will remember their sunset—the moment that drew them closer to God, and they will feel closer to you for having shared this experience. And finally, the third group—they will be blown away by this miraculous spatter of color and light. They will wonder how anything could be as beautiful as this picture you have shown them…and it may just make them want to go find this “sunset” you speak of for themselves.
It reminds me of what it’s like to share our testimony. (I encourage you to go experience a testimony night in a recovery ministry—it is so full of hope. Witnessing the light of Christ beaming through all of these broken pieces—kaleidoscopic glory.) When we share our testimony, we are showing people just a “snapshot” of our whole story. Anyone who knows Christ knows that He has been working in our lives a lot longer than we could ever explain. John 21:25 says it best in the final words of his gospel: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” So we give a snapshot. We try to frame the perfect picture of God in our lives and what He has done, and we show it to people, knowing full well that it is nowhere near as glorious as the real thing.
And just like our sunset pictures, there are potentially three categories of people who will hear us:
Category One is the person who saw your transformation—who saw that same sunset, but who has never known the backstory. These are the friends and family that come to hear your testimony and get the joy of making the connections for themselves—of seeing how far you’ve come and being able to connect it to the Lord working in your life. These should be the easiest people to share it with because they actually witnessed the miracle. They don’t need to be convinced of the transformation. They saw you experience a huge life change (e.g. joining a recovery program, coming to church, losing a loved one, ending a relationship, changing careers, suffering from illness, having a baby), and they saw you come out the other side, changed. Tell them it was Christ!
Category Two is the person who didn’t experience that miracle, but who has experienced a miracle of their own. When Person Number Two looked at your sunset, they saw their sunset. They remembered the time that the sun set only for them, and they are moved not only by the memory of their own story, but also by the idea that someone else experiences these moments with God in the same way. They just realized that they are not alone. We are foreigners in an unbelieving world, and while it isn’t hard to believe in God—it is becoming increasingly uncomfortable to be a believer in this world. There is so much out there that pushes against biblical living: in Hollywood, in the media, at work, at school—sharing our faith and our reliance on Christ makes us feel about as much of an outsider as we ultimately are. We don’t belong here, and we won’t fit in, but hearing the testimony of someone else who is fully reliant on the transformational work of God in their own life can encourage us to go out there and keep living in a way that we know is right and good, even if the world tells us that it isn’t. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12), and just knowing that we are not alone out here is priceless.
And finally, there is the person who had no idea that this transformation was even possible. Category Three is the person who did not know that there is a sunset out there waiting for them, every single day. Maybe they are brand new to Christ, brand new to recovery, or even still lost. This could be a person who is really just struggling in a life without Christ—they see your snapshot, and they want to see the real thing, to feel the sun on their face, to open the Bible and see what we’re talking about. This is the person who hears your testimony and for the first time realizes that there is hope for their affliction. They saw themselves in your story and realized that theirs could end differently.
I have had the opportunity to share my testimony with a group of women recently, and I had so much doubt walking up there. I didn’t know if what I had to say would matter. I wondered if the words I had chosen were enough to describe the magnitude of His work in my life—if I had created the perfect picture to show these women. I put so much pressure on my own ability to communicate, not understanding that the work had already been done by God. The miracle had already happened, the story had already been written, and the woman who needed to hear it was already in the room. She found me afterward. With tears in her eyes, she shared her own experience with me, and only then did I see that this picture that has been framed on the mantle of my heart—this sunset that has meant everything to me—meant so much more than I ever knew.
1 John 1:4 has never been more true: “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” It finally occurred to me that sharing my testimony is part of the story itself. I was so caught up in the fear of not being able to do God justice with just a measly picture…so afraid of that picture being incomplete or too dark or disconnected to reach anyone, that I never considered what it would feel like if it did—or even the possibility that the reason it has always felt incomplete is that God wasn’t finished with it yet.
This is what I have learned: Your story is beautiful, it’s perfect, and it’s His…so give it back to Him, and let Him keep using it, “for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’” (Ephesians 5:14)
Share your sunset…
How do I share my testimony?
Start by asking yourself: What has changed since I let go and gave Christ total control in any area of my life? Then you tell His story using these three parts: Beginning (my life before), Middle (The work of Christ), End (my life ever since).
When we put Christ in the middle of anything, it’s a testimony: our life, our relationships, our goals, our grief. Just look at the Bible: Old Testament/Old Covenant/The Law, The Work of Christ, New Testament/New Covenant/Grace. Even time itself split in two at his birth: “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (in the year of our Lord), with Christ at the center. Jesus changes everything. So how did He change you?
This framework may help you get started (fill in the blanks, and adapt it to make it your own):
Before I _____________________ (e.g. accepted Christ, gave it all to God, started my recovery, came to church),
I was ________________________ (e.g. angry, hurting, lost, out of control, afraid, proud, jealous, selfish).
Then I gave it all to Christ—and now I ________________________ (what has changed? where have you found victory?)
Those blanks can be as long or as short as you like, as long as the formula remains the same: Christ is at the center. When Christ is kept at the center of it all, His light will shine out brilliant rays through all of your broken pieces, and what picture could be more beautiful than that?
Here’s mine:
Before I came to Celebrate Recovery, I was angry and lost. I couldn’t stop repeating the same patterns that I knew were killing me slowly. I was hurting from the wounds of my past and addicted to anything that would keep me from feeling the pain that I couldn’t seem to escape. Then I accepted Christ and started working a recovery program, and now I wake up every morning, glad for the day. I’m a better mom, a better wife, I found my passion for worship, and I am able to use my experiences to help young people get through theirs—and above all else: I don’t run from the sun anymore. I walk in the light of the truth, and there is not one single thing about my life that I would go back and change.
Let the light of Christ catch your broken pieces, and when He shows you a love so brilliant, you can hardly take it in—take a snapshot. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. (Ephesians 5:8)
Then share it, share it, share it…and let God do the rest.