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Grow or Go!”
I got one of those dreaded text messages last week. An old friend I knew from 12-step recovery had relapsed and ultimately died. This man was a bright light, an inspiration to me, and yet he went back out and wasn’t able to make it back in. In A.A., the last three steps of the Twelve Steps are often called the “maintenance steps.” The bulk of the work is done in steps 1-9, step 10 is continuing to do the inventory work, step 11 is to continue to grow in prayer and meditation, and step 12 is the step where we carry the message to others who suffer. Early on in my recovery, I referred to those last three steps as the maintenance steps when I was sharing in a meeting. After the meeting, one of the old-timers who had decades in the program pulled me aside and gave me a stern warning. “They’re NOT the “maintenance steps.” They’re the GROWTH steps. Tom, we can’t just maintain our spiritual condition. We have to GROW. You have two choices: GROW or GO!”
That’s a life or death message in the rooms of A.A., as I was painfully reminded this week. Grow or go. Jesus said something similar to this effect to the church in Laodicea: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Rev 3:15-16). As followers of Jesus, we can’t just maintain. There is no place in the Christian life for complacency. You see how God feels about us just being “lukewarm!”
That’s why I am SO EXCITED about the messages God has put on my heart for the month of June.
June 4
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
God Speaks and Stuff Happens
June 11
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Why Churches Get in the Way of Healing
June 18
Matthew 9:35-10:8
Nobody Wants to Work These Days
June 25
Matthew 10:24-39
Cat Got Your Tongue?
Summer is a time to GROW. We plant in the spring, but now it’s time to water the soil, pull the weeds, maybe do some pruning, all so that we can bear a lot of fruit for God. The Word of God is the Seed. It’s time for us to dig deeper into that Word and get busy growing. The Word of God is powerful in our lives, IF we will allow it to take root in us and GROW. It’s a matter of life and death for all of us.
Grow or Go,
Tom
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