The Life Recovery Workbook for Grief - Flipbook - Page 5
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ST EP O NE
what she had lost in her relationship with her mother. Gradually,
Sarah was able to feel some anger as protest over the incredible
loss of her father at such a young age and to feel some sadness
at the limitations she experienced in her relationship with her
mother.
It took some time for Sarah to complete the grieving process
with each of her parents. But along the way, she noticed that
she was not as troubled by the out-of-control anger that she
had experienced previously, which led her to get into counseling. Now, ten years later, Sarah hasn’t ruined a single computer.
In fact, she very seldomly gets angry, and she can talk about
her father without crying. She can also talk about her mother
without getting angry. She worked through the process of grieving to reach acceptance. Sarah was powerless to solve the issue
by herself, but she had wisely chosen to get help, and God had
worked through her counselor to help Sarah get beyond her
powerlessness.
STEP ONE
We admitted we were powerless over our
problems and that our lives had become
unmanageable.
It’s interesting that the first word in the first step is “we.”
I can’t work on my problems in my life on my own. The resolution comes through the “we.” One of the things Sarah had done
over the years was to increasingly isolate herself from relationships with other people in order to hide her rage. Then, if her
rage suddenly got out of control, no one would be around to see
it. She was powerless, but she was not helpless. So, she got help.
The Twelve Steps teach us that recovery and healing always take
place in the context of the “we.”
Spiritual transformation always begins in community. At the
start of Jesus’ ministry, he began to gather people around him
as his disciples. The power of the early church in the book of
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