June 21 - Choosing Faith Over Fear

Faith isn't the absence of fear — it's the decision to trust God in the middle of it. Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis work through what that choice actually looks like in the moment.

Corey opens with a friendly disagreement — 12&12 page 34: faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. When fear hits, he doesn't just believe his way out; he acts. Page 84: we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. After a blow-up at home, instead of reacting, he walked out front and called a guy who was struggling — not to unload his own problem, but to help — and the fear lost its grip.

Mike adds the missing context to the entry's "choice made in the moment" line: today he can choose faith in the moment, but he couldn't early in recovery, before he had the spiritual toolkit. He brings the storm in Mark 4 — Jesus asleep in the stern while the disciples panic with God literally in the boat — and the grace that comes from realizing fear is part of the human condition, but God is with us even when He seems to be sleeping.

Memphis lands the heart of it: the pause button. Not just for anger — for everything, because God has to be part of all of it. The voice was always there. He just wasn't quiet enough to hear it. Corey closes with his breath prayer and page 85's promise that we become God-conscious and develop this vital sixth sense. Step 11 seals it — prayer and meditation, not, as Mike's addled brain first read it, prayer and medication.

Trust is not the absence of fear. It's the decision to rely on God in the midst of it.

Fear may always visit, but it does not have to take over.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | faith over fear | conscious contact | prayer and meditation | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection

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Courage was never the absence of fear. It's what you do in spite of it. Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis dig into where real courage actually comes from — and it isn't from you.

Memphis grounds it: for most of his life, trained in the Marine Corps, he thought he didn't fear anything — until he realized that what he'd called courage was actually fear directing him to overreact and overcompensate. Real courage came later, built through little wins and a developing trust in the God of his understanding. Today he can feel the fear come over him and still trust the outcome, because he trusts the guidance.

Mike brings As Bill Sees It page 61 — the two-part problem of fear: attain all the freedom from it you can, then find the courage and grace to deal with whatever remains. He owns his own version of false courage — the puffer fish, all hot air, combating fear with his tongue. Corey takes it deepest: the 12&12's chief activator of our defects is self-centered fear, and his honest account of how he used AA as an institution that got him only so far, until he had to go further — into prayer, meditation, and a real relationship with a Higher Power. Page 63's new employer, who provides what we need if we keep close. And page 46's God who does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him.

Mike lands it: when I'm crippled by fear, nine times out of ten it's because in that moment I'm not trusting the God who loves me and is with me.

I have courage today not because of me, but because of Him.

Fear may not fully disappear, but it does not have to control me.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | courage over fear | facing fear | trusting God | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection

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The word "surrender" sounds like losing. In recovery, it's the doorway to everything. Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis unpack the paradox at the heart of the whole program.

Mike opens with a confession his wife would appreciate — how he came into their marriage determined never to be controlled, and had to relearn, all over again, the surrender that recovery had already taught him. Memphis shares what may be the most impactful moment of his recovery: years of saying the words and doing the actions without ever truly surrendering, until he reached the point where there was nothing left he could do, and finally asked God to show him how to love without getting his way. As a Marine, he'd been trained to never surrender — but this was a different kind. Surrender to God's will. And it changed not just one relationship, but all of them.

Corey walks the Big Book's approach to a newcomer — page 96, page 64, page 75 — building an arch through which a man walks free, and the cornerstone and keystone of steps two and three. 12&12 page 21 anchors it: only through utter defeat are we able to take the first steps toward liberation. Mike closes on the hardest line in the practical ripple — today I will be honest about where I need help — and turns the question on his co-hosts.

Surrender is not defeat. It's the foundation that carries you.

What feels like defeat can become the beginning of strength.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | surrender | letting go | strength through weakness | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection

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Free from what — or free to what? Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis dig into the difference, and why real freedom was never meant to leave you on your own.

In this episode, Corey and Mike discover they'd independently prepared the exact same grounding verse — Galatians 5:13: you were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another in love. Memphis grounds it with a story: a friend's significant other ran out of gas, and the pure joy of being free to just get up and go help — no sobering-up period, no waiting — and realizing how much active addiction had quietly stolen that ability.

They weave the Big Book through it: page 26's free man who can go anywhere other free men go, page 151's subjects of King Alcohol who withdrew from life itself, and page 77's real purpose — to be of service to God and the people about us. Corey takes it to the wreckage that blocks conscious contact, and how getting honest and cleaning up the past is what clears the wires. Mike closes on the paradox of his own full schedule: more activity than ever, all of it pointed outward, and he's never felt more free. John 8:36 seals it — if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Freedom isn't the absence of control. It's the presence of purpose.

True freedom does not isolate. It draws people together.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | freedom in recovery | service and connection | Galatians 5:13 | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection

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What you're searching for isn't as far away as you think. After a lifetime of chasing the next thing, Pastor Mike turns the search around — because the deepest truth was never out there.

In this solo episode, Mike traces the endless outward search — the next job, the next achievement, the next bit of recognition, the next drink — and why none of it ever reached the place that was actually empty. He remembers John Kilzer, a mentor in faith and recovery, and the truth Kilzer carried: we're all born with a God-sized hole in our hearts, and we try to fill it with everything except God.

Big Book page 55 anchors it: we found the Great Reality deep down within us...therefore, search diligently within yourself. A remarkable thing to find in a book about getting sober, when the whole world is screaming look out there. Jesus said the same in Luke 17 — the kingdom of God is not coming with things you can observe; it is within you. Near. Here. Already present. Psalm 46:10: be still and know. Not be busy and know. Not be productive and know. Be still. And the prophet Elijah, who found God not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire — but in the still, small voice.

Mike closes with the night he first heard "follow me" — reading the Gospels in a house about to be foreclosed on, a year into sobriety, and the awe that set him on the road to ministry. The more he's quieted down, the closer God has gotten. Or maybe God was always that close, and he just finally got quiet enough to tell.

Often, the deepest truth is found not outward, but within.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | stillness | meditation and prayer | God-sized hole | kingdom of God within | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection

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Some of us walked in with our minds slammed shut, locked, bolted from the inside. Pastor Mike opens up about the angry atheist he used to be — and the one question from a coworker that cracked the door.

In this solo episode, Mike traces how openness changed everything: the church that made the news for opening its doors to its Muslim neighbors, the place where an angry, locked-up atheist found his way in off the street, and the new appointment this July that shares a parking lot with a Jewish synagogue — and why his first goal is to go find the rabbi. He walks through the Wesleyan understanding of grace — prevenient, justifying, sanctifying — and how God's grace went before him, working through a coworker's question, long before he ever believed.

The key guardrail: open-minded doesn't mean your brain falls out. Openness isn't abandoning truth — it's leaving room to learn and grow. As Bill Sees It calls the realm of the spirit broad and roomy, never exclusive. Romans 15:7 lands it — accept one another, just as Christ accepted you. And Christ accepted Mike when he was still arguing with everybody. The acceptance came first.

The most closed-off version of me was also the loneliest. The more open my heart, the more connected I've become.

Growth requires openness. When I remain open, new understanding becomes possible.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | open-mindedness | atheist to faith | prevenient grace | Methodist recovery | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection

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Faith isn't static. The faith you have today shouldn't be the faith you had when you walked in the door — and if it is, something's gone untended.

In this episode, Pastor Mike and Corey explore how faith starts as small as a mustard seed and grows through experience, trust, and willingness. Mike shares how 13-plus years of relying on his higher power has changed his faith into something stronger, and why what you get out of it is tied to what you put into it. Corey takes it to the rawest place yet — sitting alone in a cell with nothing but the information already inside him, realizing that seeking is a constant hunger he hopes never goes away.

They land on Mark 9 and one of the most honest prayers in scripture: I believe — help my unbelief. Mike reflects on being taught not to question God growing up, and how admitting doubt is actually where faith starts to grow. Psalm 34:18 anchors it: the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. And the Big Book reminder that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him.

Progress begins with simple trust before deeper conviction develops. You don't have to understand it all to take the next step.

Faith does not often arrive fully formed, but grows through experience, trust, and openness.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | growing in faith | mustard seed faith | doubt and belief | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection

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June 14 - Steady in the Storm

Anybody can stay calm when life is easy. The real test is what you do when everything goes sideways at once — and whether the tools you've learned actually hold.

In this episode, Corey and Pastor Mike unpack how recovery becomes a design for living that works in rough going (Big Book p. 15). Corey shares the 12 spiritual principles of the steps he recites on his morning walks as a moving meditation, and Mike tells the story of an employee collapsing in his boardroom — and the difference between the person running down the hall in a panic and the person calling 911 and reaching for the AED. Same crisis. Different preparation.

They dig into the AA triangle — recovery, unity, service — and the three-legged stool that keeps you steady, plus an honest look at what church gives you and the one piece it can miss: identifying alcoholism as an illness, not just a sin. John 16:33 lands the close: in this world you will have trouble, but take heart — I have overcome the world.

Reacting out of faith instead of fear. That's the whole design.

Strength is revealed not in calm moments, but in how I respond when everything feels uncertain.

Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | steady in the storm | emotional sobriety | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | faith over fear | daily reflection

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