“My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” (Forrest Gump, 1994) A good example of a “box of chocolates” occurred for me when I attended an SA meeting a couple of years ago. That night, a newcomer was present. I talked to him for a…
A man from Vermont wrote to circus owner P.T. Barnum, offering a cherry-colored cat for $100. Barnum, always on the lookout for rare attractions for his “Greatest Show on Earth,” replied that he would send the money if the man guaranteed the cat was genuine. When Barnum received a written guarantee, he sent the money.…
In our neighborhood, the mowing crew hired by the homeowners’ association took the easy way out. Rather than weed-eating around all the trees and mailboxes, they sprayed some kind of poison on the grass, killing the weeds. Not only did this look bad – dead grass around the trees and mailboxes – a dog in…
It only happened once a year. The high priest entered the Most Holy Place of the tenth day of the seventh month of Israel’s lunar calendar. It was the Day of Atonement. The priest would remove his ornate robe and put on simple linen garments, then sacrifice a bull for his own sins and the…
The key to failure is to try to please everybody. Pulitzer Prize winner Herbert Bayard Swope said it like this: “I can’t tell you the formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everyone.” Jesus was anything but a people-pleaser. Case in point: Jesus healed many people, but…
There is a simple reason many of us don’t reach our goal of recovery – we quit too soon. Thomas Edison was right: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Scaling Mount Recovery will be the hardest climb of your life. There…
A pastor discovered a small box in the back of his closet, containing three rotten eggs and 100 $1 bills. He asked his wife about the box, and she admitted that she hid it there for the last 20 years. She reluctantly explained the contents. “I placed one egg in the box every time you…
On this day in history – July 22, 1933 – Wiley Post became the first man to fly solo around the world in his plywood monocoque aircraft, the Winnie Mae. It took seven days, 19 hours, which was 21 hours less than his previous record which he had set in 1931 with a navigator, Harold…
Do you ever hit a wall in your recovery? There’s hope! Michael Jordan said, “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” When he hit the wall, the psalmist remained positive. “By…
Let’s consider the parable of the archer. The archer pulls out an arrow and places it in his bow. Then he fires that arrow at a target the arrow cannot see. And the arrow is okay with that. Like the arrow in the hand of the archer, you are secure in the hand of God.…