I have heard dozens of addicts confess to a relapse to sex addiction – every few days. Here’s the hard question: If you continue to have relapses, is it really a relapse? Poet Pablo Neruda offered an interesting perspective. “He who returns never left.” I believe there is a danger in saying, “I have had…
It’s a record for which the NBA legend is little known – the day he scored 100. During his Hall-of-Fame career, the two-time NBA champion and 12-time All-Star averaged about 25 points per game. But on one very special day, “The Dream” scored 100 – chicken nuggets. Hakeem was shooting an ad for McDonald’s, promoting…
Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” After his radical conversion, God instructed Paul, “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do next” (Acts 9:6). Notice, the Lord didn’t tell Paul to start dozens of churches, embark on three…
It happened August 6, 1945 (75 years ago today). The U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb code-named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths. Three days later, the United States dropped a second nuclear device over Nagasaki. Five days later, Imperial Japan surrendered. The atomic bomb represented the…
Vince Lombardi famously said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” I like this quote from Bobby Knight even more. “The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. The key is the will to prepare to win.” In recovery, it’s what we do before the temptation hits that will determine our response.…
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), an estimated 2.2 million new books are published worldwide each year. That comes to 6,027 books per day, or one new book every 15 seconds. President John Adams was right: “The more one reads, the more one sees he has to read.” There is…
Recovery is a journey that knows no end, makes incredible promises, and whose freedom is only limited by your refusal to engage the process. T.S. Eliot said, “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.” Here’s my challenge for today. In recovery, risk going too…
In the fable of Hercules and the Wagoner, first recorded by Babrius in the first century AD, the story is told of a wagon that fell into a ravine. When the driver appealed to Hercules for help, he was told to fix it himself. This, and other similar stories, gave birth to the common teaching,…
In the movie bearing his name, Jerry Maguire offered an impassioned speech to Dorothy, concluding with this memorable line: “You complete me.” Many a young romantic has fallen into that same trap. We marry someone, expecting them to “complete us.” And we are invariably disappointed. Why? Because we are never made “complete” by another human…
Something I am coming to believe is that men and women are different. It’s just a hunch at this point, but the evidence is mounting. I don’t know much about being a woman, but I know a bit about being a man. And despite what you may have heard, being a man has certain advantages.…