There is a story in the AA “Big Book” that reads, “I stopped wondering ‘Why me?’ a long time ago. It’s like a man standing on a bridge in the middle of a river with his pants on fire, wondering why his pants are on fire. It doesn’t matter. Just jump in the water!”
The tragedy for most addicts isn’t that they don’t know their pants are on fire; they feel the burn. The tragedy is that they don’t jump in the water. They hesitate, contemplate, and calculate, while their pants continue to burn.
Jumping into the water requires a certain amount of risk. What’s in that water? Is it too hot or too cold? Are there critters in the water? When you land in the water, will you be in over your head?
Let me answer that last question for you – yes, you will be in over your head. But it’s your only hope for survival. It matters not how your pants caught fire in the first place. It’s time to jump into the water!
Recovery Step: The Bible promises, “Trust in God, and he will act” (Psalm 37:5). To trust God is to trust the water he created. You are running out of time. Jump now!
