An alcoholic's redemption

In chapter six of "Life's Healing Choices," Bill, a believer in recovery from alcoholism, shares his tragic story. Bill's father was an alcoholic as well, and that tendency to depend on the bottle rubbed off on Bill.

On February 26, 1999, tragedy occurred in Bill's life when he got into an accident while driving drunk (p. 197-198):

It was 8:40 on a Friday night, and I was anxious to get home. I was less than half a mile from my house as I approached the crest of a hill driving way too fast. A red Toyota coming from the opposite direction was turning left. I first saw them as they crossed into my lane. I am not sure if they ever saw me. There was almost no time to react. I lunged for the brake and started to turn the wheel to avoid them. Impact, airbags, screeching, screaming -- then silence. I was amazed to find that I could get out of my car. I didn't think the other car fared as well, but I was too dazed to be able to tell. It wasn't long before the sounds of sirens announced the arrival of the police and paramedics. I was taken away from the scene, tested, and booked. Shortly before I was put in Orange County Jail, the officer notified me that there were two people in the car that I hit. A 50-year-old woman had been thrown from the car upon impact and died immediately. Her husband was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The accident radically changed Bill's life, but God took care of him. God ensured that Bill was able to keep his job. God ensured that people were able to give Bill rides places. God ensured that Bill would be able to go through Celebrate Recovery to deal with his alcoholism. God made sure that the situation would further His plan.

Running to save Haiti

The Star Tribune recently ran a story about Tara Livesay, a Minnesotan who moved her family to Haiti four years ago to help residents there.

'When we saw all the poverty in Haiti,' Livesay said, 'we decided there was more to life than having two cars, a boat and a cushy life. God was asking us to leave our comfort zone and do something to help here.'

One of the ways that Livesay is helping Haitians is by running the Twin Cities Marathon. In fact, she secured about $53,000 to aid malnourished children, getting pledges from people in 42 states and eight countries.

Freedom from addiction

In "Life's Healing Choices," John Baker lays out eight choices that will change your life. Baker says, "Happiness is a choice -- and you can choose it one choice at a time":

1. Realize I'm not God. I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.
2. Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.
3. Consciously choose to commit all my life and will to Christ's care and control.
4. Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.
5. Voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in my life and humbly ask Him to remove my character defects.
6. Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I've done to others, except when to do so would harm them or others.
7. Reserve a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading, and prayer in order to know God and His will for my life and to gain the power to follow His will.
8. Yield myself to God to be used to bring this Good News to others, both by my example and by my words.

So far I have read the chapters on the first three choices. During that time, I have realized that I am addicted to anger and I need to recover from that. "Life's Healing Choices" already is helping me through the recovery process.

A murder averted

My church small group currently is going through the book "Life's Healing Choices: Freedom from Your Hurts, Hang-Ups, and Habits." The book features a foreword by Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose Driven Life." John Baker, the author of "Life's Healing Choices," founded Celebrate Recovery, one of the most successful ministries in the history of Saddleback Church, where Rick Warren is the lead pastor.

There are some very moving stories in the book, including this one by Mary, who struggles with abuse, anger, eating disorders, and codependency.

Soon my husband told me how unhappy he was and that it was all my fault. I agreed and felt he was right. He did, however, agree to go to marriage counseling. But during that first session, my husband told me he had been having another affair. This was when I hit bottom. This was too much for me, and I lost all sense of reality. I could see no reason why he should keep on living. When we got home, he went right to bed. I was hysterical, crying. When I knew he was asleep, I took the biggest knife we had, braced myself against the wall, and held it up above his neck. For some reason I thought, 'Maybe God doesn't want him dead.' I had not thought about God in years. So I asked God aloud, 'God, it's Mary here. You know all about my situation and that I am about to kill my husband. If You don't want me to do this, then You have to give me the power to put this knife back.' The next thing I remember is feeling as if a person were hugging me from behind. I cried all night on the bedroom floor. That night I was completely emptied of myself. I asked God to fill my empty body with Himself and to show me where I could learn about Jesus. I didn't know it then, but I was making the second choice in my journey toward healing. (pp. 58-59)

Mary and her husband ended up getting a divorce but she now understands that God fully accepts her for who she is.

His blood was shed for us

I had a vision. There was blood spilled all over the floor, and my instinctual reaction was to rush to clean it up. Instead, a voice told me, "Stop."

What does it mean? I think that my wife had the best interpretation. She said that Jesus Christ's blood was shed for us, and that we can stop trying and trying. He is the only one who is perfect. . .

A Minnesota housewife's 9/11 dream

Jill Herringshaw and her son Matthew had quite a prophetic dream on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The story is shared in the book "Nine Ways God Always Speaks":

Jill woke suddenly in the middle of the night. The room was dark, and she was alone in bed. In her dream, she had seen a plane crash and burn, and then saw herself walking through the wreckage. Human bodies were buried in the debris. When she sat up and rubbed her eyes, she realized it was just a dream. But even awake, the images haunted her. Not knowing what else to do, she prayed.

Though her husband had been out of town for the past two days, Jill knew he was driving through the night and would be home in the morning. Feeling calmer, she pulled the covers up and went back to sleep.

It was still dark when Jill was awakened again; this time by her eight-year-old son Matthew shaking her arm.

'What's the matter Matthew?'

'I had a bad dream.'

Jill sat up and hugged him. Safe in his mother's arms, he told her the details.

'There was a man with a whitish robe and a long gray beard. He broke into our house. We chased him down the street, but I was scared.'

With her husband not yet home, Jill rolled over and made room in the bed for Matthew.

'I had a scary dream too. Let's just give them to Jesus and go back to sleep.' They both prayed, and then fell back to sleep for a few more hours.

That morning, as Jill stood in the kitchen making breakfast, she turned on the TV. The screen was filled with images from a breaking news story.

The date was September 11, 2001.

Are you kidding?

What was Jill supposed to do with that?

... even if Jill and her son had realized their dreams' meaning, what could they have done? Could they have called the FAA and told them of their mutual nightmares? Or driven to the airport to see if they could find men with gray beards and white robes and make a citizen's arrest?

Did God really expect Jill and Matthew to stop the atrocities of 9/11? She was a Minnesota housewife with no aeronautical or political connections. Matthew wasn't even a Boy Scout. And the Department of Homeland Security was not yet in existence.

No. Even if they understood the meaning behind their dreams, they would have been considered crazy. No one would have listened. Frankly, even after September 11, Jill is still hesitant to mention the dreams because people are often skeptical.

So what's the point behind a dream like that?

What was God trying to say to Jill and her son through two such inexplicable dreams and their timing?

Jill's husband, Mark Herringshaw, is a pastor at North Heights Church in St. Paul, Minn.

God talks through a dog

In The Daily News of Newburyport, Rev. Kevin Leach wrote a column about how God talked to him through his dog. Leach related how it had been a long time since he had given his dog a bath, and that the bathing process was difficult for his dog. There was a lot of tangled hair that needed to be brushed and cut, and his dog did not like it. Leach compared this process to God cleansing us of our sins:

What did God say to me through this process? He reminded me of the time when he first revealed to me just how dirty I was. My sin was so great and then Jesus said, 'I will wash away all that dirt and make you clean.' Once the cleansing was over, I said to myself, 'It's all over now.'

Little did I know that the process had only just begun. Since my initial cleansing, the Lord has continued to work on me — like that long process of brushing out the matted hair. When God calls us to follow Him, He completely cleanses us from all our sin and yet, there is ongoing work to accomplish in us. Sometimes this work of transformation really hurts, and we might protest (sometimes loudly).

God patiently speaks to us, saying, 'Trust me, this is for your good.' After some assurance, we 'lie back down' and let the Lord do His good and necessary work. This process of unsnarling and detangling (which is God's work of sanctification — that is, making His children holy) continues in me even after 30-plus years of following Christ. Even though it hurts at times, I know it is well worth it because God cares for me more that I can imagine. I am learning to trust Him fully.

Although it's not easy, it is for the best when God takes us through the cleansing process.