Walls of Jericho
/Recently when contemplating the story of the battle of Jericho, I pondered what those Israelites may have thought when they were instructed to follow a process of marching around the walls every day, for six days, then seven times on the seventh day. Don’t you think they wondered how and if this process would work? Do you think it seemed fruitless to them? I can just hear the complaints, “Why are we doing this?”, “Oh I am so tired“, ”I don’t have time for this“, ”This won’t work.” Yet we know enough of them followed the pattern outlined by the Lord. They worked the process, and the walls came tumbling down.
I see many parallels to recovery in this story. I have heard myself or others say, “I’ve tried this and this doesn’t work”, “I don’t have time (for meetings, for therapy, for reading, for the work)” or “I am tired of trying!”
The work of recovery isn’t as quick and often not as black and white as the walls of Jerico falling but can certainly be as miraculous. Likely it will be incremental with progress and setbacks. For me, I know that it is a continuous process of applying the tools and resources, then coming back to them when I find myself off track. But the end result is miraculous.
The walls didn’t fall the first day; nor did they on the second, but they fell after the prescribed process. The process the Israelites were instructed to follow was rigorous, it required a lot of work, endurance and trust in the Lord. Your prescribed process for recovery will be unique to you, but the persistence, working, and most importantly the trust in God is not unique.
You’ll often hear it said in a recovery meeting, “keep coming back, it works if you work it, so work it because you’re worth it!”
What next?
Identify something you did in the past that was helpful to you that you gave up on and try it again.
By Nicole, Writing Team