BREATHING UNDER WATER:

Spirituality and the Twelve Steps  

I wonder whether addiction could be one very helpful metaphor for what the biblical tradition called  ¢â‚¬Å“sin. ¢â‚¬  I personally am convinced that is the case, which might be the first foundational connection between the Gospel and the Twelve Step Program. How helpful it is to see sin, like addiction, as a destructive disease instead of merely something that is culpable, punishable or  ¢â‚¬Å“makes God unhappy. ¢â‚¬  If sin indeed makes God unhappy, it is because God desires nothing more than our happiness, and the willing healing of our disease. The healing ministry of Jesus should have made that crystal clear; healing was about all that he did, with much of his teaching illustrating the healings ¢â‚¬”and vice versa.  

You were made to breathe the Air that always surrounds you, feeds you, and fills you. Some call it God. With these twelve important breathing lessons, you will know for yourself that you can breathe, and even breathe under water. Because the breath of God is everywhere.  

From Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, pp. xv, xvii, 117

Starter Prayer:  Breathe through me.