Most Americans have either never heard of him or know all about him.  He sort of designed it that way.

Bill was a up-and-coming stock trader in the 1920′s and was doing pretty well for himself.  He was a risk taker and the life of the party.  Over the years however he found that it took more and more alcohol to really enjoy himself, and before long, he was drinking just to “feel normal” again.  As the 1929 stock market crashed, he took to drinking heavily, and soon his entire life revolved around the bottle.  He scared his wife Lois and regularly promised sobriety only to let her down time and again.

He was ‘powerless’ in the face of his own addiction.

He was brought to the very bottom when his wife finally came to her senses and checked him into a ‘sanitarium’ – a kind of hospital and mental institution for substance abusers and the insane.  He was tied to his bed as he wallowed in his own shame.  This, from a man who was topping the charts on Wall Street only a few years earlier.  He better than any of knew the vicious poison…and luring potion of alcohol.

He found God in that sanitarium.  From that moment on he began to give himself over to a “Higher Power” – the same way he formerly gave himself over to alcohol.  His wife and friends were at first skeptical, then overjoyed!  But he was not out of the woods yet.  His temptations were still there.  He believed that part of his life now was to share the path to sobriety with other drunks – that somehow he needed to keep telling the story of his own redemption in order to hold on to the sobriety he sought out every day – one day at a time.

Bill’s returned to work – and on one occasion he was sent to Cincinnati, OH.  Far from his routines in New York City, he found himself tempted more than ever to finding the nearest lounge and no doubt falling off the wagon once again. In a last ditch effort he went out in search of a drunk who might listen to his tale.  He comes across Bob S., drunk and depressed as Bill had been in that sanitarium.

One movie script of their encounter has Bill sitting down with a skeptical Bob, Bob going on and on about how Bill was wasting his time trying to convince Bob to stop drinking.  ”Doctors, shrinks…they’ve all gave me their best, but nothing stuck,” Bob grunted to Bill, “What makes you think you can do anything for me?”  Bill leaned forward with a drunk’s desperation in his eyes and responded,

“I’m not here to do anything for you, I’m here for me.”

Thus began Alcoholics Anonymous.

Sharing the story of salvation from alcohol is the key to keeping your own sobriety.  “To keep it, you have to share it.”  It’s like breathing – if you want to keep your breath, you have to share it – breathing in and keeping it will only kill you!  You have to let it go to get it again.

 This is how it works on Wikipedia as well, if you want to set the record straight on the wingspan of a flying squirrel, you add your tidbit of knowledge to the flying squirrel Wiki page.  But simultaneously, you share it with the rest of the world.

It’s like our own salvation.  It’s like the mission of the church.  We are simultaneously “re-presenting” the Gospel to ourselves when we share it with others.  And when a church or a Christian fails to share the Gospel with others, they fail to experience it themselves, and they become more of a problem to the world than a beautiful response to the problems of the world!

So keep the sobriety of your salvation.  Follow the advice of Bill W., who understood more than most how desperately he needed to give it away, day after day…

To keep it, SHARE IT!

What goes into your mouth is important, but Jesus says that what comes out of your mouth is even more important.  In fact, the words you speak, not your diet, are what make you healthy.  Just look:

“What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’” — (Mt. 15:11)

What is the FIRST thing OUT of your mouth each morning?  Can you even remember?

Think about it for just a minute.  Each and every night you close your mouth, and you live in silence for many hours.  In all the rush and noise of this world, you make it a daily habit to spend close to a 1/3 of each day in utter darkness and silence.  Kinda beautiful, eh?

But what breaks that “fasting” from words?  How do you greet the new day?  Is it with blessing or cursing?

Why not start this new year with a resolution to have a “Breakfast of Words” – give yourself a simple phrase or sentence to greet each new day.

I had noticed that my days were starting off on the wrong foot – and I came to believe it was the mindset in which I was approaching my days – if the first things that roll through my mind or off my tongue are, “Shoot – I’ve forgot to call that guy yesterday,” or “I feel groggy and awful,” imagine how the rest of my days went!  I had enough - I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.

Since then, I’ve been doing a little “holy experiment” trying it out, and I’ve lived to tell the tale.  And I’ve got to say – its GREAT!

Each morning, I’ll say this as my eggs are cooking:

“Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit – as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, AMEN.”

I don’t know about you but if you say that, even if you begin without “feeling like it” – by the end, you just might have a slight smile on your face.  You remember that no matter how you might feel, or what might be going on in your life, a regular diet of these words (or something like them) will change your day.  And if you can change your day, you can change your week, month, year…even your life.

Its the simple things like this that make the biggest difference.  New Years Resolutions don’t have to be BIG – they just have to be consistent.  

Take a daily “Breakfast of Words” – start your day’s dialogue in a place of joy, centering, and purpose.  And see what happens!

Studies of eastern European orphanages where babies were essentially not touched (or nurtured) have long proven that nurture is in part what helps us survive – sadly, many of the under-nurtured children died.  Being nurtured, as infants and even as adults, helps us cope with the pains and pressures of this world.  It tells us we are not alone.

But there is also a deep delight that comes from nurturing!  This impulse seems to come with a nuanced maturity (don’t give a 2 year old a tender orchid to care for) but the process of nurturing seems latent in many kids from the earliest years (baby dolls…pets…Farmville!?!)  For countless adults it brings a deeper sense of purpose and joy.  Nurturing actually boosts the maturity of the one maturing!  Suddenly you’re focus is not only on yourself, but on someone else.

And this is the basic function of the Church!  To bring people from darkness to light, from immaturity to maturity.  As my friend says, “It is the Family of God, with the elders raising up the ‘youngers’.”  None of us come to faith and maturity in Jesus Christ on our own, it takes the nurturing and tending of a community bringing us along on the Way of Jesus.  And for the elders, the spiritual moms and dads of a church, nurturing others (also called discipleship) is like legal steroids for their own maturity.  This is just how it works in God’s family!

So why is it so rare in the American Church today?  There is a lot that gets in the way of nurturing – we get side-tracked with budgets, with building campaigns, with so much more.  It is simply more dramatic and impressive to see a new education wing built or to spend our efforts writing a better sermon series.  These things help in the process of nurturing for some churches, but they ultimately are a sideshow to the real project of the Church – to bring the entire planet into a relationship of delight with their Creator.

And I’d like to think that this organic nurture in the Church is not as rare as we think – it is likely that it just goes on unannounced.  With an older woman taking a younger lady out for tea, imparting wisdom and faith to the next generation.  This is where the real action is – the unspoken heroes of the faith.