Celebrate Recovery is Messy

Celebrate Recovery is an unusual kind of ministry. We reach out to people who are the most in need of help. We focus on people with addictions, depression, anger, relationship problems, chronic illness, stress and anxiety, grief, insecurities, fears… In Celebrate Recovery, we try to be real. We try to not hide our faults and our fears. We encourage people to open up and share their struggles. 

We believe that it is path to healing and freedom. The problem? The problem is that healing and freedom don’t always come fast or easy. People make progress, then sometimes they stumble, and they may fall. Hopefully, they get up and try it again. Just about every day, I get a phone call or email concerning a minor emergency or “situation”. I don’t feel equipped to handle all the things that come up. I have never experienced a lot of the things that the C.R. family has had to deal with. I don’t have any training in recovery programs.

At Cottonwood, we just felt that God lead us to start Celebrate Recovery, so we did. Now, after a year, we truly celebrate the great things that God has done. It is messy, but that is not bad. I have taken care of my home for many years. The worse messes we ever have around the house is when we are making some major improvements. When we have remodeled, we have had to live with messes for a number of weeks. When I see the mess and I feel frustrated, I have to remind myself that the final result will be worth it, and it is.

Celebrate Recovery is a wonderfully messy ministry, and the mess is worth it.