RE: Open Letter - Dear Saints in the Lord's Recovery - Joann Casteel

[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Personally, I was a messed up kid who probably should have had both counseling and numerous meds. Perhaps that might have delivered me from my days of self-medication, perhaps not. One night before sleeping I had a life-changing visit by the Savior. Changed my mind, my heart, my attitude, my personality. Everything was changed for the better. I was a new creation. Today I still have issues at times like everyone else, and I've been beaten up over the years, but I keep coming back to the Physician and Healer of my soul. Praise Him!

I was as messed up as any, and perhaps worse than some. I can't say that I wasted my time there, but eventually left in frustration (various reasons inc. lack of transformation). But years after leaving the LC, the Lord showed me something - as I do unto others, God will do to me. If I encourage and console, God will encourage and console me. If I facilitate God's healing, even tangentially, then it will facilitate mine own. It's all about how I treat the other guy (or gal). It's not about "me" but rather about "the other guy". Wow. I never got that in HS, not in the LC, not in college. That came straight from heaven.

In the LC it was all about "making it" - being an over comer and ruling and reigning with Christ in the coming Kingdom Age. But eventually I realised that the "reward" was in doing good to the other person right now, while it is still today. "Now is the hour of salvation." That was how to follow Christ - today. My problems to some extent remain, but when I help others today they get smaller.

And yes, I can seek help, too. And I have. But I'm no longer the black hole of need - everything in, nothing out. When I learned to give and to care I truly began to feel that God was healing me. "When you lose your soul you will find it."