Slogan of the Week

Author Note: I have a backlog of Sage Sayings-related Facebook posts— too many to share here but for a start, here is a digest of last week’s posts. Let me know if you enjoy them. Thanks. Isabella 💖

Monday

Mercy without boundaries becomes enabling. Boundaries without mercy become judgment. Jesus invites us to both.

Tuesday

My beloved Mamma was brilliant, beautiful, fascinating, and fun...except when she was mid-schizophrenic episode, crushingly dependent, or medicated into oblivion. Papà was a charming, witty, talented genius...except when he was a raging or melancholy drunk. I loved them anyway, but it hurt.

I spent many needless years of senseless anguish trying to fix them, resenting them, enabling them, and failing to accept they couldn't be any different than they were. Loving them was painful until I could accept my powerlessness...and theirs. Both had complex childhoods themselves, long before the enlightenment and resources we have access to today.

In recovery, we say "Acceptance is the answer to all our problems." Acceptance is the key to surrender. It's not pretty getting there. I did eventually accept my parents as they were, with ample prayer and firm boundaries, forgiving and giving them to God.

I now cherish their memory and legacy as parents who loved us immensely. I am truly blessed to have had them. They did the very best they could. I miss them more than ever!

Sometimes a diagnosis isn't so obvious. People carry hurts we cannot see. Others may be genuinely dangerous. Many are blind to their defects, as I have surely been. Please note the Bible says so on all counts.

We can love people, up close and personal, or from a safe distance, entrusting them to Christ, who "whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed—he healed them all." (Matthew 4:24)

That's really Good News...for those who seek, hear, and receive it!

PRAYER:

Dear Jesus, please grant me serenity to accept people as they are and to forgive freely. Heal those who want Your healing, including me. Deliver those who need Your freedom and give us grace to surrender day by day. Grant me the wisdom and courage to establish distance, without guilt, as You did and taught. Have mercy on us all. In Your Mighty, Holy Name, I ask it. Amen.

Thank You. I love You.💖

DIG DEEPER: Matthew 10, 2 Timothy 3:1-5a

Wednesday

📌Slogan of the Week: “Some of us are sicker than others.”

Strictly speaking, this slogan is about recognizing that some of us may struggle more than others—whatever the reason—and learning to practice compassion and detachment for them…and for ourselves.

That’s a good principle, as far as it goes, but I’d like to reframe it in the transformative light of Christ. BTW, recovery was His idea first (Luke 4:18–19).

This verse from 1 Peter captures a practical truth: any suffering can be used for good if we bring it to Jesus (Romans 8:28). Peter reminds us that when we suffer for righteousness, God uses it to break sin’s power and build obedience. We’re no longer slaves to the selfish desires that can trip us up (Romans 6:1).

God even tells us to “count it all joy” when we face trials, because they produce steadfastness, maturity, and hope (James 1:2–4; Romans 5:3–5). Christ’s own testimony—and that of all His mighty warriors—is that suffering is the crucible where character, power, purity, dependence, and endurance are forged.

I’ve suffered without submitting it to Christ, and let me tell you—bad idea! I've also tried to silence the suffering in assorted ways, busyness, booze, food, relationships, ambition, etc. and the source and suffering remain. But when I lean into the suffering with Jesus...well, the upside is uh-mazing. The reality is that ongoing suffering is reality on earth and the price of spiritual progress. All progress, really.

We experience His sufficiency and power in our weakness, whatever it is (2 Corinthians 12:9).

In recovery, it’s said that we become grateful for those experiences which caused us to submit to such discipline (BB, p88)—that is, the 12 Steps--basically, defeat, faith, surrender, ongoing repentance and confession, dependence, spiritual growth, and sacrificial service. Sound familiar?

Recovery was Jesus’ idea first.

So, are we willing to suffer as Jesus did, unjustly for our sake? What if the suffering is the genuine gateway to true freedom, peace, and joy? Will we deny ourselves for Him? If we love Him, we will—His words, not mine (John 14:15; Matthew 10:38). If so, we are Spirit-empowered, and God can use us mightily. Not only that, but in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says we’re blessed for it (Matthew 5:10–12).

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, this verse is heavy. I don’t like suffering, yet it’s unavoidable this side of heaven and essential for our Spirit-led transformation into Your likeness. Please help me quickly submit to the suffering that draws me closer to You and makes me more like You, glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Yet not my will but Yours be done (Luke 22:42). Amen. Thank you. I love You.💖

#RecoveryWisdom #StepsToFreedom #ChristCenteredRecovery #FreedomInChrist #SpiritualSobriety #JesusTransforms #HopeinSuffering #FaithOverFeelings #GraceInTheGrit

Thursday

📌Slogan of the Week

Of course, there weren’t any people who were “well” then, and there aren’t any now! 🙋🏽‍♀️

We are all sinners in need of The Great Physician✨💖

Saturday

The woman who uttered these words reported by Matthew was definitely sicker than others. She had “an issue of blood”—girl problems—for twelve years. In those days and culture, this was humiliating, isolating stigmatizing issue. Many, including her own family, may have thought her cursed and avoided her.

Mark’s gospel says she had “suffered” at the hands of many doctors. She tried everything and everything made things worse. It must have felt heartbreaking and hopeless.

Twelve years of unrelenting, physical, spiritual, and emotional suffering. Recall that twelve is God’s number for Divine authority and completion —the 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles, 12 features of the Heavenly City…and so much more.

As terrible as those 12 years had been, everything was going to change in an instant after an encounter with Jesus.

She hit a bottom, willing “to go to any length” to be healed. Jesus was traveling to another healing encounter with an entourage of men. This hurting woman was willing to humble herself and risk contempt, embarassment, and even violence, for a chance to be cured.

Penetrating the crowd, she murmured “if only,” recorded for our benefit.

Touching Jesus’ robe, she knew at once she had been healed.

Feeling the power leave him, “Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” (v22)

In an instant, she was not only healed of her physical ailment, but restored to spiritual wholeness and community by the God of the Universe made man.

What is your “sickness” and what stands between you and reaching for Jesus? Are you willing to go to any length to “touch His robe”?

PRAYER:

Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word and I shall be healed. Transform us, Lord by your love and power!

Amen. Thank You. I love you! 💖