Pass It On

By Sabrena Stolze, SE Regional Director

More than anything, I want others to know what Jesus Christ has given me through Celebrate Recovery® and what Celebrate Recovery has done in my marriage, my family, my relationships—my life.

When I meet someone new, I seek opportunities to bring up my recovery to introduce the ministry, hoping to plant a seed of curiosity they might explore. So how do I explain this amazing ministry to strangers? What do I want them to know? What might you share if you had the opportunity?

We could just go with the facts: It’s a Christ-centered recovery program that helps people heal from their hurts, hang-ups, and habits. That’s fantastic, after all! And this is certainly information I want people to receive. However, it goes so much deeper.

I want to share what it feels like when Christ loves people right where they are. He begins to heal them, transform them, restore them through steps, groups, relationships, love, grace, tools, accountability, transparency, and safety.

In one of Beth Moore’s studies, she described her childhood as having a foundation of pain, hurt, and struggle with moments of joy scattered throughout her days. It was like living in a jail cell with candles lit all around her. But at some point in her life, it flipped. She now has a foundation of peace and love, with moments of hurt and pain scattered throughout her days. I so intensely identified with her description from her childhood that it caused me to gasp. This image painted a perfect picture of how I had felt my entire life. At the time I read this, my life had not yet flipped. However, it did happen eventually.

After I went through a lifetime of pain, damage, and despair, Jesus Christ used Celebrate Recovery as the key to free me from the bondage of sin, from my prison cell. When I explain Celebrate Recovery to strangers, I want them to have the facts. But ultimately, I want a stranger to know that Celebrate Recovery is where freedom lives!

Christ came to Earth as a human to die on a cross so we could be free. We are born in chains that only he can release! And whether someone knows it or not, believes it or not, we all seek freedom with every breath we take.

In this time, God has decided to use this ministry to bring freedom to millions of people. I pray today that you will use every opportunity you have to share it with others—to pass on the key to the prison cell in which they find themselves. Pass on the gift of freedom today.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36 NIV).