of chips and coffee and meetings and church

two month chip received this morning for this "i've been sober for two months" girl, today :)

because i am a service-oriented soul, and because at my favorite meeting there was no hot water for tea, i decided i should make this my "home group" (think "home church") and proceeded to donate a 12-cup coffee maker so we could have hot water for us tea drinkers, of which there are not many. but for those of us who are, we are pretty happy it's there. (must be honest and mention the fact that i had three coffee urns and two pots left over from a restaurant we closed almost a year ago...)

this is where i make a commitment to show up when they have meetings, set up for coffee and clean up, and stay for the business meeting afterwards every first sunday of the month. our meeting this morning, i learned we (as a group) sponsor a month over at the Rescue Mission and go and host the meetings every friday night at the Mission. my two worlds are now going to integrate and even though i don't have much "time" under my belt, as someone who struggles with addiction, and has for quite some time now -- those of you who have been with me for a while know this to be true -- i feel blessed to be in a position to go and contribute and help others who are suffering in different ways than me and, quite frankly, i am humbled by being able to attend. it really is another facet of church for me.

from one of my favorite books, Telling Secrets by Frederick Buechner:

Go where your best prayers take you. Unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy. Breathe deep of the glad air and live one day at a time...The meeting in the basement begins with all of you introducing yourselves...Just by getting yourself there and saying that, you have told an extremely important secret, which is that you cannot go it alone. You need help...

I do not believe that such groups as these {AA and 12-step programs}... are perfect any more than anything human is perfect, but I believe that the church has an enormous amount to learn from them. I also believe that what goes on in them is far close to what Christ meant his church to be, and what it originally was, than much of what goes on in most churches I know. These groups hae no buildings or official leadership or money. They have no rummage sales, no altar guilds, no every-member canvases. They have no preachers, no choirs, no liturgy, no real estate. They have no creeds. They have no program. They make you wonder if the best thing that could happen to many a church might not be to have its building burn down and to lose all its money. Then all that the people would have left would be God and each other.

who knew?

(God did.)