(Part 1) How a YouTube Video and Jordan Peterson spark an idea.
Or How I write a Resilient Recovery Lesson
A video on YouTube gets me thinking about the idea of meaning, self-efficacy, and epic challenges.
I like the video because if I had to narrow down my complaints about therapy to just one central idea, it would be this. Therapy strives to heal, rather than equip.
In therapy, healing often means relaxation, acceptance, and comfort within the therapeutic relationship. In my mind, equipping people involves encouraging the client to seek meaning, self-efficacy, and epic challenges.
Epic challenges are important because it is only through challenges that a person can refine and improve themselves. Like a hammer and chisel on a rock, challenges can reveal a strength or quality that would have otherwise remained hidden.
The idea that meaning, self-efficacy, and epic challenges are central to life—and therapy—was one of the things that attracted me to the youtube lectures of Canadian Psychologist Jordan Peterson. He stresses building the client’s character, not the therapist’s empathy and consolation. He encourages his listeners to do simple, yet concrete actions like cleaning their rooms. His approach is to tell the depressed and the anxious to begin doing SOMETHING. This quote is emblematic of his prescriptions:
“To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.”
Peterson’s ideas have been an energizing force for thousands of young people.
As much as I am drawn to the idea of infusing recovery with meaning, self-efficacy, and epic challenges, I feel a countervailing impulse. The DNA of my Christian worldview stresses grace and mercy, not works. Rather than exhorting us to take up the sword and kill our dragons, Christian sermons remind us that Jesus won the victory on our behalf. In fact, the unofficial catchphrase for Resilient Recovery is “Rest in Jesus and His Promises.” This doesn’t seem to dovetail with the words, “stand up straight with your shoulders back. . .”
This conundrum, this unsolved paradox becomes the impetus for creating a new lesson in the Resilient Recovery Group Handbook.
I start to wonder, is there a way to bring these ideas together? Can I remain biblical in my Christology and in my definition of the gospel, while at the same time fanning the flames of action, adventure, and challenge?
To begin the process of writing a Resilient Recovery Lesson, I remember fragments of several passages that speak to the idea of the challenge. I know there are verses that compare the Christian life to running a race, a series of losses and sacrifices, fighting a good fight, to trials, to a battle in which armor and swords are needed.
2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
James 1:1-27 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Philippians 2:17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.
Matthew 10:22 And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
From the above verses, I start to zero in on one verse that I think will get the biggest bang for the buck in a Resilient Recovery Group. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) I have a Wednesday morning group in mind as I create the lesson.
With this verse chosen, I think of a story or a composite of stories that would illustrate the point main point: We are running a race.
John wants to get sober, but he’s not sure if he can. He has checked himself into rehab and he is grateful for the support and structure. But he knows that it can’t last forever. At some point, he has to leave the rehab. Then what?
John is a little worried that he won’t stay sober when leaves. But, he’s not worried enough to begin training for it. He is a bit like a marathon runner who shows up on race day with a positive attitude, but not much else. For John to finish the race, he needs to discipline himself and train.
Good runners eliminate many distractions in order to win races. They don’t stay up late, they avoid worthless junk food, they may even miss out on entertainment and nights out. Good runners also train for endurance. They run, sprint, lift weights, and stretch.
Unfortunately, John left rehab unprepared and soon got into trouble with drugs and alcohol again.
Now comes the questions. I need to develop two questions that will help people apply the passage above to their own situations. Here are a few options I came up with:
What might distract you from winning the sobriety marathon?* How can you eliminate these distractions?
What do you need to eliminate in order to win the race of sobriety?
What can you do to train and stay focused on sobriety until the end of this life?*
I pick questions based on how I think members of the Wednesday morning group will respond. I imagine them and what kinds of things they might say. I am usually totally wrong. The participants end up surprising me with insights and ideas that I never dreamed of. Many times, these ideas and insights become important to my own struggles. But despite the inaccurate nature of my guesses regarding the Wednesday morning group’s responses, I still use these guesses as my guide to choosing appropriate questions.
I notice that this lesson will challenge the wisdom of the 12-step programs. These programs stress taking things one day at a time. Certainly, there is wisdom in that. “Future-tripping” is what they call worry and anxiety about events that may not even happen tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year. Again, there is some wisdom in that.
But, I decide to push forward because I think there is wisdom in the passage above, as well. It’s not my job to deliver an entirely coherent meta-framework. Instead, I hope to present people with a chance to wrestle with a biblical instruction and try it on for size.
Next comes the gospel. Resilient is unique among recovery programs in that we try to provide an undiluted gospel message at least once in every meeting.
The challenge here is the challenge I started with. How do I combine the disparate realities of “running a race” and “saved by faith”. Or to state it another way, can a person “stand up straight, with shoulders back,” AND “rest in Jesus and His promises.”
I do not want to cancel out the insights gained in the first section of this lesson. And I do not want to taint the pure gospel message with any “works-righteousness”. I can see these options:
Jesus won the race; so we train and run surrounded by grace, knowing we win because he confers his victory to us.
Jesus won the race; he gives us a new runner, who will also win this race.
Jesus won the race; when we fail, he carries us to the finish line.
I decided to develop the idea that Jesus gives us a new runner. This preserves the truth that we will need to run, while at the same time giving all the glory to Jesus for providing us with that new runner. This is something like the pronouncement of the gospel that will be read in this lesson:
Jesus ran the race of life like no one else. He endured hardships no one else could bear. He gained a victory no one else qualified for. Jesus sees our lack of athleticism and has mercy on us. He makes it possible for us to win the race. First, he accepts every fine and penalty we deserve for our mistakes in the race of life. Then he gives us a new man or woman who will finish the race. He breathes life into lungs that lack oxygen, he builds up muscles that had atrophied, he restores a beating heart to a body that had collapsed in sin. Now when we face any troubles or hardships in our life, we can rejoice, knowing that it is not punishment, but training designed to make us victorious.
James 1:1-27 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Therefore, I forgive you all your sins, and I encourage you to run toward victory, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Now I need to develop the second round of questions. These questions must help the person reflect on the gospel. If new behaviors are discussed, they must have gospel motivation as their fuel, not works-righteousness. If I fail to word the questions appropriately, I have failed to distinguish Resilient from the rest of the recovery programs out there. And I have failed in my primary directive: to comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received. Here are a couple of ideas for the gospel questions.
If you win the race, what are the prizes you will collect both now and in eternity?
How will your sobriety be tested in the next month or year, and how will you joyfully complete the test?
I like these. They might be a little too abstract. But, they work for now.
My next step will be to try out this lesson with a couple of groups and see if the lesson has the intended effect. I’ll change the wording, update the questions, or even scrap the idea entirely if it doesn’t work out. Check back to this blog, I’ll let you know how it goes.
As I look back, these are the basic steps:
1) Find an interesting idea to explore
2) Find verses that address this concept
3) Develop a short meditation on the verse that I chose
4) Brainstorm some questions.
5) Write a gospel message that pairs well with the content from steps 1-4.
6) Develop gospel questions
7) Test it out.
