My husband, Kyle, and I recently attended a Spirituality Breakfast at Augsburg, a National Recovery Month event held there annually. Our son, Gabe, invited us to attend because he had been asked to give a reflection on recovery and spirituality. Gabe is a junior at Augsburg and has been part of the StepUP Program since the beginning of his freshman year. He will be three years sober January 16, 2014.
I knew Gabe would do well; he has always seemed comfortable in front of adults, he is extremely personable, and he has worked so hard to help himself and others in recovery. Yet, I had no idea what he would say about spirituality and the role it has played in his recovery journey. And honestly, I don’t remember that many of his actual words. But I do remember sitting and listening, tears of pride, love and gratitude burning my eyes and running down my face the entire time, in amazement at this beautiful boy of ours, telling his story with humility, some humor, confidence and the insight of someone who knows himself extremely well. This is not the insight of a typical college junior, nor even is it the insight of most adults who have been around for a while; I realized as I was listening to him that it was the insight of a now deeply spiritual being who had suffered, even before his addiction began, struggled, and finally given up the fight and surrendered his hope for a better future to a force of love and wisdom beyond his own.
John Stumme