Rock Bottom

After being in the ARP program for 3 years, I heard something that will forever stay with me. This wise man said, “You get to choose when you are at rock bottom.” All addiction recovery journeys start at rock bottom. This is a place where the only direction one can go is up. All other options are removed. The only option is to reach up toward Heaven fully dependent upon the grace and power of Jesus Christ.

The idea of choosing when I was at rock bottom never occurred to me. I was definitely floundering, but I didn’t think I was at rock bottom. This wise man presented a different way of thinking. Maybe I wasn’t floundering, maybe, just maybe, I was skidding across the rock bottom floor. It took me several more months, but I soon found that is exactly what I was doing: just skidding across the rock bottom floor.

That is when I decided it was time for me to decide where my rock bottom was. I started paying more attention to my desires and passions. I looked for meetings. I spent time meeting with ecclesiastical leaders who could help me repent. I began to be honest with everyone around me. Soon, I found that I wasn’t at rock bottom anymore. The Savior of the World, Jesus Christ, reached down and was pulling me up out of the darkness. It’s just like Elder Jeffrey R Holland said, “I do not know who in this vast audience today may need to hear the message of forgiveness inherent in this parable, but however late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.” (The Laborers in the Vineyard, General Conference, April 2012)

No matter where you are in your addiction recovery journey, you are never beyond the Savior’s help! If you decide, today, that you are at rock bottom you will have the same opportunity I had. When I turned Heavenward, I found Jesus Christ ready to help me. I promise that as you look Heavenward from a rock bottom position, you will find Jesus Christ just like I did!

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