 Welcome to Hope Today. I asked in your blanket somewhere and not venturing outside if you're up here in the north in Pittsburgh where we make the program. I hope you're nice and safe and warm. If you're in Florida, we don't like that. But people are watching us, right? People are going to be watching us in Central Florida where we're on and in Jacksonville and they're going to be like, well, it's fine. Anyway, I'm Tom Hollis. This is Anna Frye and on this cold day, Anna, we have a great guest coming up. Yes, we do. It is so good to be with you on a Monday. We hope that our conversation keeps you warm at home. And today we get to talk about doing recovery in a way that uncovers the person God made you to be. Our guest, Britt Eaton, is here in studio to share her journey with addiction, mental health, suicidal thoughts and past trauma. We're going to talk about breaking the recovery mold, the importance of joining together spirit-led ideology with science and how you can get started on your own journey of uncovering your healed and whole self. Tom, I love the conversation. Anything about going from brokenness to wholeness with Christ at the center? Well, that's always Christ's desire for us to go from brokenness to wholeness. And that's his desire for you today. Maybe you need prayer. There's always prayer partners that are available for you here 24-7 so you can call somebody and get some prayer, but be sure to hear what is being said today so you can learn those things to move in that place. Well, today is Monday, so it is a meaningful Monday. Well, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. And as we honor the pastor, activist and civil rights icon who inspired millions, I'd like for us to look at some inspirational quotes that he shared on the importance of God, faith, peace and unity. And I love quotes and he has some of the best. And the first quote says this, I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. We were going over quotes for this and I had never really heard that quote. I loved it immediately because it's not about might makes right. Ultimately, in God's economy, it is about doing the right thing and God will have that right triumph, even though that it looks temporarily like evil's triumph. Yeah, Martin Luther King, Jr. is such an inspiration because he personally knew what that suffering was that abuse that insult from others and constantly bringing the truth of God's word that is stands victorious at the end of all things to overcome darkness and hatred. And that takes me into my favorite MLK quote. And he says this, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. So whether you have experienced that injustice of racism or in your family relationships or in your close relationships where you have experienced the hatred of someone else and even where it has stirred up hatred within you and that anger and that bitterness and that unforgiveness and our flesh, we feel so tempted to just go back and have revenge towards that person. But know that the truth is that in God's economy, that hate will never drive out hate. Only love can do that. And I have been challenged over and over again to go deeper into what is love? What is it not? How do I act out love in those hardest relationships and begin to make a difference? It's one thing to say that. It's a great quote. But to live that out, that's difficult. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit. I know that we've all had to face that. We've all had to face some difficult times and difficult people. And how do we move forward in love? Well, I'd just like to thank a great American pureflix insider for the article and the quotes. Just wonderful things to think about and kind of see what God's saying to us about it. Yeah, absolutely. Take some time today to just meditate on some of those quotes, get in scripture, see how God's truth is always aligning with them. So we're going to take a quick break. But when we come back, Britt Eaton will be here with us to talk about recovering the person that God truly made you to be. Stay with us. If self-help isn't getting you anywhere, it's time for God's power. Have you grown accustomed to bad habits, written off lifelong battles as unwinnable, or believed that some destructive behaviors can never be altered? Then the seven resolutions is for you. This book will teach you how to overthrow old patterns, create new life systems, and take hold of God's promises. Resolve to Join God, think truth, kill sin, choose friends, take risks, focus effort, and redeem time. 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Well, real recovery isn't a one-time event or a process that fits into 12 steps or a preset length of time. Our guest today, Britt Eaton, joins us to share her journey with addiction, mental health, suicidal thoughts and past trauma. Her new book, which she co-authors with George Wood, The Uncovered Devotional, Rethinking Recovery One Day at a Time, helps uncover and heal the issues that cause a person to struggle in the first place. So, Britt, it's so good to have you. Welcome to Hope Today. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me. Well, we're excited to just hear some of your personal stories. So start us off by sharing some of that. And you co-authored this book with George Wood. And I want to hear how your journey connected with what he shared about uncovering. Sure. So between George and I, whenever we're introduced publicly together, you look at our backgrounds, and they really couldn't be any different. I grew up in a really good Christian home, really great Christian parents, and walked the walk, looked the part, knew all the words to say, but I was struggling beneath the surface. George, on the other hand, grew up in an environment riddled with trauma, separated parents, alcoholic parents, just drama all around, death, destruction in the family. So the big aha moment that came when George and I met in 2020, we met at the very beginning of the pandemic was when we found out that the truth of that your background does not necessarily mean you will or will not struggle because the struggles we face today and the reasons people step into traditional recovery, it's because of underlying things that impact you from a heart positioning perspective that make you question your identity. And some of us have to just sit in the midst of drama and move forward with that while others of us have to figure out what it looks like to pretend to be perfect on the surface, so no one ever questions that. So the beauty of George and I coming together is that our story when we united in authorship was the same. The answer to the big recovery question is Christ Jesus. I'm not just talking about a big higher power, I'm talking about the person of Jesus Christ the two of us know from personal experience that real recovery cannot happen without Him. So when we actually had our first phone call it was March of 2020, we had all just been kind of encouraged to stay in our homes, we were wondering what was going on. The first 20 minutes of my conversation with George, I knew we were going to be partnered in ministry for years to come because of his testimony, my testimony and the way that we were able to share authentically with one another and both agree in that moment that the church and the rest of the world needs to learn how to do recovery differently because recovery is not 12 steps, it's not a program, it's not a rehab that you go to, it is a transformative encounter with Jesus Christ that leads you into the first steps of a promised land life that he has for you in this world. So it's been a beautiful partnership with George and I'm sad he can't be here with us today. Yeah that promised land life that God promises is what we are after and so from your personal experience, stepping into understanding your identity and who Christ is, when that hit your struggles with mental health, the suicidal thoughts, how did that begin to shift things for you? So I think it's important for us to remember that collectively as not just Christians but as human beings, we've been struggling with identity since the beginning of time. You go back to Genesis, Adam and Eve were struggling with it, even though they were already like God, they still wanted to pursue ways that they could be even more like God, even potentially more powerful than him. The Israelites, they were stepping forward and stepping even out of bondage, they still wanted to take control of the situation, they were still dissatisfied, they still had no idea who they were. In my own personal life, my personal journey, wow I grew up in just the right environment to walk out this great little Christian life as we see, but as many Christians will attest at least in their own heart of hearts, walking out this journey even when you have Jesus is really complex. My struggle started when I was about 15 years old. I began to deal with crippling anxiety and depression, partially because of the perfectionistic tendencies that I had taken on as a child, but the environment that I was surrounded in really celebrated darkness, it really celebrated self-harm as something that should be glorified, and so I stepped into environments where I struggled with addiction, I struggled with self-harm, and I was hospitalized at 15 for attempted suicide. Now my good Christian parents who had raised me right and taught me, you know, everything that I needed to know, they had no idea what to do with this. Goodness, they did the best they can, but they were in brand new territory, and at the time in the 90s when I was growing up, we just did not have resources where kids could step up in true authenticity and vulnerability and say, hey, I'm having a hard time, I need some help. So from an early age, I was taught that my struggles were something to be ashamed of, and I even had some very well-meaning pastors and Christian authority figures tell me that, oh, this must be related to secret sins in my life, and if I would just confess them, I would stop struggling. And so, wow, I confessed them, wow, I claimed Jesus is Lord, and I tried and I tried and I tried until I couldn't try anymore. And I finally just embraced a double life where you begin to look good on the surface, no one questions you or your motives, but I was living in darkness just right underneath the surface. That continued until I was in my early 30s. I was already married with a child when God finally began to bring these struggles to a level of surfacedness that I could no longer contain them. And here I was already actively in recovery ministry. I was leading a celebrate recovery ministry. I was active in my church working with those people on the margins who I was really one of, and I finally just realized, you know what, God, this legalistic approach to recovery, it's not only not working for those people that it's obvious they're struggling, it's not working for me either. There has to be more. So flash forward to 2020 when I meet George in the first 10 minutes of the phone conversation, he said, I've been doing recovery now for, it was 15 years at the time. And he said, in traditional recovery programs where you see an 80% failure rate in our community in Tampa that he was founder of an organization called the Timothy Initiative, they were having an 80% success rate. These are people who were coming in off the streets with hardcore heroin addiction. They were not only getting free, they were staying free for a year, then three years, then five years, then 10 years. And then they would stay in the community, they would get married, they would have families, and they built, they have an entire street in inner city Tampa where they have this giant recovery community where George still lives today, even though he stepped down as leader of the organization and he's just living there in community. So I said to him, how did you do that? Because I've been trying to do recovery for years. I've been trying to do it in the context of community. And no matter what I do, the recovery people are always those who end up in the church basement on Friday nights and aren't really very welcome on Sunday morning. How do we fix this? And so that started us on a journey on a process where we began to uncover the realities of what recovery is really supposed to be. It's not about fixing your problems or figuring out how to stop doing bad things. It's about uncovering the trauma and the pain in your background that is leading you to struggle in the first place. This is something that even some of the best Christian recovery programs out there don't have this as key components of their curriculum. They may have something that's called a fearless moral inventory, but even within that inventory, they're really just taking a look at all the bad things that you've ever done so that you can repent of them. But they're very often avoiding the trauma, the pain, the abuse, the abandonment, the loss that's happened in your life that actually formed neuro pathways to make you have a higher propensity to struggle. So digging into some of these things in the first book and now in the devotional, which is a very one-on-one intimate experience with the recovering individual and the father, this is an invitation into that promised land life. The life that was intended not only for the Israelites coming out through the Exodus, it's intended for us. The promised land life is not heaven. When you die, the promised land life is heaven on earth today. Your eternal life starts today if you choose it. Well, I think that, I mean, I love this discussion because so often it seems like the recovery methods are how to manage the temptations basically. How do we get to that place? How do we get to that place of uncovering the things that are within us that can be healed, that can be changed so that the thing doesn't, the thing that's controlling that, the thing that's controlling the thing, how do we get to that place of uncovering that? I'm going to give you a two-fold answer. So we have two books related to the uncovering. The first is the uncovering, understanding the power of community to heal trauma. The second is the uncovering devotional. It's a 365-day opportunity to look at doing recovery differently for yourself. The first book, by intention, was really written for recovery leaders in the church because we believe that the recovery problem that exists not only in the United States but around the globe, it's a systemic issue and we believe it needs to change from a leadership level down within the context of Christ-centered community. That said, that is going to take time and we know each individual is responsible for his or her own recovery journey. So we are juxtaposing both an invitation for leaders to think differently about recovery, to take an honest assessment of their recovery procedures, their programming in their church, their rehab clinics, whatever that might look like, and ask authentically, hey God, what's working, what's not working, and what else would you have us do? And then we ask the individual the same questions of their own life. What's working, what's not working, and God, what else would you have me do? What else would you have me try? So when we're looking at this, it's a corporate problem and an individual problem, but the answer to it all is community. Learning how to show up, not with a pharisaical spirit, but to show up as Christ would to seek and save those who are lost, those who know the answer may be him, but they don't even know how to get to him. It is the church's responsibility to point people to Jesus, but you and I know sometimes we, the church, no matter how much work we've done in the past to try to love and lead people through recovery, we have more work to do in this area. So this is about advocacy, this is about education of leaders, and it's also about opening up our current traditional Christ-centered recovery programs and saying what's working here, what's not working, and God, what else would you have us do? This is a little tweaky to some of our theologies, because man, when you've been doing a program like Alcoholics Anonymous for 100 years, it's a little hard to say we need to step away from that kind of programming, but even AA will admit 70% of their people relapse within the first year. It's not to say relapse may not be inevitable and even helpful in some context because it can give us information, but we need to look at our programming and say are we satisfied with 70 to 80% of people failing out of our recovery programs? George and I say no, we're not satisfied with that and whatever it takes, this is a grassroots movement of the body of Christ to move up and say we want to do recovery in the gentle way of Jesus. Yeah, you talk so much about the importance of community and how it can be transformational, but that education for leaders needs to be there. You mentioned the importance of connecting the spirit-led ideology with the science community, which can bring some breakthrough and impact that for us. So this is very controversial and very complex, but the simplicity of it is this. God created science. He really did. We don't need to be afraid of medical doctors. There has been such stigma in Christ-centered community about people finding the help they need outside of the church and these legalistic approaches are keeping people in bondage. We need to be encouraging counseling. We need to be encouraging therapy. We need to be encouraging people certainly not to say it's either Jesus or it's science. Oh, for goodness sakes, but let's not demonize doctors. Let's not demonize medicine and things that can help people forward in their recovery journey before we give it a chance and understand what we're talking about. The beautiful thing from a neuroscientific perspective is that God created your brain in a way that it can heal itself. There are neuro pathways in your brain that even if damaged by trauma over time with the right corrective action and with enough of a period of sobriety, the neuro pathways can reform into healthy pathways. This is the key to lasting recovery. We don't want to push someone through a legalistic program where they're 20 years sober, but they're a dry drunk. What's the point of doing that? We want to put people in a position where their heart can heal and their actual physical brain can heal with their body as they step into a deeper life with Christ. So it's really about this black hat, white hat mentality that exists between the church and the scientific community. We need to become a little more courageous and we need to have a spirit of hospitality. Bring people to the table so that we can have informed conversation. I am not asking anyone to compromise on their deepest beliefs. If there's a certain piece of science that you are not ready or willing to accept, by all means, stand by your convictions. But being open to breakthroughs and medical science, I believe could further the kingdom if we can keep our options open. Yeah, absolutely. Let me ask you just for a story. Tell me about someone that you've seen where this this has really transformed them. Maybe someone that's kept going back through recovery and yet were set free in this instance. Yes, I will tell you the story of my friend Jimmy and I don't know if Jimmy's watching today. I hope he is. He and I did recovery leadership together for many, many years and he had some much more difficult struggles than I did. Jimmy was a heroin addict and he was completely caught in bondage for many years, did not know the Lord at all. He got to a point where his brain was so damaged he didn't have normal speech patterns when he first stepped into the early stages of recovery. Doctors full on believed, well, I'm not sure that he's ever going to recover normal speech patterns. I don't know that he'll ever be fully functioning or out on his own. But the story for Jimmy ended up being much different. God not only healed his body, he healed his brain and got him to a point where Jimmy was able to not only reclaim full recovery of his speech, he went to seminary and he's now a pastor and one of the most gifted teachers I have ever heard. So it's unbelievable what can happen when you don't reject medical science. Jimmy walked through with doctors for many years. What's it going to take to rehabilitate a body that's been in crisis for years because it's had, you know, substances in it it was never meant to have? What's it going to take to heal? What's it going to take to not only walk hand in hand with medical professionals who in almost every case know what they're doing in these situations, but also to walk hand in hand with the Holy Spirit and allow that spiritual healing to happen as well. We saw the best of spirit and science come together and even it's been interesting in the work that I've done with George. We've even had interfaith communities that have come together and said we don't know exactly what's happening over here with you crazy, crazy Christians, but we want to know what's going on over here. How can we get in on that and how can we bring more people to the table? The beautiful thing about staying really open to speaking with medical and scientific professionals is you might even have the chance to share the gospel. That's the most beautiful piece of it. So I really, I think breaking down the dichotomy, that you know, separateness that exists between spirit and science and understanding that all created things are from God and this is an opportunity for us to glorify God through science and through the healing he can bring in medical communities. Wonderful. But I love your passion, your heart for this. We have just a couple minutes left in the program. Can you take some time and look in the camera right over here and just minister to someone who is struggling, who is feeling hopeless and they don't know where to begin. So I just want to start by telling you you're not alone. I know it feels like you are right now and you may be physically from a proximity standpoint. You may physically be alone, but I want to let you know right now the way the father created you. He created you almost as a mother in his womb. Since before the foundations of the earth he chose you, he called you. He knew that you were going to be special. He knew this journey that you were going to walk on. He knew the isolation you would feel, the struggles that you would have. He knew how hard it would be to walk with the stigmas that you carry. But I want to let you know that is not the truth of your identity. You are a child of God and the way that he sees you is not a desperate sinner in need of a savior. He through the lens of Christ sees you as perfect, holy, blameless in his eyes. Not because of anything you have done, but because of what Christ did for you. Your only response, even in this moment, even if you've said it before, take a moment now and just say yes to this beautiful gift of grace. Say yes to this beautiful gift of hope and healing in your situation. Say yes to a life that might seem too beautiful to imagine, but believe that God is the one who can present you with opportunities to move forward in your healing to step into that journey toward a promised land life that he has for you. Friend, you were never meant to be stuck. Believing you're stuck, believing you are stuck here is a lie from the enemy. And believe me, it is a lie that I loved to believe for years, that I was powerless to move forward on my recovery journey. And I'm going to tell you right now, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. You can do the hardest things imaginable when what you want is what God wants. So position your heart this morning, align your heart with his. Say yes to him. Surrender to him and let him do his thing. Let him step in, move you forward and bring you into a life that's so much greater than you could have ever imagined. Thank you so much. Britt Eaton, your book along with George Wood is the Uncovered Devotional Rethinking Recovery One Day at a Time. Thank you so much for your heart and for sharing and for being with us today. Pleasure. Thank you. You know, it's so important that with what Britt was sharing, there's a response needed, a response of openness, a response of opening up to God. God is all day long. It says in scriptures, he's holding out his hands to you. So let's not look back away from that. Let's look towards God. Let's look towards the one who loves you more than anyone, the one who wants to see you fully healed, fully recovered, fully new in Christ. And you do that by embracing those arms, running to those arms, opening up your heart to Jesus today. I pray that you do that. It's the beginning of a new journey for you. Have a great day. On Tomorrow's Hope Today, continuing to take a stance for the unborn in a post-row world. Pastor Jay and Tiffany Gilbert are joined by Sonya Miller, a mom who decided to choose life for her unborn baby and how that decision has made a tremendous impact in her life. Don't miss Tomorrow's Hope Today. 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