Is reGROUP for Addicts?

“Is reGROUP just for people who are addicted to something?" The short answer is no. But we all know that when there is a short and a long answer, it’s more complex than a yes or a no. Here is how we approach this issue of communal restoration and healing: No one gets out of life without being shaped by woundedness. In our hurt and loss, we come to experience our deep need. In our experience of hurt and loss, we all have come to rely on things, people, and activities—instead of God—in an attempt to heal ourselves. The issue is not so much that we eat too much, watch too much TV, try to control everything our lives, have too much to drink, or compare ourselves to our friends (or people we don’t even know) on social media. (This list could go on and on, but you get the point). These things separate us from healing not because they are harmful in and of themselves, but because of the way we employ them in our lives. The real issue is that these things cover up our woundedness, which is the same as saying we use things to flee from our dependence on God and others.

In spiritual terms, you would call this an idol. In psychological terms, you would call this an unhealthy attachment, a dependency, or an addiction. All of these categories have a similar complexion to them. However, they are all distinct realities pointing in the same direction: We have come to embrace, or be bound to, something in our life that has become controlling. Unfortunately, this is the reality of all sin. This is the reality of my will versus God’s will. When we talk about addiction and idols, we are speaking to a common reality that we all share in as broken people.

So, is reGROUP just for addicts? The longer answer is “Yes, and we are all addicted to using our power to heal ourselves.” Or said another way, “Yes, and we all at times entertain gods (little ‘g’) to soothe the pain of living in a broken world.”

Hundreds of people have come through reGROUP and found freedom from a life bound to their hurts, habits, and hang-ups. All of them have had to face the reality that they came to reGROUP with a strategy already in place to fix themselves. Then they admitted it wasn’t working and that they needed help.

... and so begins the healing journey.

Written by guest blogger Jack West.