Spirituality -- 12-step and church

As I have thrown myself back into the 12-step program, I also have thrown myself back into church. My church focuses a lot on getting in touch with God (higher power), believing that God can help us (step 2), and learning how to surrender our will (step 3). Our church also believes in forgiveness and second chances. Virtually everything our pastor says is compatible with 12-step.

I feel closest to God when performing music. So today I asked to officially join the Praise team. I had been playing and singing with them informally for a few months; I used to solo at this church before I started attending somewhere else for family reasons. But i missed this church so much because it is so celebratory and nonjudgmental, so when I moved out of the family home, I started attending again.

Tonight's praise team rehearsal was just awesome. I could really feel God's presence in me. I'm not very good at taking care of myself, of finding fun HEALTHY things to do. Sex Addicts Anonymous has this chart of three circles: The inner circle is your "bottom lines," the activities that you cannot do without violating sobriety. The middle circle are behaviors, places, activities, people that could possibly lead to a violation of a bottom line. And the outer circle includes things that are good for the addict, healthy activities that lead the addict away from the inner circle. Music and church are definitely in my outer circle. Praise God!