"You're an idiot."

I was accosted with hurtful comments this morning.

“You’re an idiot.”

“How could you expect these people to embrace you?”

“Did you really think your story is that good that they’d want to hear it?”

“You think way more of yourself than anyone else does.”

“Maybe you should just work on yourself more before thinking you can help others.”

“Go back to drinking. That would be better.”

Those are just some of the comments I heard this morning. Hurtful, despicable, destructive comments. And once they started, they didn’t stop. From who? From… myself. Yes, myself.

Yesterday, I sent about 20 emails to various local recovery ministries giving them a quick overview of my story and offering to come encourage their people by sharing about my journey from addiction to restoration. While I’ve been talking with ministries all over the country, I felt an urging to reach my own city as well. So I started with one particular Christian program that helps those in recovery and has “branches” so to speak at churches all across the country and lists, by zip code, …