Handling Challenges

This section is about dealing with life’s challenges. There are times when we simply have to face a challenge head on, but there are other times when we need a hand from someone else.

One of my favorite moments in television was on The West Wing. There is scene when the character of Leo McGarry, played by John Spencer, tells a story to his Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, played by Bradley Whitford, on a day that has been especially rough for Josh.

“This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.

“A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you, can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, ‘Father, I'm down in this hole. Can you help me out?’ The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on.

“Then a friend walks by. ‘Hey, Joe, it's me. Can you help me out?’ And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, ‘Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.’ The friend says, ‘Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out.’”

Sometimes we can handle life’s challenges on our. There are times when we need a professional to guide us through. Sometimes, we just need a friend who has been there before.

The prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr commonly known as

The Serenity Prayer

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The Courage to change the things I can,

And the Wisdom to know the difference.”

The 12 Steps for Overcoming Addictions or Dysfunctional Behaviors

Many people have been helped by 12-Step programs for various addictions, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Dealing with an addiction often requires help from other people including support groups, sponsors who have been through the process that leads to healing, and mental health and medical professionals. If you are struggling with an addiction, please seek out the people who can help. The 12-Steps are provided below. There are variations to them, but the steps are basically the same. Even if you don’t have a chemical addiction, the 12-steps can be helpful in dealing with various crises.

“Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2: Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Step 7: Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

Step 8: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs”


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