Maybe it’s because of my work as a drug and alcohol therapist or maybe it’s in there, but I couldn’t help but read the gospel in this week’s lectionary and not hear the voice of someone in the pre-contemplative stage of change denying their need for help from their addiction. Allow me to expound on this. How many times have we heard (or said ourselves) to our spouse, to our parent, to ourselves: I’m ok, I’ve got this? I can do recovery on my own terms. Meetings, therapy, detox isn’t for me. I can do this.

Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 

So what if trying to get in the sheepfold by climbing in another way is a sure fire way to set ourselves up for another relapse? What if the sponsor or the therapist or the certified recovery specialist is the shepherd? The shepherd is already in the fold (maybe has been in our shoes before) and if we follow the sound of their voice it’s possible they may lead us where we didn’t even know we needed to go. Because left to our own devices… Well, I think we all know how it ends when we are left to our own devices.

The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Because life on life’s terms, right? And maybe not by using in order to cope for the first time ever. And realizing that we may have been our own worst enemy and going in the back door we miss unpacking all the junk that got us here in the first place. Because the junk has to get unpacked and we have been unable to do it on our own this whole time. Why should this time be any different? So maybe we admit our powerlessness, make the appointment and go to the meeting through the front door.

They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.

And then this verse right in the middle of the gospel lesson…Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.Yep, this definitely sounds like someone in the pre-contemplative stage of change. Or any stage of change. Or anyone at all!

Then a whole lot of hope begins to emerge.<</p>

We stop letting our emotions make our decisions. We get a 30 day chip. We begin to build up enough muscle and have enough tools in our tool belt, when we drive past the place where we used to shoot up or see our dealer’s car in town, we don’t even recognize it. If we’ve done enough work and spent enough time with the shepherd. We turn from the voice of the stranger even though it might be our own. We are led into the sheepfold. We are on our way to a meeting. We are on our way to having life and having it abundantly. 

 So again Jesus said to them, Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 

Now doesn’t that sound like a good place to be?

Deborah M, LPC
Lancaster, PA