For a solid year I woke up every morning to do basically the same thing.

• Wake up time: 7 am
• Breakfast: 8 am
• Bible Study/Prayer/Praise & Worship/Group Devotions/Study Hall: 8:30 – Noon
• Lunch: 12:30
• Chores: 1 pm
• Class/Interactive Group: 2-3 pm
• Study Hall/Cook Dinner: 4-5 pm
• Dinner: 5 pm
• Celebrate Recovery/Bible Study/Solution/Chapel (Depending on the day): 6:30-8 pm
• Lights Out: 10 pm

My life was structured for me. I knew what I was doing at each moment of the day. Some days it got old; most days I was grateful. Here I sit today in the middle of the afternoon on my laptop. I’m browsing Facebook, Twitter, reading blogs, and replying to emails. I’m free at this moment to do what I want. I can leave. I can read. I can nap.
For the last week I’ve cruised around the Facebook pages of many people looking at pictures. I haven’t been part of many of my “friends” lives for a year now, so I thought it would be nice to catch up on their lives via photos.  What did I find?
Nothing much has changed. I see a picture at the bar partying ’til the wee hours of the morning. It’s basically the same picture I saw of that same person a year ago. Their status reveals the hang-over they are still suffering from and how much of a drag it is they have to be at work in a few hours. I see the new tattoo of a beer bong on the arm of a guy I know has better things to do.
In the last year I have faced trials of many kinds. I have had issues put in my face on a daily basis. “Sundi Jo, you’re prideful. Sundi Jo don’t be so mean. Quit being so rebellious! It’s about simple obedience.” In the last year my daily schedule has been decided for me. What I would eat for dinner and exactly how much of it I would eat was decided for me.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I can look back on the last twelve months and see change. I know that growth has taken place. Then I look at others and realize they are still the same. They are still in the same rut they were the day God provided me the opportunity to get help.
I don’t write this to say that I am better and have been the only one that has changed. I know that’s not true. But I write this with sadness as I see the true reality of what the world is like. For a year I was taken out of the world and put in a safe haven. Not everyone has gotten that opportunity.  I have sadness knowing the potential of so many of those I know who are doing nothing because the world has swallowed them. Do they know how to get out? Have they felt the gentle nudge of someone walking along side them trying to direct them down a path of wholeness? I want to see it happen for them – all of them.
We can all be restored to wholeness. We just have to have our eyes opened enough to grasp the opportunity.