Driving From Provo to Salt Lake

I have two good friends who participate in the 12 Step Program.  I care about them both
So let me tell you something about each of them.

Let's call my first friend "Jim."  He had been sober for an extended period of time and had been doing really well.  He is a hard worker, dedicated, and sincerely wishes to follow the Savior.

Well one day he relapsed and felt really bad.  And, of course, Satan tried to make him feel even worse! Satan told him that he was a failure and that he now needed to beat himself up and start all over again.

To give him some perspective, I sent him the following story, which had been very helpful to me when I first heard it:

Let's say you are driving from Provo to Salt Lake City. And your car breaks down in American Fork. What should you do? You fix the car and get back on the road to Salt Lake. You don't have to go back to Provo and start over.  And you don't have to stay in American Fork. You just continue on the highway and don't look back!

The same is true of an addiction. If we ever make a mistake the time we have been sober still counts!  We don't have to start over. We just pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and continue on from where we left off.

I hope that story was helpful for Jim!

Well, let's call my second friend "Pete." Pete used to be like my first friend, Jim. And Pete, when he used to relapse, he felt really bad.  But at some point Pete heard the story of driving from Provo to Salt Lake and breaking down in American Fork.

However, Pete learned a different lesson from that story. He now, almost weekly, while figuratively driving from Provo to Salt Lake City runs out of gas in American Fork. Each time he fills up his tank in American Fork and continues on to Salt Lake.

In fact, he sometimes now carries an extra tank of gas along with him so that when he runs out of gas, he doesn't have to stop for very long.

I think Pete learned the wrong lesson.  He never fixed the real problem, he just made the problem less painful.

Do you possibly see yourself as either Jim or Pete?  Is there anything in your trip through this life that you need to fix?