Author Ian Morgan Cron (The Road Back to You) turns his attention from the Enneagram to the 12 Steps in this book that manages to be both entertaining and sobering, fun and deadly serious.
Lest readers think the 12 Steps are not for them, they are: “We’re all addicts. It’s what human beings do with their pain,” writes Cron, who is a recovering drug and alcohol addict, but prompts readers to consider their own addictions to food, work, binging, and other ways we numb “the discomfort of living in a messed-up world.”
As he guides readers through the Steps, Cron shows how they can apply to us all as we try (and try) to circumvent the things that trouble us beneath the surface.
"My original subtitle for this book—Twelve Steps to Unscrewing Your Screwed-Up Life—was a little over the top," he says. "But anyone who has ever fallen for a quick fix (like drugs, alcohol, porn, overeating, work, religion, people-pleasing, and more) knows firsthand how our self-prescribed treatment plans derail us. They might not be as visible as empty bottles stashed inside a desk drawer, but they are just as life-complicating and soul-crushing."
A big part of the program is “owning your part and sweeping your side of the street,” he writes. Making amends is hard but necessary as we work to find what Thomas Merton called “our hidden wholeness.”
On making amends, Cron tells a delightful story about a barista named Felicity, to whom he was rude. When she was rude in response, Cron was filled with indignation, until his sponsor Steve “went all A.A. Jesus on me,” urging Cron to “make amends” as the Twelve Steps guide its adherents to do in Step 10.
So Cron drove back to the coffee shop and asked for Felicity’s forgiveness.
She was willing to forgive. In fact, “the clouds parted; the sun shone. Felicity and I were in couples therapy together.”
Another story about Icy Hot and a marathon had me spitting out my coffee. Cron is one of the most entertaining writers I can think of in Christian spaces, vulnerable, relatable, and fun to hang out with. But he’s also a sage and seasoned guide, pointing readers back to a God who fulfills our needs far better than the quick fixes we employ daily. He helps the reader pray this prayer: “God, help me find you in what I look for in _________.”
“The purpose of the 12 Steps is to facilitate a spiritual awakening of sufficient force that it will transform your personality (the way you habitually act, think, feel, and see the world),” he writes. “(The program will) swap out your need for an addictive substance or behavior for a relationship with God (which is what you were looking for all along anyway) and profoundly change your way of moving through the world.” (Zondervan)
About the Author
Lorilee Craker, a native of Winnipeg, Man., lives in Grand Rapids, Mich. The author of 16 books, she is the Mixed Media editor of The Banner. Her latest book is called Eat Like a Heroine: Nourish and Flourish With Bookish Stars From Anne of Green Gables to Zora Neale Hurston.