A Prayer Before Walking Into a Recovery Meeting

Lord, I am sitting in the parking lot, engine off, trying to make myself walk through that door. My heart is pounding. Part of me wants to drive away and pretend I never came, to stay anonymous with my struggle one more day.

I confess I am terrified of being known, of saying the words I am an addict out loud in a room full of strangers, of being seen at my lowest.

So I pray here in the quiet car before I lose the courage that got me this far.

Carry my feet across that threshold. Calm the shaking in my hands. Put me in a room with people who understand, who will not flinch, who have stood exactly where I am standing. Let me find one honest voice that tells me I belong here, that I am not too far gone, that this is where healing starts.

Where two or three gather in Your name, You are there among them. Be in that room before I even arrive. Have a seat saved for me.

I give You my fear and my pride, and I am going to open this door. Walk in beside me. Let me find, in that ordinary room, the beginning of a way home. Amen.