The Heart of Recovery

How Compassion and Community Offer Hope in the Wake of Addiction

by: Deborah Beddoe, David Beddoe

• Format

  E-Book

  ISBN

  9781493419357

  Pub. Date

  Nov 2019

  SRP

  $15.99

  Buy

About

"If you or someone you love is caught in addiction or is in the process of recovery, this is a must-read book!"--Carol Kent, speaker and author of Staying Power

The United States is the most medicated country in the world. More than 1.7 million Americans are struggling with addiction to prescription painkillers, fueling the opioid crisis that claims more than 140 lives every day. The trouble isn't just the drugs--it's that we don't know what to do with the people addicted to them. Not as a country, not as the church, not as a community. The opioid crisis reaches into our homes and challenges everything we thought we knew about the roots of addiction and what it means to be in recovery.

Drawn from current research and the personal experience of the authors, The Heart of Recovery calls us to set aside judgment and to mend recovering addicts and their families with the stuff God uses to heal: compassion and community. It's a call to serve the ones who cannot repay, to continue to forgive, to fling the door wide open to the prodigal, and to remember the purpose of grace.

A supportive community--family, friends, the church, and more--encourages and sustains long-term recovery. Learn how, through deep compassion, we can bring hope for healing.


"As a recovering addict myself, I know that healing and restoration for the addict and everyone around them can seem impossible. Deb and Dave's life is a picture of the impossible becoming possible. They've turned their experience into a manual for what real compassion and grace look like in an addict's recovery."--Gary Morland, author of A Family Shaped by Grace


Deborah Beddoe has been a writer for numerous nonprofit recovery ministries, including rescue missions and Prison Fellowship. David Beddoe, now a pastor, has worked in recovery ministry for nearly a decade, following his own fifteen-year battle with prescription drug addiction. Their story has been featured in Guideposts and Christianity Today. The Beddoes have four grown and nearly grown children and live in the Pacific Northwest.

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Endorsements

"If you or someone you love is caught in addiction or is in the process of recovery, this is a must-read book! With gut-level honesty Deborah and David Beddoe share their story--their failures and successes--and their passionate desire to help you find the answers you desperately seek. Not only is this book a compelling read, it's filled with specific information, techniques, and services, along with additional medical, emotional, and spiritual resources. Every person in ministry leadership needs this book, too!"

Carol Kent, speaker and author of Staying Power

"As a recovering addict myself, I know that healing and restoration for the addict and everyone around them can seem impossible. Deb and Dave's life is a picture of the impossible becoming possible. They've turned their experience into a manual for what real compassion and grace look like in an addict's recovery. How do you love when there's been so much long-term failure, damage, and broken promises? Deb and Dave show you how to genuinely care in your marriage, family, friendships, and community."

Gary Morland, author of A Family Shaped by Grace

"I have known this couple for over thirty years, and The Heart of Recovery is a great toolbox for informing family, friends, church leaders, or even employers how to identify and respond to the signs of opioid addiction. Forged from the fire of personal experience, this book exposes the reader to the practical issues and personal pain of recovery from a variety of perspectives. It is a MUST READ for anyone involved in pastoral care. I will certainly use it as a resource for my Celebrate Recovery leaders."

Mike Kildal, executive pastor, Redeemer's Fellowship, Roseburg, OR

"Deborah and David Beddoe have written an insightful and extremely helpful book, not only for people overcoming addiction, but also for family and friends who are profoundly affected as well and wish to offer truly helpful support. The Beddoes' personal candor, grace, broad insight, and practical wisdom are not to be missed."

Ron Friesen, spiritual director and director of LifePath, the recovery ministry of Salem Alliance Church, Salem, OR

"The Heart of Recovery provides a flood of hope for individuals and families crushed by addiction. Deb and Dave are living proof of the miracle of restoration. As the leader of a local church, I recognize that patterns of judgment and shame have only forced addicts into silent destruction. This book calls us to follow the heart of Jesus by allowing him to shape us into a community of grace, hope, and healing."

Jim Walter, pastor of Restore Church, Poulsbo, WA

"The Heart of Recovery is the loving but poignant wakeup call Christians need to no longer fear, hide, and avoid the world of addiction and recovery. Dave and Deb's story is raw, powerful, but most of all full of hope. Through addiction, homelessness, the long and messy journey of recovery, and everything in between--their story, captured in The Heart of Recovery, is proof that there is no brokenness or hidden shame that the Lord cannot redeem. This book has the ability to change the way we view addiction, recovery, and perhaps remove the shame and fear of those addicts and their families who are still suffering in silence. It is a must read--not just for loved ones of addicts, but for all Christians--as each of us know someone--openly or still hidden--who is battling opioid addiction. You will cry, learn, be challenged, and most of all be encouraged that no matter the circumstance--with Jesus, there is always hope."

Kari Trent Stageberg, coauthor of The Blessing and host of The Blessing podcast

"The Heart of Recovery was like sitting with a dear friend and watching a home movie from a season of their life I had no idea they faced. Shockingly, this relieved me and saddened me . . . How would I have responded had I known? Would I have caused more hurt or inspired hope? The expression 'You don't know what you don't know' clearly states that each of our perspectives are limited. No one person can know or understand everything. Ignorance, and even innocent good intentions, can cause more harm than good. The Beddoes open up a window into the beautiful and uncomfortable ways recovery can be accomplished, both for the addict and the loved ones surrounding them. The Heart of Recovery is a wakeup call (to both the church and health workers) that addicts live in tension between experiences of deep shame and healing compassion and that there is a vast chasm between immediate healing and the holy pilgrimage of recovery which addicts travel. We can walk with them."

Melinda Gray, RN, emergency room and surgical nurse liaison

"The Beddoes show that there are no formulas. Every recovery journey is as unique as every addict. The Heart of Recovery provided me with much needed encouragement to walk alongside my child with compassion and grace, embracing my own vulnerability and laying down my expectations. There have been no quick fixes--just God's love flowing through me to love my addicted child and show them they are not alone."

Anonymous, mother of a heroin addict

"Deb and Dave Beddoe have been given the truth and are speaking it through the authority found in living, surviving, recovering, and enduring addiction."

Sara, wife to a husband recovering from addiction

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