Good News Tucson - A Family Values Publication

Our Warm & Fuzzy Comfortable Place

Occasionally, we ask ourselves this question at Gospel Rescue Mission, “If men and women are tired of the life they are living and their addiction to drugs or alcohol, then why do some fight the recovery process or go out and relapse?”

I admit that there are times when I just don’t get it.

Below is an illustration and possible explanation for this dilemma. It is written by Gary Williams, a graduate of our Mission restoration program. Gary is employed as our Career Development Specialist at the Mission. From his own life experiences of being homeless and using drugs, and working with the students at the Mission, Gary offers these following thoughts:

“It has always amazed me how we resist or rebel against the things in life that are for our benefit, such as a child not wanting to bathe or brush their teeth. Both are good things, yet they fight it all the same. Working with men in recovery can be as frustrating, if you misinterpret their rebellion.

If what we suggest is a good, orderly, and healthy way for men in recovery to live, then why do they often resist and rebel? The answer may be in a memory I have from my childhood.

As a boy growing up in Texas, we lived in the country. My Father fancied himself a farmer. So, we had some horses, a couple of cows, chickens and about fifty hogs. Our hogs were in a typical pen out back, about one hundred yards from the house. In the pen were the usual feed and watering troughs, and in the middle a huge, wet, stinky mud hole. It’s the perfect life for a hog…a pigsty… just rolling around in their own filth. Comfortable and happy!

We later sold the hogs and moved to another country house. This house just happened to be a quarter mile away from another hog farm. These hogs were treated differently than our hogs. After these hogs were weaned from their mother, they were moved to a nice pen on concrete and in the shade. The pens were sprayed down twice a day, as were the hogs. The hogs were treated like kings.

To my surprise, these hogs were the noisiest, whiniest, and discontented animals I ever saw. They hated their clean environment. If they had a chance to get out of their pens, they would head straight to the smelliest wet spot they could find.

Why? Because it’s their nature. That was their “warm & fuzzy” comfortable place.

We all have our own warm fuzzy place. It may be at home, or at work. To some it is in the arroyo or under a bush in the park, or even locked away in jail. Men and women in recovery generally come from a chaotic, dysfunctional background. Unfortunately, that lifestyle becomes their warm fuzzy. Believe it or not, they become comfortable in that lifestyle. They know how to do chaos. They don’t know how to do responsible.

Through the Word of God, compassionate LOVE, patience, teaching, and time…men and women can change if they are willing to try a different way… that can then become their new warm and fuzzy comfortable place.”

Roy E. Tullgren III serves as Director for Gospel Rescue Mission. Find out how you can get involved and make a difference by calling: (520) 740-1501.