Another conceit of our culture is that it is important always to be “in control.” If there is one thing that our brothers and sisters in recovery can teach us, it is that we are definitely not in control – that we must admit that there are powers beyond us that often determine the course of our lives. As Christians, we believe that this power resides in Christ. There is the paradox: that by giving up total control of our lives, we find perfect freedom. How so? It is when we realize that we are not always in control that we obtain the freedom to make mistakes. When we can admit we make mistakes, we can ask for forgiveness and move on. If we are possessed by the fiction that we are in control, we cannot turn to a higher power for what we need to be free, and thus we become slaves to whatever impulses emerge from the core of our being. By acknowledging that we cannot control everything in our own lives, we also acknowledge our need for others – and eventually for the ultimate Other, which is God.