Having experienced transformation through Twelve Step recovery, Diane Bolduc has spent decades helping others find freedom from addiction. She learned there is a non-negotiable prerequisite for wholeness: rigorous honesty.

In her discussion with Nathan Foster this week on the Renovaré Podcast, Diane discusses how church communities, where hiding can be common, can learn much from recovery communities where honesty and authenticity are the norm. 

It’s clear to her and to those of us who have explored them that the Twelve Steps are for all of us. Whether our addictions are obvious or more socially acceptable — think overworking or people-pleasing — the steps offer a concrete path toward wholeness, one that begins with admitting our powerlessness and that only God can restore us to sanity.

“Any successful plan for spiritual formation,” Dallas Willard once commented, ​“will in fact be significantly similar to the Alcoholics Anonymous program.”

Trevor Hudson, a nonalcoholic, found the Twelve Steps so transformative that he wrote a book about it. I found his insights on the Eleventh Step particularly helpful. 

Honesty is hard. But like all things in the way of Jesus, the alternative is far more burdensome and costly. It’s exhausting to pretend. But practicing authenticity leads to freedom and life.