Jesus continued, “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is”. (John 15: 12 – 13)

Bryan never thought of himself as a spiritual person. He went to church once in a while, especially on Christmas and Easter and during Lent, but he never thought about it much. Now he had come to know the truth about himself and had come to understand that the truth was from God. And the truth about Bryan was that he was an alcoholic.

The truth caught up with Bryan the morning he woke up and didn’t know where he was or how he had gotten there. He didn’t know what he had done the night before, how the side of his car had gotten bashed in, or why there was a gash in his arm and a bruise on his face. All he remembered was that he had been having a few drinks with his friends and had gotten pretty drunk. Just like the night before, and the night before that. In fact, he had been getting drunk a lot.

But now the truth was upon him and he had to do something about it. At the 12-step meeting, when it was time, he stood up and, for the first time in a long time, he spoke the truth: “My name is Bryan and I’m an alcoholic”. In the days and weeks to come, Bryan would learn a lot more truth about himself. But for now, the big truth was that the Spirit of Truth had rescued him. And that from now on he was going to be on God’s side, living in the truth.