Dealing with Adversity & Tribulation: How Spiritual Growth Propels Recovery

This week's Cosmic Citizen continues with our series on "Dealing with Adversity and Tribulation" as we explore the topic of addiction and the effects it has on our lives, careers, relationships, families and our own spiritual growth. In doing this series, we hope to inspire our listeners, in these tumultuous times, to be of good cheer. We will look at how faith and connection with spirit plays an often essential role in the process of recovery. Some of our guests will be long time Urantia Book students, others will not, but all have experienced dealing with and/or overcoming addiction. We intend to create a SAFE SPACE to discuss this sensitive topic by allowing our invited guests to call anonymously (if they choose) so that they can openly share their personal stories, including tragedies and triumphs, with addiction. The idea is to allow them the space to do this without offering advice, preaching or suggestions. We will do our best to practice our active listening skills.

Two of our guests, Jim Barry and Robert Aponte, are long-time students of The Urantia Book. Jim has been in recovery for more than 30 years and has worked for 15 years in the non-profit sector as a Substance Abuse Counselor. Robert says that reading the Urantia Book brought about his decision to get sober and to join the Alcoholics Anonymous community. It helped him not only remain committed to staying sober but also to stay focused on the higher concepts of spiritual growth. He will discuss the many parallels between the AA and Urantia communities. Interesting that both came to be in the same time period and both adhere to "Big Blue Books."

Some of our callers may not be familiar with the Urantia Book, so we ask that everyone remember to be respectful of their beliefs and traditions and help us to maintain a safe space on the show this week...and every week.

Please call, and remember to Press 1 if you want to speak with the hosts.