Lynn Gerhard...in her own words

PICTURE: Lynn and her sweetheart, Russ
Says Lynn, "One of the greatest blessings of recovery from codependent behaviors is attracting a partner who is himself whole.  Life as a couple becomes a synergy of two complete people choosing to grow a life together.  It's never too late to become and allow true love."


When I look out on the sea of faces I minister to at the mission, I see through my own eyes, it’s true. But I am also intensely aware of another great presence lovingly regarding through me, lovingly intending the best possible life for each and every one. I am a bridge, a conduit for the real worker of miracles. Service is His gift to me. When tears flow as I am encouraging someone’s quest to recover life as that life was intended, I recognize these tears as an outpouring of the same spirit in me that is in all things, connecting us all in the heartbeat of present life. I cry joyfully.

Experience and the Creator’s gifts are my qualifications to work with others. The maintenance and growth of my own life of recovery lends urgency to the need to work with others. What I share best are my own experience, strength and hope gained in nine years of continuous sobriety and 20 years of working my way out of the prison of codependency and borderline personality disorder. I use the same 12-step process that I worked myself when I am working with others, and I serve my home group, and am active in district- and area-level service in the fellowship of recovery that I call home. My talents revolve around communicating God’s love and helping others see their own truth and live it large. My serenity is a gift learned through recovery and a passionate pursuit of the practice of T’ai Chi, which I also teach several times a week. My past professional life has seen its greatest successes in writing, editing, marketing, and encouraging leadership.

But my progress into life as I was created to live it is perhaps even more tied to the concept that God is either everything or He is nothing. My journey into this understanding has meandered through years of teaching Sunday school in a non-denominational church to finally becoming an ordained minister through an evangelical teaching route. At heart, the Bible is a conduit – a teacher – one of many in my life. The essential element of my own faith is the deeply rooted understanding that without a determined, practiced, conscious contact with the One who created me, the only one who understands the intention behind creating me, I can have no lasting or relevant life. Apart from God, I am nothing. My greatest, perhaps my only real significance is that I am God’s loving intention. I must remember that in every present moment. God speaks to my heart directly and I to His, but God also speaks to and loves me through others. We are all connected, all part of a grand tapestry – different threads, different textures and hues – wonderful, infinite diversity woven by the master with such passionate care – if only we wouldn’t choose to unravel ourselves. Can’t wait to see what’s around the next bend in the river of life.