"The belief that I can control all aspects of my own being if I only have the will power to do so was an arrogant idea that in recent years has nearly led me to lose my physical life as well as my soul.  Through this life long belief that only by my own strength and works could I be delivered up from misery into happiness, I was entangled in a slow vicious cycle of failure and frustration.  Each failure brought me a little lower until my life eventually became unmanageable.  I finally lost all control, including my powers of personal choice.  Despite my sincerest efforts to regain it, all attempts at control through human means were dismal failures, serving only to feed my fear and frustration.

"Yet God, in His own time, saw fit to give me a second chance through the realization that my powers were inadequate to control anything beyond my own beliefs.  He allowed me to see that the only path away from death was to be fully honest in admitting my powerlessness, to turn my life and my will over to Him, and to seek a renewed spiritual bond directly with Him.  It is by His power and His grace that I am alive, recovering, and here with you today.

"I come before you to ask the forgiveness of any I have offended and to thank you for your continuing support.  And most importantly to bear witness to the futility of our human will power and to what God can and will do when He is sought.  I ask your prayers that with each day I may continue to make spiritual progress that will bear witness of His power to others and through which I may be an asset to this congregation."