Lesson Title: Unidentified Faith Obsession (U.F.O.)
Category: Spiritual Recovery
Author: TJ Reed

Unidentified Faith Obsession (U.F.O.)
During my third relapse, I found myself sitting with a puzzle. It wasn’t just a metaphorical one either. It was a physical puzzle I had started working on during my second relapse. At the time, I didn’t realize that the puzzle wasn’t about the picture on the box. It was about figuring out what I was really chasing.
I’ve never believed in coincidence. I come from a mindset rooted in logic and science. My brain naturally asks the big questions: who, what, why, and how. Those questions are everything to someone who thinks like a scientist. Add addiction into that formula, and suddenly those questions don’t just matter — they become obsessions. Every thought is magnified. Every emotion is dissected. And every moment becomes part of a pattern you’re desperately trying to understand.
So you can imagine my surprise when I found faith not in a sermon, not in a book, but in experimentation. Real-world, hands-on, trial-and-error style living. I began testing what would happen if I did the next right thing every time, no matter how I felt. I wasn’t doing it for reward. I was doing it to observe. And what I discovered was nothing short of transformative.
Doing the right thing over and over began to align my life in ways I could not explain. Not overnight, and not in ways that always felt easy. But the pattern was real. Things began to shift. Moments connected. The universe seemed to respond to my choices. I was not chasing hope anymore — I was watching it arrive.
That is when I understood what faith really is.
Faith is not blind. Faith is not belief without proof. Faith is what grows from experience, from consistently choosing integrity over impulse. Faith is what emerges when you realize that worry never helped, and fear never protected you. Faith says you do not have to know what comes next. You just have to keep showing up with honesty and courage.
I call this an Unidentified Faith Obsession.
It is what happens when your heart starts seeking something deeper than survival. When you are pulled toward a connection you can feel but can’t fully describe yet. When you keep doing the next right thing not because someone told you to, but because you’ve witnessed what happens when you do.
And here’s the truth. You won’t always have time to sit and weigh every decision. This is not about sitting at the drive-thru for five minutes debating between diet or extra caffeine. It’s about learning to trust your gut because your gut has learned to trust your choices.
Eventually, you will stop asking if you are in tune with your universe. You will know.

Takeaway:
You may not know what you are chasing at first. That’s okay. Stay curious. Stay honest. Keep doing the next right thing. Faith is not always found through belief. Sometimes it is revealed through your behavior.
Keep going. Keep watching. The puzzle will make sense.
And when it does, so will you.

Published by TheRecoveryStory.com
For those who walk through the fire and come out with the blueprint