209. What Are You Tolerating?209. What Are You Tolerating?
Hope in Recovery
Andy Petry reflects on a major water leak and a torn-up kitchen floor to question what patterns, pain or dysfunction people might be tolerating in their recovery. He links small compromises, accountability, and Christ-centred community to genuine healing rather than just getting by.
11:50•3 Nov 2026
What Are You Tolerating? From Hidden Damage to Healing with God
Episode Overview
- Small compromises and tolerated behaviours often build up long before a relapse occurs.
- Be honest about patterns you’re slipping back into, whether in thoughts, behaviours or attitudes.
- Check where you might be avoiding accountability, either by hiding things or by staying silent.
- Ask God what he wants you to do with areas of dysfunction and invite others into that process.
- Bringing struggles into the light within a Christ-centred community opens the door to restoration and renewed connection.
“The goal of life is not that things are functional. It's that we're thriving in life.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This episode of Hope in Recovery zooms in on a simple but uncomfortable question: "What are you tolerating in your life right now?" Andy Petry uses a very real situation in his own home—a hidden water leak that wrecked his kitchen floor—to paint a vivid picture of how unaddressed issues quietly spread beneath the surface.
He explains how quickly he and his family got used to living with a ripped-up floor, stepping around holes and loose nails, until his young son asked, "When are they going to give us our floor back, daddy?" That moment became a mirror for his recovery life.
Andy connects this to the way people in recovery can adjust to a low level of emotional or spiritual pain, thinking, "My kitchen's functional, so I'll be okay," even though, as he puts it, "The goal of life is not that things are functional. It's that we're thriving in life." Aimed at anyone dealing with hurts, habits or hang-ups, especially within a Christ-centred recovery framework, the episode walks through three key questions: Are you slipping back into old patterns?
Are you avoiding accountability—either by hiding things or just keeping quiet? And what might God be asking you to do about the dysfunction you see?
Andy gently pushes listeners towards honest self-examination, practical action (like talking to a sponsor or sharing at an open group), and trust in God's restoration, drawing on Joel 2:25 as a reminder that God "repay[s] you for the years that the locusts have eaten." The tone is warm, honest and hopeful, with enough humour about broken floors and air mover fans to keep things from feeling heavy.
If you've started to settle for "good enough" in your recovery, this conversation might be the nudge you need to bring hidden struggles into the light and ask: what am I putting up with that God actually wants to heal?
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