Sobriety Date

What changes for a person who is an addict practicing a spiritual program of recovery? Everything!  I meet these people in my work, since churches seem to have lots of meetings for these people.  On many levels, financial, relational, spiritual, and physical, they are so much better, more whole.  What changes for such a person when they stop practicing their spiritual program? Their sobriety date changes, and sometimes they die before they get a new sobriety date.  These people are my teachers.  My prayer life has no shelf time.  My meditation practice for today, does not seem to carry over through the next day.  I need to practice each day.  The excuse, "I have no time," is just that, an excuse.  Whenever I want to practice bad behavior I seem to have all the time in the world for that.  A little quiet desperation is not such a bad thing.