You Will Know Them by Their Love for One Another

 

Refer to Step 10: I choose to believe God still has a purpose for my life—a purpose for good and not evil.

Loving-kindness is greater than laws; and the charities of life are more than all ceremonies.

—Talmud

Honestly, in our society, there’s no way to tell a Christian from a non-Christian, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. The Scriptures say that you can “tell them by their love for one another,” meaning that love for one another should be clearly evident. But that isn’t necessarily the case, is it? There’s no use pretending that it’s true, when it’s not. In fact, the opposite is frequently the case.

Loving one another is not only important; it’s the key to attracting others—not doctrine, not church membership, and not any outward dogmatic manifestation of your faith. Loving one another is how believers and non-believers should be differentiated. The Scriptures say it is by your behavior—the condition of your heart—that reveals who you really are. It’s as clear as the Ten Commandments.

That this characteristic is missing is undeniable, and it’s a far more powerful witness to the world than any promotion a church can muster to generate enthusiasm. If you are demonstrating love, you are projecting a good witness. If you say you have a loving spirit, but it’s not true, that will also leave a lasting witness, which carefully prepared testimonials cannot counteract.

This means you are making an impression no matter what you are doing. If demonstrable love isn’t present, your witness is actually counterproductive. It’s why millions call Christians hypocrites, which is an accurate assessment more often than not.

Because God has shown His love and mercy toward you, it’s natural that you would want to tell others about it. At the same time, if love is not the primary characteristic in your heart, don’t be surprised if your attempts at witnessing ring hollow or actually turn people off.

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. (I Peter 1:22)

—Jack Watts   My Story

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Faithfulness with a Little Thing Is a Big Thing

 

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.

 

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves—Amelia Earhart

 

Christianity is brimming with people who want to do great and noble things for God. If you ask them, they’ll tell you how much they are capable of accomplishing. Their aspirations are usually altruistic, noble, and grand. The problem is, more often than not, God doesn’t usually want what they do.

What He wants is for people to do simple, mundane things for others—nothing ostentatious or glamorous. The goal of Christians, who are grandiose, might be to “speak about God’s love to the multitudes,” but that same person might not be willing to run an errand for an indigent person.

That’s the problem. God has far too many men and women who are willing to be exalted, but few who are willing to be menial servants. Many are willing to do grand things, but few are willing to be simple, living their lives unaffectedly just doing the “next right thing” day by day.

In twenty-first century Christian culture, we have a worldly attitude toward service, routinely calculating:

• What’s in it for me?
• How will this further my ambitions?
• How will this enhance my image with others?

After having been abuse, however, where the spiritual wind has been knocked out of us, our perspective undergoes a radical change. We begin to learn the simple truth that an act of kindness performed at the right time, for the right reason, may be more meaningful from God’s perspective than something calculated to bring us notoriety, fame, and fortune. We begin to recognize that God values small things—where nothing is expected in return—more than grand things well publicized. A small thing is a small thing, but faithfulness in doing a small thing is a big thing.

He said to them, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contibutors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” (Mark 12:43-44)

—Jack Watts  My Story

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Review & Reflection

Father,

I am undone and badly crushed,

As those who seek what little is left,

Fight over scraps of my being—

Over pieces of my shattered soul.

How long will You leave me exposed

And vulnerable to ravenous predators—

To those who seek to destroy me?

Tell me, Lord, when will it be enough?

When will You protect Your wounded child?

When will You move Your mighty hand to help?

Question: Have you ever felt like this? Do you still feel this way? What other emotions does this touch inside you?

Character destruction is often what abusers intend. It hard to believe that there can be people who are so mean-spirited, but there are. To recover from such malicious treatment, the abusee needs to make a conscious, concerted effort to reject the castigating message, which has undermined their self-esteem.

 

Journal: Write about what you have done to try and counteract your abuse, paying particular attention to how it has impacted your self-esteem.

If I could have chosen my way, I would have chosen a softer, easier way, while God’s choice for me was much different. Like a good parent, He wanted me to grow up and be an adult.

Journal: Write about your life after you were abused, paying particular attention to secondary difficulties that added complications to your life.

The only way to avoid it is to become forgiving. It’s why Christ said, “Love your enemies,” which is the most difficult thing in the world to do. It’s requires God’s love in your life to do so; but once you have let it go, the pain from it will diminish and eventually disappear.

 

Journal: Write about what you have done to forgive your abuser. If you haven’t done anything, write about why you refuse to grant forgiveness. Remember to be as transparent as you know how to be.

 

Being Christ-like works; nothing else does. It draws people to the Lord much more effectively than a three-minute testimony from a stranger. The former is genuine, while the latter is little more than an infomercial—something contrived, forced, and disingenuous—something that never delivers as much as it promises.

Question: Don’t you prefer to be genuine than to try and be something you are not? Does reading this paragraph make you feel freer or more constricted? Think about your answers and how each makes you feel.

—Jack Watts   Books to Help You Recover

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Just Doing My Part—Not God’s

 

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily.

—Sally Koch

As a child of God, you are only expected to lift Him up—not push Him. Nothing more. That’s our entire responsibility. Isn’t it freeing just to read this and take it in, knowing that it’s okay to just be yourself?

I can’t save a person any more than I can damn them. Neither can you. We don’t have anything to do with it. We don’t have a vote in the matter—never have, never will. Those decisions are left up to God—where they belong. If that’s true—and it is; then, what is our part in the process?

It’s to lift up Christ, which we do every time we act out of the nature He has imparted to us, rather than out of our own, self-serving natures. If I act out of my own best interest and nothing more, I miss an opportunity to lift Him up. When I am Christ-like, I display love, joy, peace, and the rest of the fruit of God’s Spirit.

When I suffer for the Lord, I’m also lifting Him up. When I choose His way over materialism, I’m lifting Him up. When I’m kind, expecting nothing in return, I’m lifting Him up.

When I seek my own way, I’m not. The greatest problem comes when we deceive ourselves into believing our will is God’s will, and we press for it at the expense of others. It doesn’t work, and it manifests a poor witness for Christ.

Being Christ-like works; nothing else does. It draws people to the Lord much more effectively than a three-minute testimony from a stranger. The former is genuine, while the latter is little more than an infomercial—something contrived, forced, and disingenuous—something that never delivers what it promises.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13)

—Jack Watts   Resources to Help

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Attraction Rather Than Promotion

 

 

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me as well as the power to carry it out.

 

I will live what I teach.

I will do what I say.

I will say what I mean.

I will be honest with others.

I will put what is best for others ahead of what is best for me.

I will be transparent and vulnerable.

—Recovery Aphorisms

For your recovery to have a real, substantial, and positive impact on others, it has to be based on attraction rather than promotion. This simple truth runs contrary to nearly everything Christians in America believe. In churches and ministries, the message is promoted far and wide. It’s a methodology that often works, but certainly not for everybody.

For those of us in recovery, including recovery from religious abuse, we don’t promote anything. It’s never an option or even a consideration, which is very freeing. Instead, we live our life simply and unaffectedly, helping all who ask—never seeking anything in return. As we progress in our recovery and our relationship with God deepens, each day we become a little more like the person God created us to be. This means we are patient rather than petulant, seek to be kind rather than self-serving, and enjoy others—never looking for ways to use or manipulate them.

As our lives demonstrate proven character qualities, we become increasingly attractive to others—not physically attractive but emotionally attractive. Because others recognize that we are “safe people,” our opportunities to help become endless.

We know that attraction works—long-term and consistently. Promotion rarely does. It’s like a fast food commercial for a hamburger. What you get never meets the standard of what you’ve been promised by the commercial.

Once someone works the 11 Steps and begins to live in the freedom of recovery, there will always be people who want and need help. That’s how the principle of attraction works; and you don’t need to learn any pious platitudes. All you have to do is be real and genuine, eschewing sanctimony like the plague.

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person. (Colossians 4:5-6)

—My Story

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Your Walk Speaks Louder than Your Words

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.

 

Contemplation must bring forth right action in order to permit further growth.

—Robert A. Heinlein

Regardless of what you say or how persuasive you might be, it’s what you do that speaks volumes about who you really are.

In your recovery, doing God’s will is your responsibility—not just talking about it. At the same time, it’s important to realize you are not God, and He is perfectly capable of being God without your help. He’s responsible for drawing people to Himself—not you. When you try and make God’s responsibility yours, it doesn’t work. All hell breaks loose, instead.

Pushing Jesus, regardless of how noble your intention may be, ultimately produces alienation. Attraction works—promotion doesn’t. Lifting up the Lord is not promotion. Lifting Him up draws people to Him, which leads others to a restored life.

If you care for your fellow man; if you have compassion for abused people—for those caught in addiction, despair, and acting-out behavior; if you routinely display the fruit of the Spirit; you are doing God’s will. By loving others selflessly, you are a witness every day of your life—whether you utter a word or not. You just don’t realize it most of the time.

If your walk with the Lord is marginal, if your beliefs are not well thought out, and if you are unwilling to have your faith challenged, your witness is weak, and the fruit you produce will not be bitter and not sweet. That’s why most people in recovery need to work on the fundamentals—walking in God’s leading and learning to love one another from the heart. It’s a strategy that works every time.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

—Jack Watts   Recommended Resources

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People Are Drawn to a Loving Person

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.

—Lucy Larcom

Anything you can do as a believer to show the importance of God’s Son in your life is your responsibility. When you do, it’s His responsibility to draw men and women to Him—not yours. Lifting up Christ is not promoting Jesus. Lifting Him up draws people to God, which leads to salvation. Pushing Him, regardless of how noble your intentions may be, leads to alienation. It simply doesn’t work.

If you care for your fellow man; if you have compassion for those caught in addiction, despair, or any other acting-out behavior; if you routinely display the fruit of the Spirit; you are doing what you’re called to do. By loving others selflessly, you are a witness every day of your life—whether you say anything or not. You just don’t realize it most of the time.

If your walk with the Lord is shallow, if your beliefs are simplistic, and if you are unwilling to have your faith challenged or questioned without becoming defensive, your witness is weak, and the fruit you produce will not be full, rich, and rewarding. That’s why most believers need to work on the fundamentals—abiding in Christ and learning to love one another from the heart. It’s a strategy that works every time, and it should not only resonate within you but also be freeing.

Instead of proclaiming that which is not strong in your life with bumper stickers, tee shirts, and canned three-minute testimonies, wouldn’t it be better to strengthen your faith with knowledge before looking foolish to everyone?

Work on the basics, and everything will come in its time—not before. When your heart is better prepared, your fruit will be rich, positive, and lasting.

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk) that you may excel still more. (I Thessalonians 4:1)

—Jack Watts   Recommended Resources

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Reflecting on Your Experiences

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seamed with scars.

—E. H. Chapin

Having experienced religious abuse as a Catholic child in Boston, while living in a hippie community in California during the Vietnam War that turned into a cult, and as an adult working for Christian ministries for thirty years, each experience has had a shaming effect upon me. For many reasons, I believed I didn’t measure up, and my sense of self worth was abysmally low. I certainly was not the Lone Ranger. Many of my peers had similar experiences and felt the same way—exactly the same way. Some of those around me seemed to be able to handle their abusiveness better than I could.

I wanted to be like them and cast God aside, but I couldn’t. For me, He was real, and I had to deal with Him, regardless of what others chose to do. Perhaps that’s why helping other people recognize their abuse is so important to me. I knew that when I began to understand the causal factors behind my abuse, I would be able to use the recovery tools I learned as a member of AA and turn my life around spiritually.

For years, I wondered why everything happened the way it did. I often thought, Why did that have to happen?

In recent years, I’ve come to accept that nothing occurs without a reason. I couldn’t understand it at the time, but each incident had a purpose. Each chaotic incident and personal failure helped me become the person I am today.

When events were unfolding, I was in too much pain to have any discernment. It was all I could do to make it one day at a time. Since then, however, my concern has always been for people who have been wounded—for the underdog. That’s why I have been writing about religious abuse for years. My burden is to help the millions of wounded Christians whose lives typify pain and sorrow more than love and joy.

Despite what has happened in your past, you can become the person God created you to be—the person you know you want to be. I know it.

And after you have suffered for a little, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. (I Peter 5:10)

—Jack Watts   Recommended Resources

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Character Counts

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.

 

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

—Mark Twain

In Cheshire England, a couple of twelve-year-old schoolboys were disciplined for “refusing to pray to Allah” as part of their school’s religious education program. A spokesman for the Cheshire County Council said, “Educating children in the beliefs of different faiths is part of Cheshire’s diversity curriculum.”

Because of separation of church and state, this scenario couldn’t be replicated in the America—not precisely. The acceptance of every belief system being equally valid, however, flourishes in our nation. In fact, it’s a core doctrine in our cultural belief system.

Christianity has become tolerant and accepting as well. In an attempt to be palatable to everyone—to get them “saved,” Christians have watered-down Christ’s teachings to be the preferred way among equals—not the only way. In America, God’s blessings are equated to materialism and not the rich character qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness. In order to be attractive to the unsaved, marginal church leaders—those more intent on creating large churches than strong churches—have diluted Christ’s words.

If you think I’m exaggerating, just ask any young Christian under twenty-five if Christ is the only way to God. Three-out-of-four will either hedge or deny it out rightly. Christianity isn’t loosing the cultural war; we’ve lost it. Our churches are filled with weak, materialistic, sappy people—not robust men and women—those who will not bend their knees for anyone other than the Lord.

Good for those two young boys who had the strength of character to stand up for what they believed. Their defiance made the headlines worldwide. When it happened, I’m sure they were unpopular with their classmates. Fidelity may cost you everything but, without it, you really don’t have anything of value, anyway.

Jesus said to them, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” (John 14:6)

—Jack Watts   Recommended Resources

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Lifting Up the Lord

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with the Lord, asking Him to reveal His will to me and to provide me with the power to carry it out.

 

Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words!

—Unknown

As a child of God, He expects you to lift Him up. That’s all. That’s your entire responsibility in witnessing—nothing else.

Isn’t it freeing just to read this and take it in?

I can’t save anyone any more than I can damn them. Neither can you. We don’t have anything to do with a person’s eternal destination. We don’t get a vote—never have had one, never will have one. That’s left up the Godhead—Father, Son, and Spirit—where it belongs.

Then, what is your part in the process?

It is to lift up Christ, which you do every time you act out of the nature He has imparted to you, rather than out of our own, self-serving nature. If you act out of your best interest and nothing more, you miss an opportunity to lift Him up. When you are Christ-like, you display love, joy, peace, and patience—all the fruit of the Spirit of God. When you suffer reversals with dignity, you are also lifting Him up. When you choose His way over self-seeking materialism, you are lifting Him up. When you are kind, expecting nothing in return, you are lifting Him up.

When you seek your will, you are not. The greatest problem comes when you deceive yourself into believing your will is God’s will, and you press for it at the expense of what He really wants. That’s a strategy that never works, and it always manifests itself as a poor witness for Christ.

Being Christ-like works; nothing else does. It draws people to the Lord much better than a three-minute testimony with inflated claims, coming from a stranger. The former is genuine, while the latter is little more than an infomercial, which is contrived, forced, and disingenuous—something that never delivers as much as it promises.

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. (John 12:32; Colossians 3:17)

—Jack Watts   Recommended Resources

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There’s No Other Way

Refer to Step 10: I choose to believe God still has a purpose for my life—a purpose for good and not evil.

 

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

—Victor Frankl

How can you tell someone is “walking the walk” and not simply “talking the talk?” In recovery, as well as in every aspect of life, this is an important question—one that requires an answer regularly. What you say is important, but what you do is far more important.

If you care for your fellow man; if you have compassion for those caught in addiction, despair, or any acting-out behavior; if you routinely display love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness; you are walking the walk every day of your life—whether you say anything or not. You just don’t realize it most of the time.

If your walk with God is shallow, if your beliefs are simplistic, and if you are unwilling to have your faith challenged or questioned, your recovery will be weak, devoid of fruit, and easily derailed. To become everything you want to be and are capable of being, you must develop a strong relationship with the Lord. There’s simply no other way to do it. You have to own it yourself. You can’t recover without it.

Therefore, instead of proclaiming that which is not strong in your life with bumper stickers, tee shirts, and canned answers, wouldn’t it be wiser to strengthen your faith rather than just drift along aimlessly, nursing your grudge and perpetuating being a victim?

Intellectually and philosophically, Christianity is time-weathered, profound, and enduring. At the same time, most Christians are unable to handle legitimate questions—questions recovery demands.

Most of Christ’s disciples were ignorant men, but they changed the world. You can also change your world but, before that can happen, you must strengthen your inner man by spending quality time with God. Without it, you’re destined to have thoughts no deeper than the slogan from a bumper sticker or the platitude of a tee-shirt.

Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. (Philippians 1:27)

—Jack Watts

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It’s Not What You Say; It’s What You Do That Matters

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with God, asking Him to reveal His will to me and give me the power to carry it out.

Regardless of what you say, what you do speaks volumes about who you are and what you really believe.

Anything you can do in your recovery to do God’s will is your responsibility. When you do, it’s His responsibility to draw men to Himself—not yours. Lifting up the Lord is not promoting Jesus. Lifting Him up draws people to Him, which leads to a restored life. Pushing Him, regardless of how noble your intention may be, ultimately produces alienation. Attraction works—promotion doesn’t.

If you care for your fellow man; if you have compassion for abused people—for those caught in addiction, despair, and any acting-out behavior; if you routinely display the fruit of the Spirit; you are doing God’s will. By loving others selflessly, you are a witness every day of your life—whether you say anything or not. You just don’t realize it most of the time.

If your walk with the Lord is shallow, if your beliefs are simplistic, and if you are unwilling to have your faith challenged or questioned, your witness is weak, and the fruit you produce will not be full, rich, and satisfying. That’s why most people in recovery need to work on the fundamentals—walking in God’s leading and learning to love one another from the heart. It’s a strategy that will work every time, and it should  resonate within you and be freeing.

Instead of proclaiming that which is not strong in your life with bumper stickers, tee shirts, and canned three-minute testimonies, wouldn’t it be better to strengthen your faith and knowledge before looking foolish to everyone other than those within your cliche?

Work on the fundamentals, and everything will come in its time—not before. When your heart is better prepared, your fruit will be rich, positive, and lasting.

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Being Strong and Resilient

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with God, asking Him to reveal His will to me and give me the power to carry it out.

Intellectually and philosophically, Christianity is time-weathered, profound, and enduring. It’s not a simplistic worldview. The literature upon which the Judeo-Christian heritage rests is unsurpassed and needs no apology. For two millennia, it has adaquatey answered nearly every question asked by friend and foe.

At the same time, most Christians in the twenty-first century are unable to emotionally handle legitimate questions. Instead, they want simple, easy-to-understand, pat answers for everything. They don’t want to think about anything taxing and, each issue that questions their faith, triggers an angry, insecure response.

That’s not the way Christ handled things and, if we are to be like Him, that’s not the way we should handle things either. If Christ is the answer, and He is, then any question should be viewed as an opportunity to lift Him up—not to use Him to put others down. If you don’t have the answers you need, being vulnerable and admitting the truth is a much better way to handle the situation than by feigning wisdom that you don’t possess. It not only makes you look foolish, it enervates God’s way, which is real and substantive.

There’s nothing wrong with not having all of the answers. Even if you’re monumentally ignorant, it’s okay. What isn’t okay is to pretend to know things that you don’t.

Remember, most of Christ’s followers were ignorant people, but they changed the world. Our generation can as well but, before that can happen, you and I must strengthen the inner man by spending quality time with the Lord. Without it, we’re destined to have thoughts no deeper than bumper sticker slogans and tee shirt platitudes, which do nothing but offend the people we are attempting to reach.

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Doing My Part—Not God’s Part

Refer to Step 11: I make a commitment to nurture my relationship with God, asking Him to reveal His will to me and give me the power to carry it out.

As a child of God, He expects us to lift Him up—not push Him.

That’s all. That’s our entire responsibility—nothing else. Isn’t it freeing just to read this and take it in, knowing that I can just be me?

I can’t save anyone any more than I can damn them. Neither can you. We don’t have anything to do with it. We don’t get a vote—never have, never will. It’s left up the God—where it belongs. If that’s true, then, what is our part in the process?

It’s to lift up Christ, which we do every time we act out of the nature He has imparted to us, rather than out of our own, self-serving natures. If I act out of my own best interest and nothing more, I miss an opportunity to lift Him up. When I am Christ-like, I display love, joy, peace, and all the fruit of the Spirit of God. When I suffer for the Lord, I’m also lifting Him up. When I choose His way over materialism, I’m lifting Him up. When I’m kind, expecting nothing in return, I’m lifting Him up.

When I seek my own way, I’m not. The greatest problems come when we fool ourselves into believing our will is God’s will, and we press for it at the expense of another. It doesn’t work, and it manifests a poor witness for Christ.

Being Christ-like works; nothing else does. It draws people to the Lord much better than a three-minute testimony from a stranger. The former is genuine, while the latter is little more than an infomercial, something contrived, forced, and disingenuous—something that never delivers as much as it promises.

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Walking the Walk

STEP 5: I have to repair my relationship with God and make amends with everyone I have wronged along the way.

One of the primary sources of religious abuse comes from a misunderstanding of The Great Commission. If you ask most Christians what The Great Commission is, they will tell you it is to witness about their faith. In denominations like the Southern Baptists, witnessing has been drummed into people so much they become legalistic witnesses, talking about a life most don’t really experience—not consistently anyway.

Christians witness by their behavior far more than by what they say. The difference between what they say and what they do is often so great that it causes wounding to those who clearly recognize the difference between the two. Family members in particular become embittered because they experience the difference between what is said and what is done. For them, talking the talk rarely matches walking the walk. The gap is so great, they become embittered. Then, they either speak out about the hypocrisy, or they keep their mouth shut, stuffing their feeling in the process. Eventually, this embitters them, and they dismiss Christianity because of it. To these people, the claims of Christianity have been over-sold and under-delivered.

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