Some of the heaviest weight in recovery is not the substance — it is the wreckage. The relationships that were destroyed. The trust that was broken. The opportunities that were lost. The version of yourself that other people gave up on. The bridges you burned, some of them deliberately, some of them without realizing what you were doing until they were gone.
Joel 2:25 is a promise of restoration — I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. This is not a promise that every burned bridge will be rebuilt, or that every person who was hurt will return, or that consequences will be erased. Restoration in the biblical sense is something larger than the recovery of what was lost.
It is the creation of something that could not have existed without the loss. The restored years are not the same years. They are years of different and deeper value — built on what the hard years produced in a person who walked through them with God.
Steps 8 and 9 address the relational wreckage directly — making a list of everyone harmed and making amends where possible. This is not the same as restoration. The amends clears your side of the equation. The restoration is God's work, and it happens on His timeline.
Some bridges God rebuilds. Some He replaces with something better. Some He allows to remain down as protection — because not every relationship from the old life belongs in the new one.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says His mercies are new every morning. Not every year. Every morning. Whatever the wreckage of yesterday looks like, this morning is a new issue of mercy. The locust years are behind you. What God restores ahead of you is not a consolation prize. It is a new thing — and He is good at new things.