Daily
Reflections reading February 3rd
Filling The Void
We
needed to ask ourselves but one short question. “Do I now believe, or am I even
willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?” As soon as a man
can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure
him that he is on his way. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 47
I
was always fascinated with the study of scientific principles. I was
emotionally and physically distant from people while I pursued Absolute
Knowledge. God and spirituality were meaningless academic exercises. I was a
modern man of science, knowledge was my Higher Power. Given the right set of
equations, life was merely another problem to solve. Yet my inner self was dying
from my outer man’s solution to life’s problems and the solution was alcohol.
In spite of my intelligence, alcohol became my Higher Power. It was through the
unconditional love which emanated from A.A. people and meetings that I was able
to discard alcohol as my Higher Power. The great void was filled. I was no
longer lonely and apart from life. I had found a true power greater than
myself, I had found God’s love. There is only one equation which really matters
to me now: God is in A.A.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on February 3rd Reading
I had to abandon myself to this new way
of live, after I had this real awesome spiritual experience, I realized it was
God who I once abandoned, He never abandoned me like I thought so often, He was
always there just waiting for me to let go of my free will to find Him
Asking His protection is about carrying
the message from one alcoholic to another alcoholic, it is how the program
started has grown and how most of us came to recovery, A spiritual awakening as
a result of practicing all twelve of the Steps
The barriers I had built through the
years were swept away, I am standing in the Presence of God's unconditional
love and protection, for the first time I am living in conscious contact with
God as I now understand Him, He took my alcoholic problem away, that very
night, years ago, it disappeared
There’s nothing in step twelve that calls
for delay, or getting ready for an inventory, or hedging on amends, an
awakening is the result of all the steps, practicing the principles is simply
the continuing use of the steps to keep me right sized and attuned to Gods will
for me on a daily basis
It was with this awakening and practice
that gave me, not only freedom from my alcoholism, but the serenity to accept
things as they are, it is this awakening and practice that let's me move in my
new world with confidence, knowing my skin fits and I can deal with all that
life hands me
Carrying the message to others is what
the program is all about, back in the early days the program grew mostly by
word of mouth, one drunk talking to another, in those days there was much more
shame associated with alcoholism, even admitting the disease was a stigma
It was recognized that a recovering
alcoholic got much better results working with another drunk, than the
professional people, when I tell my story to a fellow drunk it is easer for him
to identify with me, they can believe me easer than with a counselor
The secret is telling the truth about
what it was like and being willing to listen to what they are saying or
answering question, that are on their minds, being new to recovery I wanted to
get everyone sober I was convinced that anyone who asked for my help really
wanted it.
Sadly this wasn't true some come and just
aren't ready to let go of their addiction, it took me time and almost getting
drunk to realize that my job was to carry the message as best I could but not
get caught up in the mess, the results belonged to the other person and their
God
There are lots of ways for me get
involved I can reach out to a new comer, volunteer to help them, or take a
meeting into a jail, or other institution, or give our name to the Central
Office, or Intergroup that fields calls for help, I can also share my own
experience strength and hope
Carrying the message and being willing to
carry the message means we have a message to carry a that message is "God can do for us what we can not do
for ourselves if only we let Him" before we can give it back we have to
learn how by working all the steps into our lives
God bless you AL M
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