Daily
Reflections reading April 9th
Freedom
From “King Alcohol”
Let
us not suppose even for an instant that we are not under constraint. . Our
former tyrant, King Alcohol, always stands ready again to clutch us to him.
Therefore, freedom from alcohol is the great “must” that has to be achieved;
else we go mad or die.
AS
BILL SEES IT, p. 134
When
drinking, I lived in spiritual, emotional, and sometimes, physical confinement.
I had constructed my prison with bars of self-will and self-indulgence, from
which I could not escape.
Occasional dry spells that seemed to promise freedom would
turn out to be little more than hopes of a reprieve. True escape required a
willingness to follow whatever right actions were needed to turn the lock.
With
that willingness and action, both the lock and the bars themselves opened for
me. Continued willing- ness and action keep me free in a kind of extended daily
probation-that need never end.
©
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My thoughts on April 9th
Reading
This reading Freedom from
king alcohol is the great “must” that has to be achieved else we go mad or die
this is why the unity of the fellowship is a MUST, the unity of Alcoholics
Anonymous is the most cherished quality AA has, our very lives and the lives of
all to come depend squarely upon our unity in our common problem
Without unity with-in our
fellowship the heart of AA would cease to beat, our world arteries would no
longer carry the life giving grace of God, as we understand Him, with out unity
His gift to us would be lost and we would be back into the misery of our pasts
Hopelessly lost to the
suffering of alcoholism with no way out of the misery, this does not mean our
individual opinions do not count, we are not dominated by any individual, or by
any group as a whole, everyone counts and has the right to be heard, if unity
is to be maintained
Today I know there isn't a
fellowship on earth that lavishes more devotion and care upon its individual
members, we have to look out for each other in order to survive ourselves, our
traditions guard our individual right to think, talk, and act, as we feel is
right
Nobody in AA can compel
another to do anything, nobody can be punished or expelled anyone, our Twelve
Steps to recovery are suggestions, the Twelve Traditions which guarantee AA unity
contain not a single don't, they repeatedly say we ought, but never You must!
Almost every newcomer
seeing the power of AA for the first time is puzzled, they see true freedom yet
they see at once that AA has an irresistible strength of purpose and action, we
place our common welfare first, looking closely we soon have the key to this
strange paradox
The AA member has to
conform to the principles of recovery, his life depends upon obedience to
spiritual principles, if he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift he
sickens and dies
We in AA have discovered a
way of life, but we cannot keep this priceless gift, unless we give it away,
neither AA nor we can survive unless we all carry the AA message, when twelfth
Step work forms into a group we find most individuals cannot recover
Unless there is a group we
are but a small part of a great whole, no personal sacrifice is too great for
preservation of the fellowship, the clamor of desires and ambitions within each
of us must be silenced when these could damage the group
To me today It becomes
absolutely clear the group and the fellowship as a whole must survive or the we
all as individual will not we have to keep our common bond of fellowship and
program to save our own lives
God bless you Al M
Please feel free to mail
suggestions or comments
