Daily
Reflections reading March 7th
The Key Is Willingness
Once we have placed the key of willingness in
the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always
open it some more. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 35
The
willingness to give up my pride and self-will to a Power greater than myself
has proved to be the only ingredient absolutely necessary to solve all of my
problems today. Even the smallest amount of willingness, if sincere, is
sufficient to allow God to enter and take control over my problem, pain, or
obsession. My level of comfort is in direct relation to the degree of
willingness I possess at any given moment to give up my self-will, and allow
God’s will to be manifested in my life. With the key of willingness, my worries
and fears are powerfully transformed into serenity.
© Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
My
thoughts on March 7th Reading
The Key Is Willingness, Step one brought
about my admission of powerlessness over drinking booze and the chaos of my
life being completely unmanageable the task of changing anything or anyone
except myself has finally begun to sink in my pea brain
Now the need for change was planted in my
brain I had to find the power greater than ME to bring this unthinkable action
of changing me into play for myself some sort of image was needed other than
the punishing vengeful God of my old understanding the group worked at first
There is the common thread woven into the
first three steps coming to accept my alcoholism and my powerlessness finding
this power greater than myself and making the decision to turn my life over to
the care of God as I understood Him that would lead me to a new spiritual life
All three legs of the stool must be in
place, oh no!! I used the "must" word and somewhere in the halls a
person told me there are no musts in the program So okay I'll drop the
"must" for a "you damn well better." Or else
Now if at this point I was thinking this
is getting complicated it is because I have the feeling that up till this point
the program has been easy enough and now is going to be hard but only if I make
it so by holding on to old ideas and ideals of my past
I had to let go right like the mountain
climber did: A very skilled man is climbing a mountain of great height when
near the highest peak he slips but manages to grab hold of the branch of a
bush. He looks down into 5,000 feet of nothingness and the branch begins to
break. He cries out IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?
Silence! In desperation he cries God
please help and a voice says I'm here the man says are you God the voice
answers yes what do you want? This is not the time to ask for too much and he
replies, please save me,
God says no problem I can do anything
just let go of the branch the mountain climber looks around surveying the
situation and calls out, IS THERE ANYBODY ELSE OUT THERE?
This I believe is where I was on my
journey to recovery bleeding and beaten by this vicious, cruel master alcohol I
needed a leap of FAITH and make the decision to turn all of my life over to the
care of God as I understand Him not just parts of my life ALL OF MY LIFE
Of course the decision was to turn my
free will away because it was flawed and would give me no peace serenity joy or
happiness this is where faith comes in: to believe that which is unseen and may
never be seen except in the power and beauty in the eyes of my loved ones
Still have doubts and fears? Replace them
with faith. And believe. Then make the decision to attune your will with God's
will then continuing on to the fourth step thru the ninth step Replace fear
with faith and we will be here to hold your hands Make a Decisions only. That
is all we are asked to do
Once we have come into agreement with
these ideas, it is really easy to begin the practice of Step Three. In all
times of emotional disturbance or indecision, we can pause, ask for quiet, and
in the stillness simply say:
"God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to
know the difference. Thy will, not mine, be done."
Please feel free to mail
suggestions or comments
