One Day at a Time - Do You Know Bill W?

[dogfish]

I know that merry go round, It's not fun.

[DarkSkies]

Merry go round - went to a new meeting last night, an old friend runs it. Some newcomers came up to me after, and we talked about them coming in and out, they're having trouble with surrender. I felt bad for them,. but at the same time asked them if they hadn't had enough pain yet. They were talking about the same merry go reound the daily thought referenced above.

If they want help it's there, all you gotta do is ask. Some of us are too proud to ask, because alcohol and drugs are fun. Even when they're not fun anymore, they're comfortable, and some people keep hanging on and beating their heads against the wall.

I can't do anything about that, becasue I did the same thing for years. Everyone gets sober in their own time, keep comin back.

[DarkSkies]

A little late on the AA daily quote, sorry.





December 13, 2008

A New Dimension

In the late stages of our drinking, the will to resist has fled.
Yet when we admit complete defeat
and when we become entirely ready to try AA principles,
our obsession leaves us and we enter a new dimension --
freedom under God as we understand Him.





I resisted the God thing for so many years, even though I grew up with God and the church in my life, I felt God had abandoned me. Through my dysfunctional eyes I saw the church as money grubbing dogma, and an organization that in some instances couldn't control the pedophelia.

This is God? I kept asking myself, what a frikkin bunch of hyppocrates!

In the beginning of my recovery, I was exposed to some family that are Christians. This allowed my cynical nature further chances to question God. The way I understand Christian beliefs, you will not be saved unlss you follow specific steps. What about the Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and the Indian tribes of the world that worship God according to their different beliefs, none of which is acceptable to Christian beliefs?

I gradually realized that by looking for reasons why religiojn, or some religions, seemed to be hypocritical, I was pushing away the comcept of spirituality. In the last 20 years, I have met some people with deep spiritual convictions. Some of them in the outside world, some of them in the program, some of them on this site, who send me e-mails with religious themes.

At one time I would have resisited this, and still questioned it. I got a thrill of quizzing family who were Christians about why the other religions were not good enough, as they tried to sit across the table and get me to accept Jesus Christ. I now realize that I don't have to agree with all the religious beliefs of a person to see their things from their eyes, and try harder to do that.

Thanks to all the people who send me religious stuff, even though I might argue with you sometimes. I'm still not as spiritual as I feel I should be, but I'm tryin.

I think the best thing about AA/Na and the concept of God is their principle:

"Freedom under God as we understand him."

That works for me.

[DarkSkies]

H.O.W.

They said if you want to know how this program works,
take the first word of your question -- the "H" is for honesty,
the "O" is for open-mindedness, and the "W" is for willingness;
these our Big Book calls the essentials of recovery.

Thought to Ponder....

Every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober hour.




I like the above daily thought because it's all part of keeping it simple. I run into trouble when I try to complicate things. Being sober one hour at a time is definitely what it takes sometimes. It's too much of a burden to think of achieving sobriety for the rest of your life, one day at a time is a lot easier.

[jimmy z]

I think many are confused about who God is. Any faith or religion, regardless of what they believe, all believe in the one true God. And I think that is what folks struggle with. I did too, at one time.
Religion is man made, and the spiritual belief's, are fine tuned, when we believe.
God is God, weather in China, or India, or Africa. There is only one true God.
Once we understand that, the rest is up to us.

[jimmy z]

And congratulations Jon.

[mick2360]

Good to see this thread getting some steam.

So much of sobriety is just admitting that we have a problem and asking for help. This is one more place that people can get it.

And Dog, we have all been there. No shame. You are in the right place. Keep coming back!

[DarkSkies]

December 15, 2008

Housecleaning

We attempt to sweep away the debris which has accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will and run the show ourselves. If we haven't the will to do this, we ask until it comes. Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol.







I don't know about you guys, but I need to do periodic housecleaning on both an implied level and a spiritual level. I tend to accumulate debris in my life, it just "clings on". So every few months I need to re-assess and discard the bad. For me, thats part of doing a searching and fearless moral inventory. Working the steps is good when you do it on a formal level with a sponsor, but it's also soomething you can do every day, a little bit at a time.