A Purposeful Life

                     As sponsors in Alcoholics Anonymous we must live the principles of the program if we are to have integrity in presenting the principles of AA.  We have come to understand that our very lives as ex problem drinkers is dependent upon the lives we are called to help.  Our lives than take on a purpose and meaning that we had not experienced before.
                   In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous in the chapter How It Works it says "practical experience shows that nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking as intense work with other alcoholics - you can help when no one else can.  Remember they are very ill.  Life will take on a new meaning.  To watch people recover, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends - this is an experience you will not want to miss.  We know you will not want to miss it.  Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives."
                   There is nothing that we can do with ourselves that is more important then to help someone else recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.  Nothing.  In order for this recovery to occur for them in its purest form, those we are helping must develop a personal relationship with God and it is through this relationship that they will recover to know serenity, peace and joy possibly for the first time in their lives.
Obviously this can't possibly occur for others if it has not occurred for us as we can't give away that which we don't have. Live this life and you will be living A PURPOSEFUL LIFE.

Another Way To Look At Step Ten

                   I like to think of Tenth Step as a hallway that I must walk down in order to come into the room where I can live with God.  The hallway needs daily repair as the ceiling is leaking, there are holes in the walls and the floor is buckled.  Fortunately the program of Alcoholics Anonymous has given us an instructional manual so that we can pass through, although encumbered at first.
                Another way to look at this - God is the light and my human defects are a clouded glass which no light can shine through.  As I begin to incorporate the program of AA into my life and begin to develop a relationship with God, some of the glass clears and some of the light shines through.  As I continue to incorporate the Twelve Steps into my life, the glass clears even more and even more of the light shines through.  Finally, the day arrives when the glass is transparent and all of the light shines through.  It is in this moment that we are one with God and free of the manifestation of our character defects.
                 Let us incorporate the Tenth Step into our daily existence and eventually into all our waking moments.  We must be persistent.  Persistence is the time between the promise of God and the provision of God. Then, a life free of anxiety, fear and resentment can be experienced, cloaked in harmony, peace and serenity.

The Genisis

                        In 1930 there was an alcoholic named Roland Hazzard, an Oxford Group member who visited on more than one occasion with the noted psychiatrist, Dr Carl Jung.  After Roland had some drinking failures, Dr. Jung gave to him the solution for alcoholism which is a vital spiritual experience.  Spiritual is defined as of, or pertaining to God and vital as life giving.  We had to give life to our experience with God and this is accomplished by surrendering our nature to the will of God.
               During this historic visit Dr Jung said to Roland "you have the mind of a chronic alcoholic and I have never seen one single case recover where the state of mind existed to the extent that it does in you.  Roland thought the gates of hell had closed on him.  He asked is there no exception?  Yes replied the doctor there is.  Exceptions to cases such as yours have been occurring since early times.  Once in a while alcoholics have had what are called vital spiritual experiences."   
                 I recant these passages which are part of the chapter There Is A Solution in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous so that we clearly know that the solution to our alcoholism is a vital spiritual experience and THE GENESIS of that experience is God.  In the Big Book in the chapter How It Works it says "may you find Him now."
               If you are alcoholic and wish to recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body, then surrender your will to the will of God and you will live in the solution to your alcoholism.

What Was Our Choice To Be?

                            I had admitted I was alcoholic.  I believed in God, yet I drank twice while a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.  Once for thirteen months and once for ninety days.  After the second relapse it was than that I fully realized that I had to choose.  As the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says "when we became alcoholics crushed by a self imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or God is nothing.  God either is or isn't.  WHAT WAS OUR CHOICE TO BE?"
                 Early on I chose that God is everything.  When I made that choice I had no idea of the power of the human instinct, how pervasive it is and how difficult it would be to turn from my nature and to live in the will of God.  The second relapse brought me to a state of reasonableness where I could clearly see that the surrender had to be absolute.  In Bill's Story in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous it says "simple but not easy, a price had to be paid.  It meant destruction of self centeredness.  We must turn in all things to the father of light who presides over us all."  Will you?  

No Need To Create A Past

                            The program of Alcoholics Anonymous has in place the apparatus necessary to deal with our character defects surfaced either in the daily or the spot check inventory.  If necessary we can use the Ninth Step which is "made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."  If we decide that an amend is necessary than we go ahead immediately and make the amend in an effort to live in the present, in the will of God and not create another past that we will have to extricate ourselves from. Then we can use The Seventh Step which is "Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.".  If our actions cause us to have any shame or guilt, then we use the Fifth Step of AA which is "admitted to God, to ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs" so that we may be living in the present with a clean slate and a serene mind.
                  If we are willing to inventory, make amends, ask God to remove our defect, share our wrongs with ourselves, God and another human being there will be NO NEED TO CREATE A PAST.  This allows us to live in the present, in the will of God.
                 As alcoholics we have worked hard to free ourselves from our past and if we are willing to integrate the program of Alcoholics Anonymous into our lives in such a way that it becomes our life than the creation of a past, that at least subconsciously is having a negative effect on our present consciousness, will not occur.  This is a critical tool in permanent recovery.

An Awakened Life

                          We admitted complete defeat.  We are trusting in God.  We have made a decision for our thought process to be propelled by the will of God.  We have asked God to remove from us anything objectionable.  We have made our amends  We have learned through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and through life experience to pray and meditate daily  Through the grace of God we are living in God's will in this moment and we are the living example of the power of the program of AA.  This occurs for all in whom the spirit has been awakened.  Once the spirit has been awakened, we are then given the power to help others, not only through our words but more importantly through our behavior.  We are acutely aware that in our quest to help others that we can't possibly give away that which we don't have.
                  As a result of integrating into our lives the program of Alcoholics Anonymous we are given the power to help others and it is a wondrous event to see others live AN AWAKENED LIFE.  We experience a fulfillment in our own lives as we watch them recover to become loving and giving human beings. 

The Main Problem

                    The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says "what about the real alcoholic?  They may start off as a moderate drinker, may or may not become a continuous drinker, but at some stage of their career they begin to lose all control once they start to drink.  We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from the first drink, the alcoholic reacts much like others but once the alcoholic takes any alcohol at all something happens in both the bodily and mental sense which makes it virtually impossible to stop.  The experience of every alcoholic will confirm this.  These observations would be academic and pointless if the alcoholic never took the first drink thereby setting the terrible cycle in motion.  Therefore THE MAIN PROBLEM with the alcoholic centers in the mind rather then in the body." 
                  If the problem centers in our mind and we use our reasoning power in an attempt to solve our problem than we are trying to solve our problem with the problem.  This can never work as my own experience proves.  I continued to drink alcoholically even though I knew I shouldn't and certainly did not want to.  Lack of power that is our dilemma and we must find a new source of power to propel our thoughts.  Our thought process can no longer be propelled by our human instincts but rather by the will of God through inspiration.
                   We have found a new source of power and that one is God.  We have subrogated our thought process to the will of God and we are at peace.  Our prayer at this moment is that anyone who suffers from alcoholism, whether actively drinking or not, may find God as the source of their power.   .     
 

Discovery Through Inventory

                            My experience has taught me the value of the daily inventory and all that can be discovered and transformed as we move away from the instincts of our human nature and progress into the world of the spirit.  I have realized there is no need to wait until the end of the day, as I can address the manifestation of my defects as they occur.  The Step Book of Alcoholics Anonymous says "there is the spot check inventory taken at any time of the day that we find ourselves getting tangled up."  I find the spot check inventory to be invaluable.  It may be as simple as identifying unkind thoughts that I may have of people who are not like me in appearance or beliefs, so that I can identify this and deal with it as it is happening and not have to wait until the end of the day to address it.
                When we have completed the first nine steps of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous we have extricated ourselves from the past as we our free of the shame and guilt we carried for years.  By implementing the daily inventory and then eventually moving into the spot check inventory, we can now deal with the manifestation of our character defects as they occur in the present so that in this moment and at this time we are free of the instincts of our human nature and one with God
                We have dealt with and released our past and now we are free of the bondage of self and at peace in the will of God.  DISCOVERY THROUGH INVENTORY is a tool of recovery available so as not to create another unpleasant past that is carried with us into the present.