Han Solo: Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything.
To believe, we have to trust. Trust is the key component of belief - for Han and for all of us. When I was a teenager I broke my relationship with God. It was a relationship that had developed through the early religious training I received in Catholic grade school. The fact that I broke my relationship with God did not change that I had always believed in God. I believed in God even while I was living the life of an addict -- in utter pandemonium. My behaviors had nothing to do with my belief in Him. It was my lack of trust in Him which led me astray from a relationship with Him for so long. Trust, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is "assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something".
To have such certainty for the Supreme Power requires humility, exactly that which the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous gives us. The incorporation of the steps of such a program into our lives begins the break down of our egos, so that humility (and all the many benefits from it) can seep into our lives. After some time we actually develop a hunger for it. I have learned in my experience with the program of Alcoholics Anonymous that humility is the key which unlocks the door to the grace of God. It is only through this grace that we remain sober and recovered from our addictions and the manifestation of our character defects. Our egos must be deflated and our human desires subrogated to the will of God. Belief is necessary but trust is essential.
TRUST IS THE KEY COMPONENT OF BELIEF.
For me, the word Trust was the key to unlocking the mystery of me. As The Big Book states, I had moral and psychological convictions galore but I could never live up to them. In reality, I could never live up to me. So I drank like the madman alcohol produced. To top it off, the only thing I could trust was the untrustworthy me. In the Second Step, I learned that Trust in a Power Within me could lead me through the remaining Steps and ultimately to The Truth. Today, I'm convinced that by living in the Truth through the Program of Recovery, I can share my gift with other alcoholics and the world. That, I believe, is the essence of humility and the daily path to peace of mind.
ReplyDeleteMichael One can believe or not believe in God. If one does not believe in God than one must use their intellect to direct their life and solve their problems. An alcoholic has lost the ability for their intellect to direct their life and solve their problems. Instead an alcoholic relies on alcohol as a solution. Once alcoholic, than the solution for alcoholism, becomes a vital spiritual experience and to live that experience one would have to trust in God...Thank you...Armand
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