The "Big Book" Alcoholics Anonymous states, in
reference to the Ninth Step and the Promises, "If we are painstaking
about this phase of
our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We
are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret
the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word
serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we
have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That
feeling of uselessness and self pity will disappear. We will lose
interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life
will change. Fear
of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively
know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly
realize that
God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves."If we are willing to surrender to the will of God through the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous then we can be free of the manifestation of our character defects in our behavior. Our self-centered life will begin its departure as we experience serenity and peace - peace which allows us to perceive life in a way that is joyful. We can then respond to that joy with love for others even though the circumstances of our lives may be unchanged. This love for others is the expression of us experiencing a beautiful life.
Written by Armand
Edited by Caitlin Alexandra
My life was beautiful the moment it began. Through the process of living, somehow that diminished to a level so tarnished that alcohol sufficed for feeling, good and bad. When I joined AA, there was a certain sense that I hadn't been completely destroyed. My intellect told me nothing but my spirit was awakened through the music of other sufferers. The Twelve Steps provided a pathway to truth in the presence of The Power Within me. And transformation began. Today I cherish the innermost beauty in my fellow travelers and in me. That's what I think life is. Beauty. Actually, I don't think it, I feel it. AA and the program of recovery has given all of us the opportunity to follow our own paths. In my experience, our paths lead us to our beauty. To a beautiful life.
ReplyDeleteMichael When we surrender our human instincts to the will of God we experience life as God intended us to. How beautiful is that?...Thank you...Armand
ReplyDeleteLike God, I don't believe in coincidences. It is no mere coincidence that I have been through (more like, trudged and dragged through) what I have. One way or another I had to get to where I am now. How it was determined that I had so many mountains to climb over and such endless oceans to swim across to get here is not of interest to me anymore. My life had to lead itself to this point. Here…now, in which I am evidence of life's beauty and have such wildly new desires to help someone, anyone, so that they may grasp onto an existence they couldn't see by themselves in the emptiness.
ReplyDelete"If we are willing to surrender…" - it is a matter of IF we are to will with our human mind a surrender to His will that we then we can be free of our self-inflicted and incarcerated state. All of our thoughts must give up their mighty seats in the realm of our mind for Him and His will to sit in their proper place. Fear, selfishness, resentment are replaced with serenity, peace, joy, kindness and love. It may seem like a sacrifice unworthy of making, but we must look upon our diseased selves and know that only someone sick with such a disease of the mind and body and soul would determine such a sacrifice unworthy. Forsake the self that has led you so astray and begin a beautiful life.
Caitlin well said. Due to the disease of alcoholism and all the ramifications of that, one must be willing to surrender their will to the will of God if they are to recover. The challenge is that initially, the pervasiveness of our nature is not understood and it is in our willingness that we learn that we can't. It is precisely at this point were we must decide "either God is everything or he is nothing, either God is or He isn't what was our choice to be."...Thank you so much...Armand
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