Thursday, November 10, 2016
Trust - The Key Component Of Belief
To believe, we have to trust. Trust is the key component of belief. 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 alcoholic -- 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.
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I might have/could possibly have gone without alcohol for the rest of my life when I came into AA many years ago. My desire to not drink was 1% stronger than my desire to continue drinking. My ego, however, was still preposterously large, though misguided and essentially empty. I had no humility. Therefore, untreated alcoholism was on my self-imposed agenda. The loving grace of The Power Within would never reach my consciousness unless some healing and empowering action were taken. In desperation, I finally reached out to the hand of recovery in the presence of a Big Book sponsor whose sole objective was to activate The Twelve Steps within me through the divinely inspired spiritual program of action clearly and precisely outlined and then defined in The Big Book. You use a curious word - "seep" to describe the process whereby the feelings of the goodness of me, the size of me, the innermost yearning of me was finally released. It just seemingly seeped into my soul. And I wanted and still want more. It is how I am supposed to live as me, with The Power Within me. It is who I am. It is the gift of me. It is to be simply shared with you.
ReplyDeleteMichael a wonderful inspired comment. A humble life is not necessarily a life without accomplishment but it is a life devoid of expression of our human instincts through our thought process. This is exactly what a recovered alcoholic surrenders. Yes it does take the grace of God for that humility to occur...Thanks...Armand
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