Our lives were lived to constantly fuel and satisfy our desires. We protected our instincts that were warped by fear and self-absorption. We lived our lives in defiance wrapped around our own self-centeredness - with extreme sensitivity and grandiosity. Our nature could never initiate or sustain true, honest relations with other human beings. We were forever searching outside of ourselves, completely unaware that the solution to our problem lay within. These lives we lived, fueled by fear and insatiable desires to appease our human instincts, became so anxiety-filled that we increasingly sought escape as a way to experience ease and comfort within. We were a contradiction unto ourselves.
As for myself, the escape was the increasing use of alcohol that led to addiction. I sought control over my addiction yet to no avail. This inability to control created a series of very negative consequences in my life. I was driven by a self-will that knew no boundaries. I constantly attempted to fix the problem with my own internal drive. I was trying to solve my problem with my problem. We cannot ever solve the problem with the problem.
I was unaware of the uniqueness of the disease in that it is a two-fold one. We have a physical allergy, which ensures that each and every time we put the substance(s) into our system we will get sick, drunk/high, and into all kinds of trouble. But, more importantly, we have a mental obsession which ensures that even though we don't want to drink or use or behave in such a way our disease wants us to. Sooner or later our minds will tell us it's ok. We will satiate our desires, we will trigger the physical allergy and we will ultimately succumb to the hand of addiction. Time after time, using our minds to create a way to control our disease and always failing to do so is proof to us that we can't solve the problem with the problem.
The solution to our problem with alcohol, with drugs, and with every problem borne from our defective, ill nature is a relationship with God. Through a vital spiritual experience which we temper and enlighten with prayer and meditation we foster such a relationship. The experience occurs in our lives when the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are integrated into it. We practice the steps in such a way that they become our lives so that the problem will be solved.
Written by Armand
"Everything else can wait, but our search for God cannot wait."
ReplyDeleteParamahansa Yogananda
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DeleteJohn Amen...Thank you...Armand
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ReplyDeleteWell said my brother, for no one is capable of willing away their own will and truth be told, we have no desire to do so. From the very beginning of our earthly journey we instinctively turn to full throttle fits of rage until our demands are met, our bellies are full and a freshly powered diaper is wrapped around our bottoms... Some of us have been fortunate in our upbringing and are lovingly given healthy boundaries. Some of us have been raised by wolves.... But with the help of God, all can recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
But, I chose my own way, made my own plans and justified my excesses with nonsensical arguments that could only have been birthed in the dark dank cellar of a self-deluded mind. Life finally became a desperate race for any elixir to numb the pain of a journey with no meaning and a future destination too terrifying to contemplate. Alcohol became both vehicle and fuel for my afterburner fired journey through the gates of a living Hell... Yet, when all hope was lost, when death became the only frighteningly attractive option left, an Unseen Hand reached out from eternity and in the rarest moment of sanity, I cried out in desperation and remorse to that same God whom I had ignored and abandoned for most of my life.
And, In that very instant, in that very place, I discovered that God had been available and waiting all along. I simply chose to ignore Him. The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are in a very real sense the "ruby slippers" of a Loving God's personal invitation, otherwise ignored by this once flint headed individual, to effect a radical change that finally brings us home. Today, I have no need to fear the future nor regret the past for I am convinced that He is more than able and faithful to complete the good work He has begun in me and all who humbly seek His face just one day at a time, every day of our lives, until we meet Him face to face.
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic love when you wrote "He is more than able and faithful to complete the good work He has begun in me"...Thank you...Armand
DeleteMichael C.
ReplyDeleteNot fully knowing or understanding the problem was a self-centered excuse for my self-will to run riot - over my family, friends, colleagues and strangers. In truth (and unequipped), I gave no thought whatever to solving the problem. I just drank. Fortunately, my initial exposure to AA brought me a form of certainty I’d been forever lacking. The mere action of not drinking yielded immediate relief from the problem of me. As you point out, the problem, however, must be identified in order for it to give way to the solution. That happened over time by integrating all Twelve Steps into my life in the way you suggest - with daily commitment and an eye toward others. My thinking and my behavior are aligned by and with The Power Within me. The spiritual problem can only be solved by this spiritual solution. One day at a time.
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Michael love when you wrote "the spiritual problem can only be solved by the Spiritual solution."...Thank you...Armand
DeleteI was living in a self-imposed crisis. My circumstances brought me to a place where I needed to make a choice: either God is everting or else he is nothing. My choice was to be everything.
ReplyDeleteI found myself fearful when I try to fight in self-will and don’t trust and rely on God’s will. My ideas do not work, however the God idea does. I try to let go of old ideas and pray for honesty, open-mindedness and willingness.
I can be angry at God at times as I want things to often be different or to blame God for my problems although I see that I have often manufactured my own misery. My self-centered fear drives my frustration. I then realize that I must reduce my demands and live in this moment.
Jessica
Jessica a life lived in the will of God is a life worth living...Thank you...Armand
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