Thursday, July 21, 2005

The Promises of Living Spiritually

The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.

I had been sober about 9 months when I completed working Step 9 with my sponsor. It was then, after gaining closure to past wrongs I had committed, that my life and my thinking rose to a higher level.

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way 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 of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize tha God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us --- sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS --- PAGES 83, 84

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tis an accurate quote. And a damned right good one too. Keep up the good work. Nor Nor

Scott W said...

Are these extravagant promises? We think not.

'We' is written 15 times in these two paragraphs alone. It's the 'we' of the program that has kept me coming back.