Do you remember that song, “What a difference a days makes”? I goes on “twenty four little hours”. It ends with “and the difference is you”.
Do you remember your last day drinking and then the next day? The last day I remember very well. The next day, about all I can remember about it was that I didn’t take a drink. I didn’t want a drink; I didn’t even think about a drink. What was the difference?
Everytime I read or think about the story in the BB, “The Man Who Mastered Fear”, I think about the experience he talks about. His was that here he was full of fear and about to depart Dr. Bob’s house and face the world sober. He was on his bed and fell out on his knees and prayed. He said something to the effect that he had been trying to handle his fears for eighteen years all by himself and he could no longer do that. He asked God to take his burden! and then he fell asleep. When he awoke he said that everything had changed and nothing had changed.
That was my experience. The night before I had asked God for help with my drinking and living problem. The next day, when I awoke, everything had changed and nothing had changed.
The BB tells us that there is a solution. And the solution is that only a spiritual experience can conquer this disease. And then it tells us that we can’t do this alone. We’re going to have to find a power greater than ourselves. But that’s not all. We’re going to have to change everything with the help of this higher power. One day at a time we’re going to have to go through a series of progressive steps until we arrive at this spiritual awakening.
But, what about Bill W., who had this sudden flash of light spiritual experience? And what about thi! s man, who when he awoke had this sudden change? And what about me and my experience? Each one of us found that we had to go through this same process described in the BB. If we wanted to find the “difference”, we were all going to have to do the footwork to find the solution. It wasn’t enought to say “oh, thank goodness, that’s over”.
It was enough to come to the realization that each one of us was at the beginning. No matter what our experience, we had just started on this journey. It was to be a journey, a process, of one day at a time; “twenty-four little hours”.
Reading Fred’s story in the BB, the one after Jim took the drink in a glass of milk, Fred says that the proposal put forth by Bill and the other man was drastic. He was going to have to change everything. Then he says, that quite as important was that all his problems could be solved by the application of spiritual principles. What an idea! And the “difference is (the last line of that song)” that.
Just a thought. Ned
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