I was thinking this afternoon about the answers we all seek, when presented with problems. You know, like, why am I so resentful to so and so? Why is so and so angry with me? How am I going to take care of this bill, when I have no money to pay it? And on and on.
What has this to do with sobriety and the program? It’s because we already have been given the answer. Bill talked about this. It’s in the solution. We get that in the second step, having a higher power to lean on, who takes care of our problem with alcohol. And Bill tells us, if our higher power can remove alcohol from our lives, think of what else He can do. In steps six and seven, when faced with all of failings in our character defects, Bill tells us that here is where He can really help us get the unamangeability under control. The same solution for alcohol is there for all our other problems.
The real problem comes from putting this into action. At least for me. How quickly I can forget it. I so often need to have others remind me. I can even be in meetings and fail to hear this kind of answer. My ears get stopped up with self concern over problems.
Then there is the renewal of faith in my higher power. As long as I’m relying on myself, my faith is weakened and won’t work. I know for me that I have to get out of my own way. A friend of mine sent me an email on love, reminding me of how to get out of myself and once again begin to renew my willingness.
But that takes an open mind. I recalled today what a friend of mine once told me. He said he and his wife and he were having a disagreement at the dinner table one night. He said she suddenly got up, stormed out of the room and slammed the door. He turned to his boys and slapped his hands together and said, “you just heard the sound of a mind closing”.
First calm the disturbance my sponsor would remind me. Stop and get calm and then pray and ask for help. It works. It really does. I have to get back to my primary purpose. As long as something else has replaced it, nothing much is going to happen in my life, which is positive.
Anyway, I was thinking about this today.