Today I was reminded by a young man, who is new, that there is a big difference between faith and belief. That has been written about in the BB, when the man, who was under care of Dr. Carl Jung, was told that he had to find a spiritual experience, if he wanted to get sober and stay sober. The man told Jung that he had a religion and believed in God. Jung told him that it was going to take more than that. And, as the BB tells us, he found it.
What’s the “it”? What was it that turned this man’s life around so that he never took a drink again and remained sober until his death many years later? What it was, he transferred to Ebby T., and so Ebby to Bill. It was a faith in a Higher Power, plus a relationship with that Power. It’s called the spiritual life. Or, to put it another way, the whole program of AA.
I always remember a woman named Nora from Balston Va. I met her at a meeting down in Md. at my original home group. She told me about her sponsor at a third step meeting. She said she turned to her sponsor and asked her what God’s will for her was. Her sponsor turned to her and said the other nine steps.
Even though I wasn’t seeking a spiritual way of life, when I came in, I found out, like the man in the BB with Carl Jung, that it was the only way I could get sober and stay sober. By working these steps I have found a faith that works and a connection to the God of my understanding. I have found that I was going to go through some pretty rough times and take some leaps of faith, even though I often didn’t know what I was doing. Yet, through all of this, I am still sober. And to think it all went back to Dr. Jung and that young man.
I was thinking about this today, after that young man spoke. I was thinking I wished I could give him what I now know from my own experience. But I didn’t and I can’t. He, like me, is going to have to go through the same process we all go through and find a faith that works. And, like myself, this is going to take time and effort. I hope he does and is willing.
Anyway, just thinking.