Last night and pretty much all day I have been thinking about the spiritual awakening. That’s because it occurred to me that the spiritual awakening has many meanings to those, who have had this experience, as the result of these 12 Steps.
I have heard many people talk about it and I’ve read many experiences of others. It’s kind of like the higher power. There are probably thousands of versions personal to those, who have chosen what this higher power is for them.
But one thing I believe. That the higher power begins for us, me in particular, in the 2nd Step. And just as often, without being aware, again me, so does the spiritual experience. Often the awakening to what is wrong with us. Again me.
Reading one version in a book on Spiritual Awakenings, one man wrote that it was when a man, speaking at a meeting, referred to the refrigerator he was standing next to, that it might be a possible higher power for someone. The author was far from pleased to hear that until he suddenly realized for the first time that he was an alcoholic and needed help. The idea of the refrigerator later came to play a big part in his recovery.
But it was the moment of the revelation of his condition and his helplessness. It opened the door to his recovery. It was truly an awakening, as was the concept of a higher power. In fact he referred to the 2nd Step several times.
I was told by a long time member, many years after I was sober, that I had had a spiritual awakening before I came into the program. The night that I prayed for help and then awoke the next day and the desire, the mental obsession, the compulsion to drink alcohol was gone and really never has returned. He knew my story and referred to that moment as a spiritual awakening. I thought about that and realized he was probably right.
The restoration to sanity, as far as alcohol is concerned, is obviously a benchmark for all those of us, who have achieved long time sobriety. But I’m convinced that I’m not alone, when I say, that the spiritual awakening is not an isolated event. I believe I have had many such, but often was not aware at the time. It was only, when I took the time to look back that I became aware of them.
I’ve read other stories and heard some, where they became aware of a spiritual awakening years later. Someone would point out the instance where it occurred, when they were talking to someone with long time sobriety.
Anyway, I was thinking about how I got sober and all that has happened since I came in. Reading about the spiritual awakening of others and what it meant to them was another incentive to think about this. It kind of helps to keep me on track. The pathway to sobriety I’m on.