Talked to an old friend today about spiritual awakenings. We both read the Grapevine books on this subject. Reading over and over the thoughts of all those alcoholics, telling their stories on their experiences with this.
As we talked it made me go back and think about what the BB says about our concepts of a Higher Power, especially when we’re talking to a new comer. We’re not there to teach them about what we think or believe. It says it’s up to them, as long as it makes sense to them.
I know I have run across others in this program, who have all kinds of thoughts on this subject. Amazing. I never ever tell them about my thoughts on this. Just let them tell me. I don’t want to influence them.
As far as the spiritual awakening goes, I have had any number of them over my time in here. Even spiritual experiences. I know my first spiritual awakening came five days before I entered the program. It was when the God of my understanding removed the thought and desire for a drink from my life. How can I ever forget that. Didn’t know it until the next day. All I remember about that was that I spent the next day not realizing I wasn’t thinking about a drink until the day was almost over. It was an overwhelming thought. Amazed me. I was so grateful. That absence of thinking about a drink is still present.
We talked about what some of these members wrote. Some are still atheists, but believe in this program and the power of what this program has done for them. Agnostics. Some believe in nature and how it has helped them. Their Higher Power. And then there are all those, who have what I would call a traditional sense about all of this. Some others, who have different values. But all believe that something happened, which changed them and freed them from the bondage of alcohol.
When I read the story, The Vicious Cycle, by the man, who was talked about in the Third Tradition, he describes how the members were able to open the door to anyone suffering from the disease of alcoholism, regardless of what they did or didn’t believe. As long as we had the desire not to drink, we were welcomed. Even like the man he once was.
It’s been an interesting journey for me and my friend. We’re still on it. My thought is that it’s all because of the grace of my Higher Power, the God of my understanding. Someone else might say something else, but that’s my thought. My belief. My faith and trust in my Higher Power.
Anyway, during our conversation we talked about our struggles and our successes in getting sober and staying sober. It wasn’t always easy, but we both learned, finally, to accept what we were given. Giving up our egos and the drive to control what we never could. Not that it doesn’t come back now and then, but for the most part we now know how to back off. And, when we do, we find what it is we receive is just what we wanted all along.
Thinking about sobriety and living a sober life.