What a revelation today. Imagine. Something I’ve known for years, but just never occurs at the appropriate moment, hit me, as I was listening to others, who had just received their chips for their anniversaries in this program.
And what was that? Rarely have we seen a person fail, who has thoroughly followed our path. That thought is always present, somewhere in my mind. When talking with others, though I may never speak it, it is there. And then today, it came into my mind like a sudden flash. Like I had never heard it before.
The truth of those words in the BB is so apparent, as I look around the rooms I’m in at meetings. All those sober men and women demonstrating the validity of those words. People, who have demonstrated the truth of thoroughly working the Steps and acting out the program on a daily basis.
After the meeting, a man came over, who is relatively “new”, and spoke to me about this. He had been in and out of the program, but was back and just picked up a chip for half a year. We had talked before about his struggles, but now he told me that he is listening to his sponsor and doing this program just a day at a time and sometimes a minute at a time. What he did say was the realization that this was a spiritual program had hit him and he was hanging on to that.
For someone like me to hear others, who have had a hard time staying sober, talk about their beginning to put the program into action is always a moment for encouragement. Not so much for me, as it is for them. And, as always, I try to reinforce their words. Part of that Twelfth Step opportunity. And most helpful to me, since they came over and voluntarily said what they said, without me having to say a word.
I guess what I have been thinking is my gratitude for the wisdom of our founders. Always makes me wonder. Here they were, only a few years sober, yet they were able to write down those thoughts, which are still valid after all these years. Talk about the spiritual life in this program.