Principles before personalities. That takes humility. My getting out of the way. It’s not about me. So, there I was talking about the Twelfth Tradition, when the subject was about fear and humility.
Of course a lot of the talk today at the meeting was centered around the spiritual life. And that’s exactly what the Twelfth Tradition was talking about. The spiritual foundation. And what kind of principles? Spiritual. Or, as the Ninth Step in the BB tells us, that the spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.
And what does this have to do with fear? Good question, unless it hits me right away that the answer to fear is spiritual. The reason for fear is me. I’m the one making it real. Fear is an emotion and a feeling. Not real, unless I take over and make it so. And that’s what we alcoholics, who suffer from the human condition do. What I have to learn is how to let go of my feelings and turn them over to my Higher Power, who can do for me what I can’t do for myself. He can heal them, where psychiatry and psychology can’t.
And, where does this humility, which I need, come from. It all began back, when I came here to get sober. The First Step is all about surrender and acceptance. The Second and Third Steps were the same for me. Getting cut down to size. My ego was larger than life. It was in my way. In fact, I look back at the Sixth and Seventh Steps and can see how I stumbling all over myself, until I found that I needed to surrender to my Higher Power again and again.
Of course, if I sincerely mean it, there’s always the Serenity Prayer. It’s the one, which gets me out of the driver’s seat and back in the bus. How difficult it is, I have found out over the years, to stop trying to run the show. Then I remember my sponsor telling me that I’m here to practice these principles in all of my affairs. All, not some. Not easy, but, if I want to stay sober, I’m going to have to get serious and get some humility.
Anyway, just another day I need to remember to practice what I have learned and stay sober. Just grateful I’ve had the opportunity.