Somethings have come up in the past few days which have made me stop and think again. One of those had to do with what I was told a long time ago by my sponsor, which may still be true. No doubt in my mind.
I was told by my sponsor that I didn’t know that I didn’t know. I only thought I did. And here I am a long time later and guess what? I often still don’t know. And just as often I find myself thinking that I do, and I don’t.
I have to remember why this is true. Even though we’re supposed to be leading a spiritual life, I’m still human. My faults may not be as extremely bad as they once were, but I still have them. And that’s a big reminder to me that I still need to remember why I’m here and how I need to go about continuing my life this way. I’m still sober. And all of that is, I believe, dependent on my faith, my belief in my Higher Power, who is responsible for my being here sober.
And that means to me that I have to practice this program the way my sponsor told me. He was the one, who got me on the spiritual track in spite of my resistance to it. Talk about a man, who exhibited the third part of that Third Step prayer. So that I could witness the evidence of the God of our understanding’s power, love, and way life through him. Looking back I can see that clearly today.
Thinking about that reminds me of what happened at the meeting today, when a good man I know spoke up about his weighted down life of having to deal with so many alcoholics, who contact him. He felt he had to cut down on meetings so that he could get some rest and to deal with these people. At least that’s what I got out of what he was saying. After the meeting I did go up to him, and knowing who is sponsor is, I told him to stop going on his own thinking and to ask for guidance from him and then follow it.
That was what I learned in here and what worked for me. Which indicates to me that it was part of the spiritual life as I understand it. And that reminds me of something else which came as a result of this meeting. I have learned from those old timers and the BB and the rest of the literature in here that “as I understand it” is one of the keys to the spiritual life in here.
In the BB it states that we’re not here to teach the new person (or really any person) what we believe. That’s up to them. Whatever makes sense to them is the basis of their belief. I always chuckle, when I think of a friend I know, whose first Higher Power was a special tree. They had that for quite a while until they developed a concept of the God of their misunderstanding, as they would put it.
And that’s always a reminder of what our founders conceived of. Since this program is not a religion, they wanted to guarantee that any alcoholic, regardless of what they believed or didn’t, was welcome. As long as they had a desire to stop drinking. Didn’t matter whether they were an atheist, Christian, Jewish, or anything else. I have read of people, who believed in flowers. I know I have talked to a lot of agnostics. The spiritual life is still there, even if it’s just the program itself, which is someones Higher Power.
And, of course, all of this is a reminder to me of what I’m supposed to be doing. Attempting to lead a spiritual life. My sobriety is dependent on that and I never want to forget that. Why I am here. So I thought I’d better stop and think about that.