It’s always a real response for me at meetings where people are new or coming back. The first is to hope they feel the same way I felt when I first found out I needed to get sober. I was in a deep pain. Despair. At that time I felt I had to kill myself. I couldn’t go on drinking, but I couldn’t stop.
And of course that’s when a drinking buddy brought me a message, which gave me hope for the first time in years and that led to my surrender. I know I told that to the man coming back today. I was hoping he was in enough pain to want to stop drinking like I did.
And that’s also what I hoped he would hear what he needed to turn his life around. In other words I wanted him to get hope like I did. I can never forget how that changed my life. My world. It was what got me to come to my first meeting, where I got more hope. I can never forget that nor do I want to.
I know I really had no idea what was wrong with me, until I read the Doctor’s Opinion in the BB. That really opened my mind. Again one of those thoughts which comes to mind when I meet new people, who need this program. Or at least are like the Fifth Tradition states. The alcoholic who still suffers. The one we need to carry the message to.
And of course all of this always is a perfect reminder to me of the Serenity Prayer. The things I cannot change. But it always helps me to let go and let my Higher Power do what I can’t. And that’s to give me the wisdom and courage to change the things I can. Meaning me. And that helps me to renew my commitment in this program to stay sober one more day.
Once again hope is a key for me. It opens this program and my need to stay sober up for me. And it also renews my faith in my Higher Power and this program. Helps me do what that Fifth Chapter in the BB tells me to do. To thoroughly follow this path in here. But that tells me I need to renew my commitment each day. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not here. It’s now.
Anyway once again I need to express my gratitude for the grace I have been given. Thank my Higher Power, this program, and the people in it, who have given me what I know I need.