A friend of mine dropped by today and we got talking about sobriety and the spiritual life. Just how we live this spiritual life and about spiritual experiences.
The spiritual life, we talked about, boiled down to the ordinary. The everyday common place things we experience. And what makes it spiritual starts with a spiritual experience. Waking up each morning and willing ourselves to commit ourselves to God’s will and working the program. That is a spiritual experience, whether we are aware of it or not. At least in my thinking.
It made me think of what the woman in the BB said in Freedom from bondage. Each day of sobriety I get what I need. And like her, when I get what I need I find it’s what I wanted all along. And what I need and what I want is to stay sober. Isn’t that in itself the spiritual life?
A spiritual experience? No flashing lights, no burning bush. Just the ordinary made extraordinary by our willingness and surrender of our wills to God’s will for the day.
We both, my friend and I, enjoy this life of sobriety. Being sober is the best thing that happened in our lives. It’s still good and fresh. When I try to practice these principles in all of my affairs, not always succeeding, but just the intention to attempt this in my day is part and parcel of the spiritual life. It’s what I think keeps me sober.
Anyway, after my friend left, I sat down and thought about this.