I was reminded last night that just because we’ve achieved a level of sobriety we may still have some deep problems which plague us from time to time. I was thinking how difficult it is to free ourselves from these things. Yet, on the other hand, I sometimes think these things may just be gifts to us.
The English author, CS Lewis, wrote about this dilemma some of us face. I think I talked about this before. He said somethihng along the lines that there are people who seem to be naturally “good”. They don’t have to struggle with this because it seems to be in their nature. He then said that there are people who have to combat the “bad” part of themselves in order to achieve a level of “goodness”. These are people who are constantly in a battle with themselves, often slipping abd sliding back, and then rising up once more to a level of the spiritual life. He said he felt that he believed that these people were really the best kind of people. They had to work for what they had.
I seem to be one of those people. I know of so many others who fall into that category. I can definitely relate to them. In fact, I go to meetings with them, for that reason.
The reason I was thinking about this is that it describes to me why we need others. It tells me that I need others to help me along the way and that I can’t do this alone. I need to talk to others and others need to talk to me. But it is here that we can make our biggest mistake. We might just come to believe that we can handle anything, when it comes to dealing with our problems and the problems of others.
That’s when I was reminded of another author. In fact two. One was our old friend Bill W. and the other was M. Scott Peck. Bill recognized that AA can’t fix everything and suggested that there are other people. He suggested we might want to look for help outside of the rooms. I know that I did. I had problems which my sponsor and others couldn’t help me with. After five years in the program, I found that I needed to find a way to cope with these problems and had to go to a therapist. It took time and effort, but I was fortunate. I found a person who not only could help me with what was wrong with me psychologically, but also spriritually.
The reason I thought about Dr.Peck was that he wrote a book called The Road Less Traveled. In it he talked about two things: The need to get help for “grave emotional and mental disorders”, as Bill described in the BB, and the need for a spritual answer to these things. I remember reading that book and what a help it was to me along the way.
In the end, along with some “outside” help, I have found, as stated several times, that the help we can get from the God of our understanding, is the solution. But the help we can get from outside is the footwork we must do, if we want to stay sober. At least it’s proved to be that way with me.
The conversations I’ve had with others is that recently two friends of mine almost drank. Thank God they didn’t. But it just got me to thinking about this.
Anyway, take it for what it is. That’s what I was thinking about todeay.
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