A couple of things came to mind today. One was about thinking and the other willingness.
Over and over, I have heard others say this is a thinking disease. The real problem was our thinking. Alcohol was but a symptom of this thinking disease. All right, so we have a problem with our thinking. So maybe we should rename this program to TA.
Somehow that doesn’t work for me or a number of us in this program. I had a drinking problem. I am powerless over alcohol. And, if I forget that and think that I have only a thinking problem, my “symptom” is probably going to return. After all, it’s only a symptom.
If I don’t stop drinking, I won’t have to worry about my thinking. I never thought anyway, when I was drinking. I just had a reflex reaction and picked up the drink. If I thought anything then, it was “oh, boy! wow! alcohol!”
And that leads me to what saved me. It wasn’t my thinking. It was a higher power and the 12 Steps of AA. That salvaged, not only me from trash heap of alcohol, it also began to solve my thinking problem.
No, the founders and old timers of AA got it right. This is Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s about not drinking and then don’t think. Sobriety will take care of the thinking.
But all this is based on how willing I am to apply the spiritual principles to my life. My bottom made me willing to come here. It also made me willing to want to work this program. When I balked, and I certainly had my moments, I had to pray for the willingness to be willing. And, like the woman who wrote Freedom From Bondage, when I prayed for it, it always came.
Anyway, I was thinking about this today.