Friday, February 3, 2012

Choices


To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face. Big Book p44

This is a hard message to accept.  I thought to myself, "Isn't there some middle-of-the-road alternative?"   I thought spiritual basis meant I had to go to church, practice rituals of some kind, etc., and didn't quite understand yet that the book wasn't telling me to do that.  It was my old ideas telling me that is what I was supposed to do.  Each day, I learned a little more about this 'spiritual basis' and started to understand it just meant being kind, generous, honest, open-minded, willing, etc.  The messages I heard in meetings would start being the basis of my sharing.  As time passed, I started to behave a little differently.  I saw things a little differently and I started to understand that I was beginning to live on a spiritual basis.  Now that I know my abstinence is a daily reprieve, based on my spiritual condition I make this choice each day to continue. 

Thank you Higher Power.  Thank you for showing me that it 'works if I work it'.  Thank you for taking a hopeless alcoholic like me and turning me into something that may be of use to you.  Thank you.

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