Spirituality is the foundation of this remarkable AA Program.
How can we become happy, joyous, and free? Spirituality is the foundation of this remarkable AA Program. This may be daunting to the AA newcomer or the AA veteran who is attending the meetings but not really working the Program.
At no place in the 12 Steps, Big Book, or any other approved AA concept is it found that we must be beholden to God or Jesus or Allah or Buddha or any other religious figure.
This is a very simple program for people who have had a lifetime of complicating everything. All that it asks is for us to believe in a Power greater than ourselves.
There is a Power “out there somewhere” that can not be seen, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted directly, and, in our human experience, if It can not be identified by one or more of our senses, then It is not real. Right?
Nope! Now that we can put some sober thought into it, there is SOME kind of Power “out there somewhere” and It is real. And It is NOT you or me. I now CHOOSE to call this Power God. This is the beginning of becoming happy, joyous, and free.
If you have a problem with this, then just think of the sun rising and setting at exact times over millennia. Or of our pulse that keeps on beating without our even thinking about it. Or birth. Or the changing seasons.
Now, the Program asks that, since we can see the results of this Power in action, believe that you can tap into It. It is there for us all to use but must be wanted enough to be asked for. “God could and would if He were sought.”
One HUGE difference between the God of my upbringing and the Higher Power that I have now is that the God of before was a punishing, judgmental God. And It was “Out there somewhere.”
The Higher Power that I know now and choose to call God is not “Out there somewhere” but inside my heart. And yours and everyone else’s. Another name for my Higher Power is Love and Love is not punishing or judgmental.
As Reverend Stephanie Sorensen of The Life Enrichment Center, Flint, MI said several weeks ago in her weekly talk “If you are judging you are not loving and if you are loving you are not judging.” Isn’t this powerful?
So, what does Spirituality have to do with how I work my Program? Only EVERYTHING!!! Emmet Fox says that the commonest mistake many make when thinking of what their Higher Power is is picturing It as a man-like entity. This places limitations on God, who is Omnipotent.
Whenever I felt guilty about anything, I pictured a white man with long hair and a beard sitting on a golden throne “up there” keeping score of whatever I was doing right or wrong and punishing me when I was wrong.
Wrong is also used loosely here because, many times, I was not even sure if what I was doing was right or wrong.
A little thought should let me know, beyond a doubt, that a man figure could not do all that I could see around me in the form of miracles such as life. Not even a small portion of it.
So, how do I work my Program? I first admitted and accepted that I was powerless over alcohol and that my life had become unmanageable. (Step 1)
After watching others in the Program living ever better lives, I finally came to believe that a Power greater than me could and would help me if only I would humbly ask. (Step 2)
Then I did the most powerful thing that I believe that I had ever done in my human experience. I turned my will and my life over to this Power and said “Since I have tried to change for most of my life and failed, please, God, help me!”
AND HE DID! To this day, I say that I need help from this Power and I get it, every time that I humbly ask Him. This makes me truly Happy, Joyous, and Free through thick and thin, good and bad, through it ALL.
This does not mean that I selfishly find humor in everything but I do find Peace and Serenity inside me through it all. Thank you, God!
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