so take your time and enjoy the journey!
Are you one of the people who think that if you stop drinking you are sober? This is a popular assumption with many. Especially those that have stopped drinking, joined AA, and then gone back out drinking again.
Of the 12 Steps of recovery that is a basis of the AA Program, only the first 1/2 of the first step even mentions alcohol. All the rest are about our thinking.
“Ya but, I was sober for two months before and then went back out.” No, if you went back out, you were not sober. You may not have had a drink during this time but that was about all.
“Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.”
This excerpt from AA’s How it Works explains why just stopping drinking is not sobriety. It says that the failures do not give themselves to this simple program.
It goes on to say that they are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. Duh! Early in the program, we are coming off of a life filled with lies and deceptions.
Giving themselves to this program means working more than the first half of the first step. There are 11 1/2 other steps to be worked on if it is to be worked completely. Our thinking needs a complete redo.
Sobriety is comprised of admitting and accepting the fact that we are alcoholics and that our lives had become unmanageable. (Step 1)
Then we must come to believe that there is a Power more powerful than ourselves and It is ready, able, and willing to help us. (Step 2)
After acknowledging the first 2 steps, we know that we can not do this alone. We turn our wills and lives over to the care of this Power so that we do not have to carry the load alone anymore. (Step 3)
See the journey that this is taking us on?
Next, we look deeply at our past and even write it down so that we do not leave anything out. Much of this has been our dirty little secret for years. The problem is, we are only as sick as our secrets. (Step 4)
If our secrets are what are keeping us sick and tired of being sick and tired, we must get rid of them. To do this, we admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. (Step 5)
Bythis time, many of us have had enough of the sickness that active alcoholism brings. So we were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. (Step 6)
Then we followed closely by humbly asking Him to remove our shortcomings. (Step 7) Don’t get confused with the difference between defects of character and shortcomings. Bill W. just liked variety with terms.
Now we made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Just made the list and became willing. That’s all, here. (Step 8)
OK, thinking time is over. Now is the time to make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. (Step 9)
Oops, because we are experiencing the Human Condition, we still goof up occasionally. Now, what do we do? Continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. (Step10)
Since we discovered that the improvements in ourselves were guided by our God, we sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. (Step 11)
Now let’s put it all together. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. (Step 12)
This is the Journey of Sobriety that is cited in the topic. This is a journey that leads us to a life that money can’t buy and a thief can’t steal. Yes, it actually is that good. So join us and we will rejoice together.
This is the journey that takes us from misery and despair to happiness, joy, and freedom. Join us and we will grow together, ok? Thank you, God!
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