I remember the confusion that I had when new to the AA Program. Had no background in religion. I didn’t know what to believe. The Spirituality guided mentors that greeted me upon my entrance heard this. I was quickly advised that this was not a religious program but was deeply Spiritual. Of course, I thought that they were just twisting semantics. I told them so.
This was the rocky beginning of my entrance into the beautiful life that I have today. Why? Because, I discovered what was inborn into me. I had never realized this before. I believed that Jesus Christ was mostly what was said when I missed the nail and struck my finger with a hammer. Also, that God’s last name was Damnit. A little stretch, maybe, but I’m sure that you get the idea.
I discovered that my Higher Power was not “out there or up in the sky.” It is in my heart. I didn’t have to call this Power God, Allah, Jesus, or any other form of deity. Just as long as I believed that there was a Power that created everything, including us. This Power was ready, able, and willing to help me. He was not going to judge or punish. I had believed that this was His function.
I was introduced to the works of Emmet Fox. He was the Spiritual Advisor for Bill W. and many of the original members of AA. His Sermon on the Mount was used as the first Big Book. This was before Bill compiled the present day Big Book. I read this book and very quickly started trying to live my life as was described in it. I then read as many of his books, essays, and other writings as I could locate. Although he had died in 1951, he became my Spiritual Advisor through his teachings.
This was nothing like the religion that I had been exposed to in my earlier years. Not all of it was bad. But I quickly made up my mind that it was not for me. This was because I considered the ministers that I had heard to be hypocrites. Several of them soured me pretty much completely on the idea of religion being good for me. It took the AA Program introducing Spirituality to me. Then taking the time and effort to first look into before I could appreciate what I was learning.
I learned that we are all born as Spiritual beings. We are living in a Spiritual Universe. It is governed by Spiritual law. Also, as a Divine Being, I am one with all that exists. It has been mentioned before the sights that I was able to observe and my thoughts about them from years earlier when I was shot. I was looking down from above on my human form lying on the ground.
I also learned that religions are ideas that are thought up by Man. Some Divinely inspired and some ego inspired. The other day I saw on Facebook something interesting. It explained the difference between Religion and Spirituality perfectly to me. It was a drawing of an ocean. Inside this ocean was a fish bowl containing a fish. This was the most graphic display that I have ever seen. It shows exactly what I now believe the difference to be. Religion is a part of the ocean. Just as much as each drop of water is a part of the ocean. The ocean is Spirituality. The fishbowl is one of the components of the ocean. Just as each individual bead of water is.
I got my BS from the streets long before obtaining my BS from college. So this is the sort of simplification that I need. It is very easily understood by me now. And so nicely explainable. One is not good and the other bad. Religion is part of Spirituality. The ocean is comprised of the individual drops of water. The beach or desert is composed of the individual beads of sand. Religion is a similar component of Spirituality. I am very comfortable with that now.
Please let us know what you think. We can be reached at Spiritualityandrecovery@gmail.com or 810-965-6140 usually within hours and many times instantly.
More can be found on our other pages. We have an AA Zoom meeting, blogs, and a podcast. Also our Facebook page. They are updated regularly. We hope that you will join us on these sites. And please comment so that we can share with each other our experiences, strengths, and hopes. The Zoom meeting is every Monday through Friday, 3:00 PM EST. Meeting ID is 6035280704. Password 399778. It is simple to locate the blogs and Facebook pages. Just search @Spiritualityandrecovery. For the podcast, search Spotify.com for Spiritualityandrecovery. On iPhone say “Hey Siri, Play the podcast Spiritualityandrecovery.” Or, “Hey, Google. Play the Jim Boylan podcast.”
