Latest / Sober Readings / Entering A New Dimension
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning everyone and welcome to this Saturday episode of Sober Readings. Today is the 25th of April. Let's start with a serenity prayer. God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. Entering a New Dimension. In the late stages of our drinking, the will to resist has fled. Yet when we admit complete defeat, and when we become entirely ready to try the AA principles, our obsession leaves us and we enter a new dimension. Freedom under God as we understand him. That's from As Bill sees it, page 283. I am fortunate to be among the ones who have had this awesome transformation in my life. When I entered the doors of AA, alone and desperate, I had been beaten into willingness to believe anything I heard. One of the things I heard was, this could be your last hangover, or you can keep going round and round. The man who said this obviously was a whole lot better off than I. I liked the idea of admitting defeat. and I have been free ever since. My heart heard what my mind never could. Being powerless over alcohol is no big deal. I'm free and I'm grateful. Today's reading from 24 Hours. April 25, AA Thought for the Day. I don't believe that AA works because I read it in a book or because I hear people say so. I believe it because I see people getting sober and staying sober. An actual demonstration is what convinces me. When I see the change in people, I can't help believing that AA works. We could listen to talk about AA all day and still not believe it, but when we see it work, we have to believe it. Seeing is believing. So ask yourself, do I see AA work every day? The Meditation for the Day Try saying, God bless him, of anyone whom you find in disharmony with you. Also say it of anyone who is in trouble through his own fault. Say it, willing that showers of blessings may fall upon him. Let God do the blessing. Leave to God the necessary correcting or disciplining. You should only desire blessing for him. Leave God's work to God. Occupy yourself with the task that He gives you to do. God's blessings will also break down all your own difficulties and build up all your successes. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may use God's goodness so that it will be a blessing to others. I pray that I may accept God's blessing so that I will have harmony, beauty, joy, and happiness. And for today's final reading, let's read from Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. And we'll go to chapter four, titled A Friend Looks at Alcoholics Anonymous. And this passage that I selected is read by Bernard B. Smith, who at the time was the chairman of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous. So from page 275. I have frequently attempted to define the fellowship of AA with little success, until one day while in England I listened to a broadcast delivered by Canon C.E. Raven, a noted British religious leader. In the course of this broadcast, Canon Raven set forth the conditions of a true fellowship in these words. Three conditions are necessary for true fellowship. The possession of a common ideal involving a complete release from selfishness and division. The discharge of a common task big enough to capture the imagination and give expression to loyalty. And the comradeship, the togetherness, thus involved as we find out the joy and power of belonging to an organic society and engaging in a whole-time service. We can find it at its fullest extent where the ideal is highest and most exacting, where the task extends and integrates every ounce of our strength and every element of our being, where the comradeship is so solid and deep that we respond one to another without conscious effort, realize the unspoken need, and react to it spontaneously and at once. Under such conditions, All the vitality that we usually waste upon our jealousies and our vanities, upon keeping up appearances and putting other people in their proper place, becomes available for creative use. These words have meaning for AA, I believe, not only as a definition of a true fellowship and of our goals and attitudes, but as reminders that AA is not a static, passive, social organism, but, in its largest sense, A dynamic creative force that releases our latent power to live and act constructively. Not long ago, I was flying high over the deserts of our great southwest. Here and there, almost out of nowhere, were tiny patches of lush green growth, surrounded by great expanses of brown, lifeless desert. My mind turned to the great springs of water lying under this desert expanse, which, if tapped, would cause the entire desert to flower. And I thought that God provides the water, but we have to dig the wells. Those green lush patches I likened to our groups where, with the faith derived from the Twelve Steps, we dug the wells that caused patches in the desert of life to flower. And I reflected how we have learned that we, alone, could not transform the desert in which we lived. We could not dig that well alone. For in AA, the whole is truly greater than the sum of all its parts. The infusing power of the group, of our fellowship, draws something more out of each of us than any of us by himself can supply. Each of us in turn draws out of the spiritual reservoir of our fellowship, the added courage, and will which makes each one the stronger and our fellowship the greater. So that's a couple paragraphs out of chapter six from Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, and that is from page 275. And I selected that short reading because it's a really interesting way to define the fellowship. And I also like the analogy of the desert and little green patches coming up. And how each of us in our individual groups, through the 12 steps, we dig those wells. But again, we cannot do it alone. And so that line in there that's important to me is for an AA, the hole is truly greater than the sum of all its parts. And so that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. I hope you enjoyed that last passage from A.A. Comes of Age. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a huge favor and hit that like button. Share this episode with someone you think might need it. Drop a comment and let me know what you thought. And if you would like to be a guest reader on Sober Readings, just send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com and I would love to have you on. And if you'd like to drop a dollar in today's virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to soberreadings.com and click the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening. Stay sober, keep reading, and I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other, and remember, just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting, and keep coming back. Have a great day. And as my friend Larry says, best day ever.