Latest / Sober Readings / Joyful Discoveries
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning, happy Monday everyone, today is the 27th of April and this is Sober Readings. Let's begin with the Serenity Prayer. 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. Alright, today's reading from Daily Reflections, April 27. Joyful Discoveries. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with him is right and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the great fact for us. And that's from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 164. Sobriety is a journey of joyful discovery. Each day brings new experience, awareness, great hope, deeper faith, broader tolerance. I must maintain these attributes, or I will have nothing to pass on. Great events for this recovering alcoholic are the normal everyday joys found in being able to live another day in God's grace. Today's reading from 24 Hours, April 27, AA Thought for the Day. By submitting to God, we are released from the power of liquor. It has no more hold on us. We are also released from the things that were holding us down, pride, selfishness, and fear. And we free to grow into a new life, which is so much better than the old life that there is no comparison. This release gives us serenity and peace with the world. So ask yourself, have I been released from the power of alcohol? The Meditation for the Day We know God by spiritual vision. We feel that He is beside us. We feel His presence. Contact with God is not made by the senses. Spiritual consciousness replaces sight. Since we cannot see God, we have to perceive Him by spiritual perception. God has to span the physical and the spiritual with the gift to us of spiritual vision. Many a man, though he cannot see God, has had a clear spiritual consciousness of Him. We are inside a box of space and time, but we know there must be something outside of that box, limitless space, eternity of time, and God. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may have a consciousness of God's presence. I pray that God will give me spiritual vision. And today's final reading is from As Bill Sees It. Today we're reading from page 278. Speak up without fear. Few of us are anonymous so far as our daily contacts go. We have dropped anonymity at this level because we think our friends and associates ought to know about AA and what it has done for us. We also wish to lose the fear of admitting that we are alcoholics. Though we earnestly request reporters not to disclose our identities, we frequently speak before semi-public gatherings. We wish to convince audiences that our alcoholism is a sickness we no longer fear to discuss before anyone. If, we venture beyond this limit, we shall surely lose the principle of anonymity forever. If every AA felt free to publish his own name, picture, and story, we would soon be launched upon a vast orgy of personal publicity." And that's from an article in the grapevine dated January of 1946. While the so-called public meeting is questioned by many AA members, I favor it myself providing only that anonymity is respected in press reports and that we ask nothing for ourselves except understanding. And that is from a letter written in 1949. So that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. If you enjoy the show, please do me a big favor and hit the like button, share this episode with someone who might like it, and drop a comment to let me know what you thought and make sure you're following or subscribed so you never miss the next episode. And if you're someone who loves reading sober literature and you would want to be a guest on my show, I would love to have you just shoot me an email at soberreadingswithscottatgmail.com and we can certainly make that happen. If you'd like to drop a dollar in the 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.