Latest / Sober Readings / One Ultimate Authority
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning everyone, welcome back to Sober Readings. My name is Scott. I am glad you're here with me today. I'm gonna read from Daily Reflections, Twenty Four Hours, and a special chapter from Living Sober. We're gonna read Chapter three, and it's called Using the Twenty Four Hour Plan. And yes, I've read that before on here, but it is totally worth reading again. Before we get to all that, let's get started with the Serenity Prayer. God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change. Courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. One ultimate authority. For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority: a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. And that comes from the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. When I am chosen to carry some small responsibility for my fellows, I ask that God grant me the patience, open-mindedness, and willingness to listen to those I would lead. I must remind myself that I am the trusted servant of others, not their governor, teacher, or instructor. God guides my words and my actions, and my responsibility is to heed his suggestions. Trust is my watchword. I trust others who lead. In the fellowship of AA, I entrust God with the ultimate authority of trust. running the show. Since I've got sober, I have chaired a lot of meetings. I held I've held a lot of service positions. And one thing one important thing that I need to remember when I chair an AA meeting or hold a service position is that I am simply a trusted servant, not someone in charge of anyone else. Just because I'm sitting at the front of the room or have a particular responsibility, doesn't mean I have authority over other another alcoholic or That my opinion matters more than anyone else's. I'm there to serve the group, not to control it, and certainly not to feed my ego or make myself feel important. AA has taught me that true leadership comes through humility, setting a good example, and being willing to do whatever is needed to help carry the message. When I start thinking that things need to be done my way, I need to remind myself that this program was here long before I arrived. And it'll be here long after I'm gone too. My responsibility is to be of service, respect the group conscience, and remember that in AA, we have trusted servants, not governors. Today's reading from twenty four hours The AA Thought for the Day And today's reading starts off with the sixth reward that we get out of this new way of living, but I'll get to that in a little bit. Sixth, I have AA meetings to go to, thank God. Where would I go without them? Where would I be without them? Where would I find the sympathy, the understanding, the fellowship, the companionship? Nowhere else in the world. What a good A great gift has been given me by AA And the question in here do I thank God every day for the AA Fellowship? meditation for the day. Walk all the way with another person and with God. Do not go part of the way and then stop. Do not push God so far into the background that He has no effect on your life. Walk all the way with Him. Make a good companion of God by praying to Him often during the day. And the last sentence in the Meditation for the Day Work all the way with God and with other people along the path of life. wherever it may lead you. And in today's prayer for the day, I'm praying that I may walk in companionship with God along the way. Over the past six days, our readings from 24 hours a day have reminded us of some of the incredible rewards that come from living a new way of life in sobriety. We've been reminded that we understand ourselves better than we ever did, that we can face the rest of our lives without alcohol, that we've learned how to be honest, That we've turned to a power greater than ourselves, and that we've learned to live one day at a time, and that we have AA meetings to go to, thank God. When I say these rewards out loud, I realize just how much more AA has given me than simply removing the mental obsession and physical compulsion to drink. It's given me a new way of thinking, a new way of handling life's challenges, and most importantly, a new way of living. These are things I never could have imagined when I first walked into the rooms, and they're things I don't ever want to take for granted. None of these rewards happened overnight, and I know I need to continue working my program to hold on to them. And tomorrow's reading in twenty-four hours reveals the seventh and final reward in this series. So I hope you'll tune in and join me for that one. So now let's get to today's final reading. Again, it's from Living Sober. We're gonna read chapter three again, and it's called Using the Twenty-Four Hour Plan. In our drinking days, we often had such bad times that we swore never again. We took pledges for as long as a year or promised someone we would not touch the stuff for three weeks or three months. And of course, we tried going on the wagon for various periods of time. We were absolutely sincere when we voiced these declarations through gritted teeth. With all our hearts, we wanted never to be drunk again. We were determined. We swore off drinking altogether, intending to stay off alcohol well into some indefinite future. Yet, in spite of our intentions, the outcome was almost inevitably the same. Eventually, the memory of the vows and of the suffering that led to them faded. We drank again, and we wound up in more trouble. Our drive forever had not lasted very long. Some of us who took pledges had a private reservation. We told ourselves that the promise not to drink applied only to hard stuff, not to beer or wine. In that way we learned, if we did not already know it, that beer and wine could get us drunk too. We just had to drink more of them to get the same effects we got on distilled spirits. We wound up as drunk on beer or wine as we had been before on the hard stuff. Yes, others of us did give up alcohol completely and did keep our pledges exactly as promised. Until the time was up. Then we ended the drought by drinking again and were soon right back in trouble with an additional load of new guilt and remorse. With such struggles behind us now, in AA we try to avoid the expressions on the wagon and taking the pledge. They remind us of our failures. Although we realize that alcoholism is a permanent, irreversible condition. Our experience has taught us to make no long-term promises about staying sober. We have found it more realistic and more successful to say, I am not taking a drink just for today. Even if we drank yesterday, we can plan not to drink today. We may drink tomorrow, who knows whether we'll even be alive then. But for this 24 hours, we decide not to drink. No matter what the temptation or provocation We determine to go to any extremes necessary to avoid a drink today. Our friends and family are understandably weary of hearing us vow, this time I really mean it, only to see us lurch home loaded. So we do not promise them or even each other not to drink. Each of us promises only herself or himself. It is, after all, our own health and life at stake. We, not our family or friends, Have to take the necessary steps to stay well. If the desire to drink is really strong, many of us chop the 24 hours down into smaller parts. We decide not to drink for, say, at least one hour. We can endure the temporary discomfort of not drinking for just one more hour. Then one more, and so on. Many of us began our recovery in just this way. In fact, every recovery from alcoholism began with one sober hour. One version of this is simply postponing the next drink. How about it? Still sipping soda? Have you really postponed that drink we mentioned back on page one? If so, this can be the beginning of your recovery. The next drink will be available later, but right now, we postpone taking it at least for the present day or moment. Say for the rest of this page. The 24 hour plan is very flexible. We can start it afresh at any time. Wherever we are, at home, at work, in a bar or in a hospital room, at four PM or at three AM, we can decide right then not to take a drink during the forthcoming twenty four hours or five minutes. Continually renewed, this plan avoids the weakness of such methods as going on the wagon or taking a pledge. A period on the wagon and a pledge both eventually came, as we planned, to an end. So we felt free to drink again. But today is always here. Life is daily. Today is all we have, and anybody can go one day without drinking. First, we try living in the now just in order to stay sober, and it works. Once the idea has become a part of our thinking, we find that living life in 24-hour segments is an effective and satisfying way to handle many other matters as well. And for me personally, The idea of taking life one day at a time isn't something I learned only when I got sober. I've actually been using this idea of taking baby steps for most of my life, even if I didn't realize it at the time. I remember going through boot camp and other military training schools, where thinking about how many weeks of training I had left could become overwhelming. So instead of focusing on graduation, I'd break the day down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Sometimes my only goal was to make it to the next chow time. I use that same approach today when I'm running ultra marathons. When I'm in the middle of a 100 mile race, the last thing I want to think about is having another 80 miles to go. That can become discouraging pretty quickly. Instead, I focus on getting to the next aid station. Once I get there, I focus on the next one, and eventually, those smaller accomplishments add up to a hundred miles. I've learned that this same mentality works with sobriety and so many other areas of my life. Thinking about never drinking again for the rest of my life can seem like an enormous commitment, but not drinking today is something I can manage. And if if today becomes difficult, I can break it down even further into an hour or even a few minutes at a time. My relapse after six years of sobriety reminded me that I can't take tomorrow for granted. No matter how much sober time I have behind me. Whether it's getting through military training, finishing a 100 mile race, or staying sober, the lesson is the same. I don't have to accomplish the whole thing right now. I just have to take the next step in the right direction. And so that's enough out of me today. I'd love to hear how you use the twenty-four hour plan in your sobriety or any other areas of your life. So if you'd like to be a guest on the show and share that with me or just send it to me in in an email, there's a link in the show notes below. You'll also find a link in the show notes to my website where you can learn more about sober readings and stay connected. And if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, stay on that website, go to the support page and find the button that says drop a dollar in the basket. And if you enjoyed today's episode and want to help me pass along the message and support sober readings, Please subscribe to this podcast and give this episode a like. And if you heard something today, maybe something I said moved you and you'd like to share that with someone else, just share this episode with them because you never know who might need to hear these words today. So thanks for spending a few minutes of your day with me. Be good to yourselves, be good to others, and remember, we only have to do this one day at a time. So remember, just for today, don't drink, go to a meeting, and keep coming back. Have a great day everyone, and as my friend Larry says, best day ever.