Latest / Sober Readings / Fear And Faith
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Sunday, the twenty first of June, Happy Father's Day. Let's begin today with the 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 Fear and Faith. The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifetime undertaking, one that can never be wholly completed. When under heavy attack, acute illness, or in other conditions of serious insecurity, we shall all react to this emotion, well or badly, as the case may be. Only the self deceived will claim perfect freedom from fear. And that's on page two hundred sixty three of As Bill Sees It. Fear has caused suffering when I could have had more faith. There are times when fear suddenly tears me apart, just when I'm experiencing feelings of joy, happiness, and a lightness of heart. Faith, and a feeling of self worth toward a higher power, helps me endure tragedy and ecstasy. When I choose to give all my fears over to my higher power, I will be free. Today's reading from twenty four hours, june twenty one, AA thought for the day. Intelligent faith in that power greater than ourselves can be counted on to stabilize our emotions. It has an incomparable capacity to help us look at life in balanced perspective. We look up, around, and away from ourselves, and we see that nine out of ten things which at the moment upset us will shortly disappear. Problems solve themselves. Criticism and unkindness vanish as though they had never been. Have I got the proper perspective toward life? Today's meditation for the day. A truly spiritual man would like to have a serene mind. The only way to keep calm and sane in this troubled world is to have a serene mind. The calm and sane mind sees spiritual things as the true realities and material things as only temporary and fleeting. That sort of mind you can never obtain by reasoning, because your reasoning powers are limited by space and time. That kind of a mind you can never obtain by reading, because other minds are also limited in the same way. You can only have that mind by an act of faith, by making the venture of belief. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may have a calm and sane mind. I pray that I may look up, around, and away from myself. The meditation from Touchstone. In the life of the Indian, there is only one inevitable duty: the duty of prayer, the daily recognition of the unseen and eternal. He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's. That was written by a Santee Dakota. Some of our past troubles came from our naive arrogance. We failed to acknowledge anything beyond ourselves. Whatever was unseen or eternal remained invisible to us. We were skeptical, scientific, task oriented, self centered, unreflective. It's as if we'd been racing down a country highway at top speed, hardly tuned in to the rich vitality of life that surrounded us. When we stopped the car and explored the roadside, we could suddenly smell the grasses, hear birds singing, perhaps see a whole community in an ant hill. Or watch a darting squirrel. Coming to believe in a power greater than ourselves is not something we create on our own. It is largely a matter of shifting our attention, of being open to the spiritual. We don't need to force it. We need only to be willing to quiet ourselves and notice. Ultimately, every moment is sacred. Today, may I live from moment to moment. And finally today, a reading from Asbill sees it. We're gonna go to page three zero one and it's titled To Rebuild Security. In our behavior respecting financial and emotional security, fear, greed, possessiveness, and pride have too often done their worst? Surveying his business or employment record, almost any alcoholic can ask questions like these. In addition to my drinking problem, what character defects contributed to my fan financial instability? Did fear and inferiority about my fitness for my job destroy my confidence? And fill me with conflict? Or did I overvalue myself and play the big shop? Businesswomen in AA will find that these questions often apply to them too, and the alcoholic housewife can also make the family financially insecure. Indeed, all alcoholics need to cross-examine themselves ruthlessly to determine how their own personality defects have demolished their security. And that is from the 12 and 12, pages 51 to 52. Thanks for listening to Sober Readings today. If you enjoyed the show, hit the like button and please subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. And also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, 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.