Latest / Sober Readings / Came To Believe - Ch 1
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Came to Believe, the spiritual adventure of AA as experienced by individual members. Welcome to Sober Readings, today is Sunday the 24th of May. Let's begin today like we always do 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. Welcome everyone, I'm glad you're here. My name is Scott. And this week we're going back to the beginning of Came to Believe. We're going to start at chapter one this week. So I'll begin with the foreword. Five years of preparation and earnest thought have gone into this booklet since an AA member first pointed out the need for it. The description of Alcoholics Anonymous as a spiritual program has been confusing to some newcomers, many of whom tend to translate spiritual as religious. But as our co-founder Dr. Bob said in an AA Grapevine article, we are not bound by theological doctrine. We are many minds in our organization. Came to Believe is designed as an outlet for the rich diversity of convictions applied in God as we understood him. Most of the material was written expressly for the booklet in response to an appeal issued by the General Service Office. The places of origin shown for each story or brief comment indicate how widespread this response was, and the Fellowship can be grateful to all those who took the trouble to set down their spiritual journeys in writing, whether or not their contributions appear in this booklet. Without such a broad view of membership thinking, it would not have been possible to make a truly representative selection. Originally, our co-founder Bill W. planned to write a foreword, In lieu of this, the introductions to each section reflect Bill's outlook, already on record in the book As Bill Sees It. So let's get started with Chapter 1, which is titled, Spiritual? There's a question mark after that word. And here's the intro. Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they might mean to you. Alcoholics Anonymous, page 47. AA is a spiritual program and a spiritual way of life. Even the first half of the first step, we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, is a spiritual experience. An AA member needs more than physical capabilities. He needs the use of his full faculties as a human being to hear the message, to think about it, to review the effects of the past, to realize, to admit, and to accept. These processes are activities of the mind, which is part of the spirit. Yes, I began with blind faith, but the proof of truth is that it works. I believed those who said they had suffered from alcoholism, but through AA, were now enjoying sobriety. So the truth was there for me to see. But shortly I knew the truth from my own experience. I was not only released from the compulsion to drink, I was guided toward a compulsion to live. AA also made me very much aware by constant repetition of my freedom of choice, and this is the human faculty of willpower. As time has gone on in sobriety, I have been offered and have used the opportunity to learn more about humanity by learning more about myself. I now realize that when I first said at an AA meeting, my name is Todd and I'm an alcoholic, I was expressing the first truth I had known about myself. Think of the spirituality in such statements. My name tells me that I am a human being. The fact that I can know it, think about it, and communicate it reinforces my humanity and makes me aware and excited that I am. This, then, became the opening to the spiritual world. With the guidance of the program and the encouragement and examples within the fellowship, I could begin to find out about myself and be prepared to accept what I found. I learned in the fellowship that if others could accept me and love me as I was, then I should love myself as I was, not for what I was, but for what I could become. So I have learned a little about my mind and about my will and about my emotions and passions. I have learned that I can be a good human being, although an imperfect one. that when I consciously live in the real world, sanity, each good day helps to counterbalance my past. My religion did not give me AA. AA gave me greater strength in my religion. The simple contrast between active alcoholism and active sobriety has helped me to seek, to listen, and to apply the good principles of living, and I am rewarded with much more excitement and joy than was mine. before AA sobriety. By accepting this sobriety gratefully as a gift and using it willingly, I have become aware of other gifts available to me as a human being. To get the benefits, I need only ask and then use. This is the crux of the program and the crux of living, acceptance and action. The gift of understanding has allowed the simple messages from my parents, my teachers and my church to take on new meaning and soundness. With the gift of serenity I am ready and willing to accept what God permits to happen to me, with the gift of courage, to take action to change the things I can for the good of myself and others. The gift of wisdom has been given to me so that in personal relationships I may act intelligently and with love or, as it has also been expressed, with competence and compassion. Now I am trying to grasp the idea of living inside out. The big book, as Bill sees it, the AA way of life, 24 hours a day, the meetings, the experiences, the consciousness of change in myself, in my thinking, my choices, and my habits, all of these are spiritual. There is the spirituality of the AA way of life, which simply makes us aware of our individual inner resources. There is no materialism in AA. ⁓ Chapter 1 is fairly short in this book. There's four remaining stories and they are all very short. The next one is called how fortunate we are. I call Kinloch Ard my spiritual home. It is a wee hamlet nestling in a valley between the hills and on the banks of Loch Ard. I never tire of gazing across it to the forest on the far side, with its hundreds of shades of green reflected in the surface of the loch. Peregrine falcons are nesting on the crags above, and the heron slowly wings its way up the loch to its nest. in the huge trees on a small island. The swans, mallard, and grayback ducks share the banks with the sandpipers and coots, and a few fishermen casting for trout. Sometimes I can see far up the hill a stag and a hen crossing a clearing, and if I am lucky, a couple of otters playing on the rocks beside the lock. Peace prevails. When I first discovered Kinlockard, I was on one of my prolonged binges. Even then, the beauty and tranquility got through the alcoholic haze. Now that I have sobriety, I try to visit this place of rest twice a year and marvel at the majesty of our Creator. I see no beauty in art. Sculpture and architecture are man-made and cannot rival the Creator's work. How can we hope to better the Master who taught us? How fortunate we alcoholics are to have a malady which compels us to seek recovery through the spiritual. AA is a philosophy. A religion, properly, is of divine origin, governs the person in his relationship with his higher power, and promises its rewards and punishments after death. A philosophy is of human origin, governs the person in his relationship with his fellow man, and promises its rewards and punishments during life. ⁓ AA, I submit, is a philosophy. If we alcoholics follow the philosophy of AA, we can regain an understanding of our several religions. And that was written in Maryland. The next short story is titled, In His Own Individual Right. Spirituality is an awakening. Or is it all the loose ends woven together into a mellow fabric? It is understanding. Or is it all the knowledge one need ever know? It's freedom, if you consider fear slavery. It's confidence. Or is it the belief that a higher power will see you through any storm or gale? It's adhering to the dictates of your conscience. Or is it a deep, genuine living concern for the people and the planet? It's peace of mind in the face of adversity. It's a keen and sharpened desire for survival. It's a man or a woman. It's gratitude for every happenstance of the past that brought you to a moment of justice. It's the joy of being a young man in a young world. It's awareness. Or is it realization of one's capabilities and limitations? It's concentration. Or is it an easy sensing of the universe? It's seeing a mystic power for good in each and every human being. It's patience in the face of stupidity. It's feeling that you want to knock somebody's head off and walking away instead. It's when you're down past your last dime and you know you still have something that money can't buy. It's wearing dungarees that feel like a tuxedo. It's wanting to go home, yet being there. It's a rocket ride that goes far beyond the world your eye can see. It's looking at something that superficially is ugly, but radiates beauty. It's a majestic skyline or a western desert. It's a young child. seeing a caterpillar turn into a butterfly. It's the awareness that survival is a savage fight between you and yourself. It's a magnetic pull toward those who are down and out. It's knowing that even the bad times are good. Don't look back. You haven't seen anything yet. When people look at you and wonder what's with you, the look in your eyes will answer them, because I can cut it. The singular thing that is spirituality cannot be given to a fellow man by word of mouth. If every man is to have it, then every man must earn it in his own way. by his own hand, stamped by the seal of himself in his own individual right. New York, New York. And last but not least, there is one final story in chapter one and it is very short and it's titled, The Other Side. During a meeting one day, I remarked that I was just tickled to death with this AA program. All but the spiritual side of it. After the meeting, another member came up to me and said, I like that remark you made about how you like the program, all but the spiritual part of it. We've got a little time. Why don't we talk about the other side of it? That ended the conversation. Modesto, California. And that's it, that's the end of chapter 1, but next week, next Sunday, I'll be reading chapter 2, is titled, Spiritual Experiences. Let me read the intro now. And that is from a talk that Bill W gave in 1960. And so I hope you'll join me next Sunday for the beginning of chapter two. And actually, if you'd like to be a part of the reading of chapter two, you can do that. You can send me an email ⁓ at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com and we can make that happen. You can be a guest reader on my show. That would be great. So that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings Came to Believe Edition. Thank you so much for listening. Also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in today's virtual donation basket, just go to my website soberreadings.com and click the donate button. So again, thank you so much for listening, everyone. 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.