Latest / Sober Readings / The Bondage of Resentments
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Wednesday, the 15th of April. Let's begin 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. All right, let's begin with daily reflections. The bondage of resentments. Harboring resentment is infinitely grave. For then we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. That's from As Bill Sees It, page 5. It has been said, anger is a luxury I cannot afford. Does this suggest I ignore this human emotion? I believe not. Before I learned of the AA program, I was a slave to the behavior patterns of alcoholism. I was chained to negativity with no hope of cutting loose. The steps offered me an alternative. Step four was the beginning of the end of my bondage. The process of letting go started with an inventory. I needed not be frightened, for the previous steps assured me I was not alone. My higher power led me to this door and gave me the gift of choice. Today I can choose to open the door to freedom and rejoice in the sunlight of the steps, as they cleanse the spirit within me. Today's reading from 24 Hours. April 15, AA Thought for the Day. Terrible things could have happened to any one of us. We never will know what might have happened to us when we were drunk. We usually thought, that couldn't happen to me. But any one of us could have killed somebody or have been killed ourselves if we were drunk enough. But fear of these things never kept us from drinking. Ask yourself, do I believe that in AA we have something more effective than fear? Today's meditation for the day. I must keep calm and unmoved in the vicissitudes of life. I must go back into the silence of communion with God to recover this calm when it is lost even for one moment. I will accomplish more by this calmness than by all the activities of a long day. At all cost, I will keep calm. I can solve nothing when I am agitated. I should keep away from things that are upsetting emotionally. I should run on an even keel and not get tipped over by emotional upsets. I should seek for things that are calm and good and true and stick to those things. and the prayer for the day. I pray that I may not argue nor contend, but merely stay calmly what I believe to be true. I pray that I may keep myself in that state of calmness that comes from faith in God's purpose for the world. And for today's final reading, we're going to the grapevine from November of 2024. And this is from page 36 and it's titled, To Booth or Not to Booth? Tradition 11 says our public relations policy should be based on attraction rather than promotion, which seems like a fairly straightforward suggestion. However, the tradition was put to test at one of our intergroup business meetings, which is regularly attended by more than 100 fired-up, opinionated vocal alcoholics after someone made a proposal to host and fund an AA literature booth in the healthcare section of our upcoming state fair. After the motion was made, there was a prolonged and heated discussion on what attraction versus promotion meant. About half the members argued that having an educational booth with pamphlets should not be undertaken because that would be publicly promoting AA. And an equally boisterous group of members thought the booth was educational in nature and that we had an obligation to let the public know about our recovery program. They argued that even though AA members are anonymous, AA itself is not. The difference in viewpoints became a contentious issue. Opinion, testimony, and passionate debate ensued for months. To add fuel to the fire, some members were afraid the volunteers manning the booth might be recognized, which would violate their personal anonymity. In short, this dispute was a mess. Hard feelings surfaced on both sides. Eventually, we made the decision to go forward with the project, since more members believed that having a booth would be more educational than promotional, and that some of the thousands of people attending the state fair might be attracted to learn more about AA, for themselves, their friends, or their families. You would have thought the issue was settled, but every year when intergroup members must decide whether or not to make the effort and spend the money to host a booth at the state fair, the same squabble erupts all over again with the same result based on the same tradition. All I can say is thank goodness our traditions don't change. They continue to provide a channel to guide our well-intentioned but often contentious fellowship. That was written by Alex in Louisville, Kentucky. Well, that's it for today's episode of Sober Readings. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a huge favor and hit that like button. Share this episode with someone who might want to hear it or need to hear it. Drop a comment and let me know what you thought and make sure you're following or subscribed so that you never miss a new episode. And if you're someone who loves reading sober literature and would like to be a guest reader on the show, I would love to have you. Just shoot me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com and we can make that happen. If you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket, 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.