Latest / Sober Readings / Trusting Others
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- Scott Hayes: Good morning everyone, welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Tuesday, the twenty third of June. 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. Today's reading from Daily Reflections Trusting Others. But does trust require that we be blind to other people's motives or indeed to our own? Not at all. This would be folly. Most certainly we should assess the capacity for harm as well as the capability for good in every person that we would trust. Such a private inventory can reveal the degree of confidence we should extend in any given situation. And that's from Asbel sees it page one hundred four four. I am not a victim of others, but rather a victim of my expectations, choices, and dishonesty. When I expect others to be what I want them to be and not who they are, when they fail to meet my expectations, I am hurt. When my choices are based on self-centeredness, I find I am lonely and distrustful. I gain confidence in myself, however, when I practice honesty in all my affairs. When I search my motives and am honest and trusting, I am aware of the capacity for harm in situations and can avoid those that are harmful. Today's reading from twenty four hours, june twenty three, AA Thought for the Day. No chain is stronger than its weakest link. Likewise, if you fail in the day-by-day program, in all probability it will be at your weakest point. Great faith and constant contact with God's power can help you discover, guard, and ungird your weakest point with a strength not your own. Intelligent faith in God's power can be counted on to help you master your emotions, help you to think kindly of others. And help you with any task that you undertake, no matter how difficult. So ask yourself, am I a master of my emotions? The meditation for the day. You need to be constantly recharged by the power of the Spirit of God. Commune with God in quiet times until the life from God, the divine life, by that very contact, flows into your being and revives your fainting spirit. When weary, sit by the well and rest. Rest and gain power and strength from God, and then you will be ready to meet whatever opportunities come your way. Rest until every care and worry and fear have gone, and then the tide of peace and serenity, love and joy will flow into your consciousness. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may rest and become recharged. I pray that I may pause and wait for the renewing of my strength. And for today's final reading, we're gonna pick up where we left off in AA Comes of Age, and this is from Chapter Two, and Bill W had just got done with his talk with his first talk with Dr. Bob. And we'll pick it up from there. Unexpectedly, I got a little fresh financing from my New York business associates. So I stayed on in Akron that summer of nineteen thirty-five to continue the proxy fight. Still worried about Dr. Bob. Anne invited me to come over and live with them at their home at eight fifty five Ardmore Avenue. How well I remember our morning meditation when Anne would sit in the corner by the fireplace and read from the Bible. And then we would huddle together in stillness, awaiting inspiration and guidance. Three or four weeks after the Mother's Day debacle, doctor Bob looked at me one morning and said Bill, for a number of years I I have had to go down to Atlantic City to our medical convention. I haven't missed one in a long time. Don't you think I'd better go? Very frightened, Anne said, ⁓ no, no. But seeing that he had to face the music sometime, I replied, Well, why don't you go? After all, we must learn to live in a world that's full of alcohol. And slowly Bob said, I guess maybe you're right. So he went to the Atlantic City Medical Convention and nothing was heard of him for several days. Then one morning his office nurse called up and said, He is over here at my place. My husband and I picked him up off the railroad station platform at about four AM. Please come over and see what you can do. We got Bob back home and into bed, and right then we made an alarming discovery. He had to perform a certain operation that only he could do. The deadline was just three days away. He simply had to do the job himself, and here he was shaking like a leaf. Could we get him sober in time? Anne and I took turns around the clock trying to taper the old boy off. Early on the morning of the operation he was almost sober. I had slept in the room with him. Glancing across toward his bed, I saw that he was wide awake but still shaking. I never forgot the look he gave me as he said, Bill, I'll I'm going to go through with it. I thought he meant the operation. No, he said. I mean this thing we've been talking about. Anne and I drove him to the hospital at nine o'clock. I handed him a bottle of beer to steady his nerves so he could hold the knife, and he went in. We returned to the house and sat down to wait. After what seemed an endless time, he phoned. All had gone well. But after that he didn't come home for hours. Despite the awful strain, he had left the hospital, got into his car, and commenced to visit creditors and others he had harmed by his behavior. That was june tenth, nineteen thirty five. To the time of his death fifteen years later, doctor Bob never took another drink of alcohol. Next day he said, Bill, don't you think that working on other alcoholics is terribly important? We'd be much safer if we got active, wouldn't we? I said yes. That would be just the thing, but where can we find any alcoholics? He said they always have a batch down at the Akron City Hospital. I'll call them up and see what they've got. Getting hold of a nurse friend of his on the receiving ward of the hospital, doctor Bob explained that a man from New York had just found a new cure for alcoholism. We called it a cure in those days. But the nurse knew doctor Bob of old, so she retorted, Is that so, doctor Bob? You don't mean to tell me you've tried it on yourself. Yes, he said, I sure have. The new customer was in no shape to be seen. But two days later, Dr. Bob and I were looking into the face of the first man on the bed. It was old Bill D. A. number three, whose story you can read in the second edition of the big book. Bill was still pretty glassy-eyed. When Dr. Bob and I gave him the medical bad news about the allergy and the obsession, Old Bill showed a startled interest. But when we began to describe our spiritual approach, Bill shook his head and said No, I'm too far gone for that. I've always believed in God. I used to be a deacon in the church. But boys, I've been in and out of this place six times in the last four months. This time in DTs I badly beat up one of the nurses. I know I can't even get home from here sober. I'm afraid to go out. No, it's too late for me. I still believe in God all right, but I know mighty well that he doesn't believe in me anymore. Well, Bill, we said, can we come back and see you tomorrow? Yes, he replied, you fellows really understand. Sure, I'd like to see you again. So the next day we came back and found him talking to his wife, Henrietta. Bill pointed to us and said, These are the fellows I was telling you about. They are the ones that know. They understand what this thing is all about. Then Bill told us how, during the night, hope had dawned on him. If Bob and I could do it, he could do it. Maybe we could all do together what we could not do separately. Two days later, Bill suddenly said, Henrietta, fetch me my clothes. I'm going to get up and get out of here. Bill walked out of that hospital a free man, and he never took a drink again. The spark that was to flare into the first AA group had been struck. And I think we'll stop there for today. That was from AA Comes of Age, Chapter 2. And we've only got about two more pages left in this chapter. And I think the next time that I read from that book, we're gonna be able to finish up that chapter. So I hope you'll join me for that one. And that's gonna do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please do me a big favor and hit the like button, and also hit that subscribe button so you don't miss the next episode. So again, thanks for listening today. 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.