Latest / Sober Readings / I Cannot Change The Wind
Transcript
- 11 1Reading: Welcome to the first day of November 2026. This is Sober Readings. My name is Scott. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm gonna read from Daily Reflections 24 Hours and keep it simple. Before we do all that, let's begin 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 wisdom to know the difference. From daily reflections, I cannot change the wind. It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. And that is obviously in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 85. My first sponsor told me there were two things to say about prayer and meditation. First, I had to start, and second, I had to continue. When I came to AA, my spiritual life was bankrupt. If I considered God at all, he was to be called upon only when my self will was incapable of a task or when overwhelming fears had eroded my ego. Today I am grateful for a new life, one in which my prayers are those of thanksgiving. My prayer time is more for listening than for talking. And I'm gonna stop right there in that reading. I'll get to that last line in a minute, but first I want to talk about the phrase rest on our laurels, which means becoming comfortable with our past accomplishments, and thinking we no longer need to put in the effort to keep moving forward. In sobriety, this can be a dangerous place to be. Just because I've been sober for a certain amount of time doesn't mean I've graduated from the program or that I'm somehow cured of alcoholism, or that I've got it, as people say. I've learned this lesson the hard way and when I start getting comfortable skipping meetings, neglecting my spiritual routine, or thinking I've got this, this whole sobriety thing figured out, I'm putting myself at risk. And the work I did yesterday helped help to keep me sober yesterday, but today is a new day and I need to continue doing the things that got me here. Sobriety isn't something I achieve once and then sit back and enjoy. It's something I need to maintain, nurture, and keep working at one day at a time. There's nothing wrong with being proud of how far I've come, but I can never forget what it took to get here. So then the second half of this reading, that one line, talks about prayer and says that it's more for listening. I've learned that prayer is how I talk to God, while meditation is how I listen for his guidance. After all, communication is a two way street, even with God. And if I'm always doing the talking and never taking time to listen, I'm missing half the conversation. Today's reading from 24 hours, the AA Thought for the Day. And before I get into reading this, I'm gonna back up a couple pages and read the first line out of each AA Thought for the Day for the last couple of days because it talks about the rewards. So two days ago it said, I have real friends where I had none before. And then the next day, I have more peace and contentment. Today says, I have hope. And these are all rewards of sobriety. And in this reading they call hope that magic thing that I had lost or misplaced. The future looks dark no more. I don't even look at it except when necessary to make plans. I try to let the future take care of itself. The future will be made up of today's and today's, stretching out as short as now and as long as eternity. Hope is justified by many right nows. By the righteousness of the present. And the question for the AA Thought for the Day, have I hope? In today's Meditation for the Day, it says, Faith is the messenger that bears your prayers to God. The prayer of faith is the prayer of trust that feels the presence of God, which it rises to meet. We can say a prayer of thanks to God every day for his grace, which has kept us on the right way and allowed us to start living the good life. And in today's prayer for the day, I'm praying that I may feel sure of some response to my prayers, and that I may be content with whatever form that response takes. To me, the idea that hope is justified by the righteousness of the present means that my hope for a better tomorrow comes from doing the right things today. I can't change my past, and I certainly can't predict the future, but I can make good decisions right now. In sobriety, that means being honest, helping others, staying connected to my higher power, and continuing to work the program. I used to hope that things would get better while doing absolutely nothing to make them better, or worse, continuing the same destructive behaviors. Today, my hope is backed up by action. While I live according to spiritual principles and do the next right thing, I have every reason to believe that tomorrow can be better than yesterday. And even if things don't turn out exactly the way I want them to, I can have peace knowing that I did my best today. Okay, so let's get to our final reading for the day, and that is from Keep It Simple. And the title page for November says the 11-step prayer, which is, sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. And on the first page it says the first half of this of step eleven, and it says through step eleven, we develop a lasting loving relationship with our higher power. Conscious contact means knowing and sensing our higher power in our lives throughout the day. We come into contact with our higher power through prayer and meditation. We develop an understanding of what our higher power is and how our higher power guides us through life. To continue surrendering to that power, we must reach out. Expressing through prayer our needs, our gratitude, and our most honest self to our HP, I'll call it, we continue to build that relationship. And in today's action for the day, I'll seek out my HP through prayer and meditation. And this reading reminds me that the more I work on improving my conscious contact with my HP, The more I begin to see changes in how I think, act, and treat others. Through prayer, meditation, and simply being aware of God's presence throughout my day, I find myself becoming more humble, more grateful, and less focused on myself. Humility reminds me that I don't have all the answers and that I don't have to control everything. While gratitude helps me appreciate what I have instead of constantly wanting more. The closer I stay to my HP, the easier it it becomes to practice these spiritual principles in my everyday life. Thank you so much for listening to me talk about my HP today. I'd love to hear from you and how your HP works in your day. you can send me an email. There is a link in the show notes. If you scroll down, you'll find a link to my email. Or you can just drop a comment down below. So that's all for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you all for listening. I hope you heard something today in these readings or out of my mouth maybe that helps you along your way. And if you'd like to be a guest on Sober Readings and share your experience, strength, and hope, again, there is a link if you scroll down to the show notes to my email. Hey, if you like sober readings and you want to help me spread the message and help support Sober Readings, please subscribe to the podcast and give a like to this episode, because it really does help other people find the show. Also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to my website, soberreadings.com, click that support page, and scroll down and you'll see a button that says drop a dollar in the basket. So again, thank you so much 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 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.