Latest / Sober Readings / Material And Spiritual Well-Being
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Good morning, welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Saturday, the 21st of March. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. Material and Spiritual Well-being fear of economic insecurity will leave us. That's a line from Alcoholics Anonymous page 84, and that happens to be also one of the ninth step promises. Having fear reduced or eliminated and having economic circumstances improve are two different things. When I was new in AA, I had those two ideas confused. I thought fear would leave me only when I started making money. However, another line from the big book jumped off the page one day when I was chewing on my financial difficulties. For us, material well-being always followed spiritual progress. It never preceded. That's page 127. I suddenly understood that this promise was a guarantee. I saw that it put priorities in the correct order. That spiritual progress would diminish that terrible fear of being destitute, just as it diminished many other fears. Today, I try to use the talents God gave me to benefit others. I've found that is what others valued all along. I try to remember that I no longer work for myself. I only get the use of the wealth God created. I never have owned it. My life's purpose is much clearer when I just work to help, not to possess. Today's reading from 24 Hours. March 21, AA Thought for the Day. In AA, we forget about the future. We know from experience that as time goes on, the future takes care of itself. Everything works out well as long as we stay sober. All we need to think about is today. When we get up in the morning and see the sun shining in the window, we thank God that he has given us another day to enjoy because we're sober. A day in which we may have a chance to help somebody. So ask yourself, do I know that this day is all I have and with God's help I can stay sober today? The meditation for the day. All is fundamentally well. That does not mean that all is well on the surface of things, but it does mean that God is in his heaven and that he has a purpose for the world which will eventually work out when enough human beings are willing to follow his way. Wearing the world as a loose garment means not to be upset by the surface wrongness of things, but to feel deeply secure in the fundamental goodness and purpose in the universe. today's prayer for the day. I pray that God may be with me in my journey through the world. I pray that I may know that God is planning that journey. And today's final reading is from As Bill Sees It. Today we're reading from page 263. Fear and Faith. The achievement of freedom from fear is a lifelong 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. That's from an article in the Great Vine dated January of 1962. We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our makeup. Sometimes we had to search persistently, but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were. We found the great reality deep down within us. And that's from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, page 55. And that's it for today's readings. Thanks for listening everyone. If you'd like to drop a dollar in the donation basket for today's readings, or follow the show, or leave me a comment, you can go to my website, soberreadings.com. Again, thanks everyone for listening. 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.