Latest / Sober Readings / Removing The Ground Glass
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Tuesday the eleventh of August. Let's begin today 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 Removing the Ground Glass. The moral inventory is a cool examination of the damages that occur to us during life and a sincere effort to look at them in a true pro perspective. This has the effort of taking the ground glass out of us, the emotional substance that still cuts and inhibits. And that's from page one hundred four zero of As Bill Sees It. My eighth step list used to drag me into a whirlpool of resentment. After four years of sobriety, I was blocked by denial connected with an ongoing abusive relationship. The argument between fear and pride eased as the words of the step moved from my head to my heart. For the first time in years, I opened my box of paints and poured out an honest rage, an explosion of reds and blacks and yellows. As I looked at the drawing, tears of joy and relief flowed down my cheeks. In my disease, I had given up my art, a self-inflicted punishment far greater than any imposed from outside. In my recovery, I learned that the pain of my defects is the very substance God uses to cleanse my character and to set me free. Today's reading from twenty four hours a day. August eleventh, AA Thought for the Day. While alcoholics keep strictly away from drink, they reach to life much like other people. But the first drink sets the terrible cycle in motion. Alcoholics usually have no idea why they take the first drink. Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied, but in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. The truth is that at some point in their drinking, they have passed into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of no avail. Today's question is, am I satisfied that I have passed my tolerance point for alcohol? Meditation for the day. He who made the ordered world out of chaos and set the stars in their courses, and made each plant to know its season, he can bring peace and order out of your private chaos if you will let him. God is watching over you too, to bless you and care for you. Out of the darkness he is leading you to light, out of unrest to rest, out of disorder to order. Out of faults and failure to success. You belong to God and your affairs are his affairs, and can be ordered by him if you are willing. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may be led out of disorder into order. I pray that I may be led out of failure into success. Today's meditation from Touchstone. I'd like to get away from Earth a while and then come back to it and begin again. That's a quote from Robert Frost. Do we think it's weak to need a break? Do we ignore the need to recharge our batteries? Responsibility for our own lives requires us to recognize the need to restore our energy. Maybe our former escape from the world was by using food or drugs or spending money, or sexual release, or preoccupation with another person. Now, since we are developing the ability to be with ourselves, we can take a break from the world and come back restored. This meditation time generates more energy for our lives. Recreation with friends, a walk, a movie, or a concert does the same. Taking responsibility to get away is a good cure for self-pity and exhaustion. Today, I will be aware of my need to restore my energy. And for today's final reading we're gonna read from as Bill sees it. We're gonna go to page three two eight, A Newfound Providence. When dealing with a prospect of agnostic or atheist bent, you had better use everyday language to describe spiritual principles. There is no use arousing any prejudice he may have against certain theological terms and conceptions, about which he may already be confused. Don't raise such issues, no matter what your own convictions are. That's on page ninety three in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Every man and woman who has joined AA and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on step three. Isn't it true that in all matters touching upon alcohol, each of them has decided to turn his or her life over to the care, protection, and guidance of AA? Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own will and one's own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by AA. Now if this is not turning one's will in life over to a newfound providence, then what is? And that's in the twelve and twelve page thirty five. And since that reading is from the twelve and twelve page thirty five, which happens to be step three, I'm gonna open the twelve and twelve book and read a couple paragraphs that come before that reading, because I think this is very important stuff in step three. So I'm gonna start on page thirty four and read a couple paragraphs. Like all the remaining steps, step three calls for affirmative action. For it is only by action that we can cut away the self will which has always blocked the entry of God, or if you like, a higher power into our lives. Faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. We can have faith yet keep God out of our lives. Therefore, our problem now becomes just how and by what specific means. Shall we be able to let him in? Step three represents our first attempt to do this. In fact, the effectiveness of the whole AA program will rest upon how well and earnestly we have tried to come to a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him. To every worldly and practical minded beginner, this step looks hard, even impossible. No matter how much one wishes to try, Exactly how can he turn his own will and his own life over to the care of whatever God he thinks there is? Fortunately, we who have tried it and with equal misgivings can testify that anyone, anyone at all, can begin to do it. We can further add that a beginning, even the smallest, is all that is needed. Once we have placed the key of willingness in the lock and have the door ever so slightly open, we find that we can always open it some more. Though self-will may slam it shut again, as it frequently does, it will always respond the moment we again pick up the key of willingness. And that was a couple paragraphs from step three, pages thirty-four and thirty-five, of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and I love that it that it ends on willingness. You know, for many of us, willingness grows through action. We pray, attend meetings, listen to others, ask for guidance, and try to do the next right thing. Even when we don't really feel completely ready. Step three is not a one time decision that removes every fear or problem. It's a choice we make again and again to stop forcing outcomes and trust that we do not have to manage life alone. We may still want to grab the steering wheel, but willingness reminds us that peace often begins when we loosen our grip. And so my question to you is, did you struggle with step three? Did you understand what what that meant? ⁓ when you first got sober because I didn't. I had to ask my sponsor, what does that mean? Exactly like that reading that I just read out of out of page thirty four and thirty five. How can we do it? How do we do it? What action does it take? And like I just read, we pray, we go to meetings, we listen to others. It takes action. And so I'd love to hear what the action is that you take or you took ⁓ in order to take step three. So you can send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com. ⁓ you could be a guest reader on my show and we could talk about it. Or you can simply leave a comment below. And so that's going to do it for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you so much for listening. 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 today. Stay sober. Keep reading, and I'll catch 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.