Latest / Sober Readings / Active, Not Passive
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings for the 24th of March. Today is Tuesday. Today's reading from Daily Reflections. Active, not passive. Man is supposed to think and act. He wasn't made in God's image to be an automaton. That's from As Bell Sees It, page 55. Before I joined AA, I often did not think and reacted to people and situations. When not reacting, I acted in a mechanical fashion. After joining AA, I started seeking daily guidance from a power greater than myself and learning to listen for that guidance. Then I began to make decisions and act on them rather than react to them. The results have been constructive. I no longer allow others to make decisions for me and then criticize me for it. Today, and every day, with a heart full of gratitude and a desire for God's will to be done through me, my life is worth sharing, especially with my fellow alcoholics. Above all, if I do not make a religion out of anything, even ⁓ AA, then I can be an open channel for God's expression. Today's reading from 24 Hours, March 24, AA Thought for the Day. Strength comes from honestly telling your own experiences with drinking. In religion, they call it confession. We call it witnessing or sharing. You give a personal witness, you share your past experiences, the troubles you got into, the hospitals, the jails, the breakup of your home, the money wasted, the debts, and the foolish things you did when you were drinking. This personal witness lets out the things you had kept hidden, brings them out into the open, and you find release and strength. So ask yourself, am I receiving strength from my personal witnessing? The meditation for the day. We cannot fully understand the universe. The simple fact is that we cannot even define space or time. They are both boundless, in spite of all we can do to limit them. We live in a box of space and time which we have manufactured by our own minds, and on that depends all our so-called knowledge of the universe. The simple fact is that we can never know all things. nor are we made to know them all. Much of our lives must be taken on faith. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that my faith may be based on my own experience of the power of God in my life. I pray that I may know this one thing above all else in the universe. And today's final reading is from As Bill Sees It. We're going to page 264. The step that keeps us growing. Sometimes when friends tell us how well we are doing, we know better inside. We know we aren't doing well. We still can't handle life as life is. There must be a serious flaw somewhere in our spiritual practice and development. What then is it? The chances are better than ever that we shall locate our trouble in our misunderstanding or neglect of AA's step 11. Prayer. meditation, and the guidance of God. The other steps can keep most of us sober and somehow functioning, but step 11 can keep us growing if we try hard and work at it continually. And that's from an article in The Grapevine dated June of 1958. And that's it for today's readings. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to like, follow, and share this episode if you're enjoying it. And if you'd like to drop a dollar in the donation basket, go to soberreadings.com. So thanks for listening, everyone. 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.