Latest / Sober Readings / Lest We Become Complacent
Transcript
- Scott Hayes: Hello, friends, welcome back to Sober Readings. My name is Scott. Today is the first day of October 2026. It is a Thursday. I'm glad you're here with me for today's readings. We're gonna read Daily Reflections 24 hours a day. And we're gonna go back to something I haven't read in a while: Forming True Partnerships. How AA members use the program to improve relationships. But let's get started, 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. Daily Reflections for october first lest we become complacent. 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's on page eighty five of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. When I am in pain, it is easy to stay close to the friends I have found in the program. Relief from that pain is provided in the solutions contained in AA's twelve steps. But when I'm feeling good and things are going well, I can become complacent. To put it simply, I become lazy and turn into the problem instead of the solution. I need to get into action, to take stock. Where am I and where am I going? A daily inventory will tell me what I must change to regain spiritual balance. Admitting what I find within myself to God and to another human being keeps me honest and humble. Today's reading from twenty four hours a day, October one, AA Thought for the Day. AA will lose some of its effectiveness if I do not do my share. Where am I failing? Are there some things I do not feel like doing? Am I held back by self-consciousness or fear? Self-consciousness is a form of pride. It is a fear that something may happen to you. What happens to you is not very important. The impression you make on others does not depend so much on the kind of a job you do. As on your sincerity and honesty of purpose. So ask yourself today, am I holding back because I'm afraid of not making a good impression? The meditation for the day. Look to God for the true power that will make you effective. See no other wholly dependable supply of strength. That is the secret of a truly effective life, and you in your turn will be used to help many others find effectiveness. Whatever spiritual help you need, whatever spiritual help you desire for others, look to God. Seek that God's will be done in your life. And seek that your will conforms to his. Failures come from depending too much on your own strength. And today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may feel that nothing good is too much for me if I look to God for help. I pray that I may be effective through his guidance. And for today's final reading from Forming True Partnerships, this is an AA Grapevine publication. How AA members use the program to improve relationships. And this is from Chapter Five. Chapter five is called Friendship. This story is titled The Cheetah and His Bubba, and it was written in June of two thousand. The Cheetah slept on my living room couch, exhausted after a full day outdoors. I sat on the floor with my back resting against the fireplace and admired Cheetah's lean, youthful limbs, watching his breathing, tracking Cheetah's dollar store sunglasses as they slid downward with each deep breath toward the tip of his sunburned nose. My nickname is Cheetah, he had revealed to me just before dropping off to sleep. My real name is Zachariah, but they call me Cheetah because I can run very fast. He needn't have told me. We had spent a sunny day together, eating in fast food restaurants, running across playgrounds, and hiking through the woods, and by the time evening fell, I was far more tired than he was. In fact, I was dog tired. After all, a sixty year old man is absolutely no match for a six year old child. But in a few days I'd be eager and ready to do it all over again. You see, I am Zachariah's lifelong friend. His presence in my life represents the fulfillment of an AA promise. A friend had predicted this one night at the Northwest Alano Club just outside Detroit, where I used to meet with my home group. If you can continue to stay sober, he promised me, then you will once again experience things that you thought were gone forever. He was, of course, referring to my family. I was divorced and living alone. My surviving children had all flown the nest to raise families of their own. At my age, it surely looked as though the golden family days of Little League Baseball and matinee movies and picnics at the beach were a thing of the past. This represented a grave loss. Like most other men, I badly needed my own special place, a respected niche among those I love. It was at this point in my life when Zack's mother phoned me from a hospital maternity room one winter morning. With her husband sitting at her bedside, she said I called to tell you that there's three of us now. We have a healthy baby boy. He'll be home tomorrow. We want you to come over to the house and meet him. His name is Zachariah. I readily accepted their invitation and drove to Zack's house the next afternoon. As I sat in a rocking chair and for the first time held him in my arms, I unexpectedly discovered a lump in my throat and something in my eye. At that moment, my life took a turn. Zach and I bonded. We have been close friends ever since. We have shared many an adventure over the years. Our early exploits involved green beans and grape jelly toast eaten from a teetering high chair. A few years down the road I found myself building skyscrapers out of wooden blocks and watching a three-year-old's giant laugh while he kicked them apart. Today our days together pass swiftly, filled with swings and slides, backyard swimming pools and beaches, movie matinees, two-wheel bicycles with wobbly training wheels, quick trips to the town dollar store to purchase a pair of cheap sunglasses. Winter evenings sharing television s cartoons, and the myriad other joys I had thought were gone forever, due in part to my lack of faith and an alcoholic past. Eleven years ago I entered Alcoholics Anonymous as a drunken agnostic. Ninety meetings and ninety days planted a spiritual mustard seed which took root and blooms today. Early on in recovery I began noticing all those little coincidences. The old timers used to talk about. Coincidences so numerous as to defy pure chance and point instead to the presence of a higher power. One such major coincidence occurred shortly after Zack's mother, who was among my closest friends, married his father. Before his birth, they lived far away from me on the other side of town. They later moved to Old Warrendale on Detroit's west side, and through a remarkable coincidence, Bought a starter home two blocks away from the very house where I grew up. That day, when I went to meet Zack for the first time, I was intrigued to find myself taking a nostalgic drive down the street where I had played, kicked the can, and touched football as a kid. From that day forward, I intuitively began to consider the possibility that Zack's mother had been placed into my life by a higher power who knew that our friendship would help me grow spiritually. This intuition has proven correct. Zack's mother and father are deeply spiritual people. Through them and their wonderful son, the Cheetah, I am once again able to delight in those joys which I thought had vanished forever from my life. As my big book promises at the bottom of page eighty three, I am experiencing a new freedom and a new happiness, and I am realizing that God is doing for me what I could not do for myself. Today I neither regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. To the contrary, with Zack I am able to relive those golden days I thought were gone forever, and in the bargain, revisit the wonders of my own early childhood. Today I even have a new name. My close friends call me Bubba. Cheetah bestowed this title upon me when he was an 18 month old toddler. The AA promises are clearly becoming fulfilled in my life. Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, all I need to do is work for them. It is very important that I labor diligently one day at a time to remain sober. I want to be worthy of my name. That was written by Floyd K in Kingsford, Michigan. So thank you, Floyd, for that story. And since you mentioned page eighty three, at the bottom of page eighty three of the big book. Begins the ninth step promises. So let's go ahead and turn to page 83 and read the ninth step promises. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, We will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. That's all for today's episode of Sober Readings. Thank you all for listening. I hope something you heard today stays with you and helps you along your way. If you'd like to be a guest on Sober Readings and share your experience, strength, and hope, or just join me for a reading, there's a link in the show notes below to send me an email. You'll also find a link in the show notes to my website where you can learn more about Sober Readings and stay connected. Also, if you'd like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket for today's readings, just go to the support page of the website and click the button to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket. If you enjoy today's episode and want to support Sober Readings, Please subscribe to the podcast and give the episode a like. It really does help more people find the show. And if something you heard today made you think of someone, share the episode with them. You never know who might need to hear these words today. So thanks for spending a few minutes of your day with me. Be good to yourself and others today, and remember, we only have to do this for one day at a time. Remember, 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.