Latest / Sober Readings / Self-Examination
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- Scott Hayes: Welcome to Sober Readings. Today is Tuesday, the 21st of April. Let's begin 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. Cultivating Faith. I don't think we can do anything very well in this world unless we practice it. And I don't believe we do AA too well unless we practice it. We should practice. Acquiring the spirit of service. We should attempt to acquire some faith, which isn't easily done, especially for the person who has always been very materialistic, following the standards of society today. But I think faith can be acquired. It can be acquired slowly. It has to be cultivated. That was not easy for me, and I assume that it is difficult for everyone else. That's from Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers, pages 307 to 308. Fear is often the force that prevents me from acquiring and cultivating the power of faith. Fear blocks my appreciation of beauty, tolerance, forgiveness, service, and serenity. Today's reading from 24 Hours. April 21, AA Thought for the Day. After we've been in AA for a while, we find out that if we're going to stay sober, we have to be humble people. The men we see in AA who have really made the grade are all humble people. When I stop to think that but for the grace of God I might be drunk right now, I can't help feeling humble. So ask yourself, am I grateful and humble? The Meditation for the Day I must arise from the death of sin and selfishness and put on a new life of integrity. All the old sins and temptations must be laid in the grave and a new existence rise from the ashes. Yesterday is gone. All my sins are forgiven if I am honestly trying to do God's will today. Today is here, the time of resurrection and renewal. I must start now, today. to build the new life of complete faith and trust in God and a determination to do His will in all things. Today's prayer for the day. I pray that I may share in making the world a better place to live in. I pray that I may do what I can to bring goodness a little nearer to earth. And for today's final reading, we're going to go to the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 11. This chapter is titled, A Vision for You, and it's on page 151. And I'm going to read the first two paragraphs. I was in a meeting this morning, and we read this chapter. And these first two paragraphs were very powerful for a lot of people in that meeting. For most normal folks, drinking means conviviality, companionship, and colorful imagination. It means release from care, boredom, and worry. It is joyous intimacy with friends and a feeling that life is good. But not so with us in those last days of heavy drinking. The old pleasures were gone. They were but memories. Never could we recapture the great moments of the past. There was an insistent yearning enjoy life as we once did in a heartbreaking obsession that some new miracle of control would enable us to do it. There was always one more attempt and one more failure. The less people tolerated us, the more we withdrew from society, from life itself. As we became subjects of king alcohol, shivering denizens of his mad realm, the chilling vapor that is loneliness settled down. it thickened, ever becoming blacker. Some of us sought out sorted places, hoping to find understanding, companionship, and approval. Momentarily we did. Then would come oblivion and the awful awakening to face the hideous four horsemen. Terror, bewilderment, frustration, despair. Unhappy drinkers who read this page will understand. There's a word in that last paragraph that stood out to me and it's the word sorted. And the sentence is, some of us sought out sorted places, hoping to find understanding, companionship, and approval. And there's a lot of words in this big book of Alcoholics Anonymous that sometimes I like to look up in the dictionary just to be sure of the definition. And so sorted, the definition is, and I'm sure a lot of people know this, but I'll say it anyway, sorted. describes actions, places, or details that are morally ignoble, unethical, or physically filthy. It often refers to shameful, greedy, or degraded situations such as sordid affair or sordid housing, indicating extreme, often secretive baseness. And so an example they give here is, the tabloid revealed the sordid details of the scandal, or he lived in a sordid room that hadn't been cleaned in months. And so, In the context of this line in the big book, I think what they're talking about are environments that we alcoholics or drug addicts find ourselves in, environments that are dirty or unpleasant or having a bad reputation, ⁓ rough places basically, ⁓ like dive bars, sketchy hangouts, clubs, or to the extreme, crack houses. The line really points out the tragic irony that while the alcoholic goes to these places to find a sense of belonging, what they usually find, what we usually find, is oblivion. You know, and we wake up feeling even more alone and desperate than we did before. So if you haven't read the big book in a while, I would urge you to go back to chapter 11 and read A Vision for You, especially those two paragraphs, and really reflect on it. It's really a great read. The other thing that I wanted to share about today's reading was from the 24 Hours book. And in the AA thought for the day, it's just, there's a line in here that I don't necessarily agree with. And it says, when I think of the kind of person I was not so long ago, when I think of the man I left behind, I've got nothing to be proud about. That line kind of hit me hard. It was like, that's a little extreme. mean, yeah, I did some bad stuff and I made a lot of choices that I wouldn't make today. But I just thought that line was a little too much. I do have things in my past that I am very proud of. But I think also ⁓ that's the advantage of working the steps with a good sponsor is that you find the good things along with the bad in your past. So that brings us to the end of today's episode of Sober Readings. I would really love to hear your thoughts and your comments on those two paragraphs from A Vision for You and the Big Book. And also, what are your thoughts on that last sentence that I just read about, ⁓ got nothing to be proud of in your past. so send me an email at soberreadingswithscott at gmail.com or you can go to my website soberreadings.com and fill out that form. While you're at the website, if you would like to drop a dollar in the virtual donation basket. There's a little button that says donate. I would really appreciate that. And if you're enjoying the show, please do me a huge favor and hit the like button, share this episode, drop a comment. And also if you'd like to be a guest reader on the show, you can pick whatever passage from whatever sober reading literature you would like. And ⁓ and we can make that happen. That would be great. So thank you so much for listening today. Stay sober. Keep reading. and I'll see you all 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.