SteveP wrote:Reason is a human power and no human power can cure me of my alcoholism.
Steve
Meetings are a human power
The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcoholic commences to rely upon our assistance rather than upon God. He clamors for this or that, claiming he cannot master alcohol until his material needs are cared for. Nonsense. Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job wife or no wife we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.
Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house.
So we have to find a power greater then ourselves The Big Book says, where do we find it? and what does that Power look like? Do we need to find someone else's concept of God, the God of our Fathers or of Christianity?
Here is what the book says
We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found. It was so with us. With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves.
Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another's conception of God.
So in order to get sober we need to tap into an unsuspected inner resource, we are allowed, nay encouraged to have our own concept of this power, and it is no one's business what this concept is but our own
10.No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issuesparticularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion. The Alcoholics Anonymous groups oppose no one.Concerning such matters they can express no views whatever.
That's fantastic
Total religious and spiritual freedom to believe what we want, the only requirement is we welcome ALL others, no matter WHAT their beliefs
AA is a true utopian anarchist society with no leadership, where love of our fellows is the glue that binds us together...you gotta admit, that's pretty cool
-- Edited by LinBaba on Saturday 4th of December 2010 03:57:27 AM
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it's not the change that's painful, it's the resistance to change that is painful
Frothy emotional appeal seldom suffices . The message that holds the alcoholic must have depth and weight. The ideas must be grounded in a higher power.the united states navy the must powerful force on the planet could not sober me up. Anabuse.restrictions in trouble all the time . Friends.wifes, parents,close personal friends. Any one can increase the list .I could not be honest with them out of fear that if they really knew the whole truth about me. My bosses on the job the medical department told me I would die if I drank on that and I was going straight to get one .because even thou I knew I would pay the price that somehow getting one drink was a good idea but I never got one .the phenom. Of craving kicked in .I could not stop .I am beyond humanaid.not even the all mighty me could do it and I was the most powerful person I knew .every one told me and I could not stop .so today I do not put people ahead of the twelve steps to gain access to and maintain the new order of things.
"We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found. It was so with us.
With few exceptions our members find that they have tapped an unsuspected inner resource which they presently identify with their own conception of a Power greater than themselves.
Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another's conception of God."
Today I believe that these words have saved my life.
I'd come into the program I really didn't believe any more in the God that I had believed in when I was younger.
So yeah, I tried all the kinds of HP's that you hear atheists in the Fellowship talking about: rocks, trees, statues at a holiday apartment we rented, the moon, dead human beings that I admired, etc. And fine, I didn't drink, but I was not sober. In the long run, it really wasn't going to work. In fact, when I drank again, I was trying to rely upon that HP concept.
And then one days these words sprung out at me. I finally realised that I was:
1) trying to rely upon someone else's concept of an HP (i.e. some guy said that a table leg was his HP and it worked for him,why don't I try that or something like that); 2) in doing so, relying upon a human power (Mr Table Leg's advice of what his HP was, not actually the HP itself); and 3) was looking outside of myself for that HP, instead of relying upon that unsuspected inner resource that the Big Book talks about.
I guess that I had skimmed over those words -- or at Sherlock Holmes would say, I would look, but I would not observe.
As soon as I found my HP with the help of those words, things really changed. Recovery ceased being a struggle and it has now become something that I can start passing on to others.
So, hugely, hugely grateful for the BB and that passage -- thanks for posting this LB, really good stuff.
Steve
-- Edited by SteveP on Monday 6th of December 2010 04:06:00 PM
