How do you obtain Power? When and if you receive Power, how do you use it?
In the spiritual realm, we are all connected. So when I am succeeding, the world is blessed.
There's nothing wrong with, nor is there anything selfish about my needs being met. When I'm receiving Power and using it to solve my problem, all my problems get solved and then not only am I available to help/serve you... but I'm also not some schmuck standing at an intersection begging you for booze money.
My experience with that overwhelming God Consciousness, or what I call Power, came thru working the steps. Our literature describes the object of the Big Book, or the program of AA, very clearly: "It's main object is to enable you to find a power greater than yourself that will solve your problems." Clear cut directions it says. That aligns up exactly with my experience. Today, i tap into that Power daily with the three major spiritual tools my sponsor taught me: prayer, meditation and vision. These three instructions are always listed in the text together; all three different components taken in concert. As my sponsor says "What i want today doesn't matter. I don't get a vote." Thank God for AA and those that paved the way. I am responsible...
ReplyDeleteVery clearly it says, "Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem."
ReplyDeleteMy point with this post is that once our problem gets solved, my problems start to go by the wayside.
Doesn't mean we'll be problem-free. Just that we have tools to work through these problems.
Courage is not a life free of fear. It's a life where fears can be faced.
If you're sober and doing well, hats off to ya. If you've done the work and continue to work in the steps, great. I've done that myself. But I am now sponsor-free. The guy who once sponsored me is still in our group and still pitching new drunks. In fact, we sometimes pitch drunks together. But he's free of me and I'm free of him.
But hey, that's just me. What I want today does matter. But hey, that's just me too. I refuse to just go along with the crowd today. The book may be wonderful and just, but is it true for me? What's my experience with what it says?
Finding prospects who are both real alkies and willing to go to any length is a rare thing. Pointing them into the direction of God is really the only thing I can offer.
I'm glad to hear that what you want matters. Best of luck with that. What i wanted landed me two blocks short of the cemetary in AA, literally. How easily i can forget what saved my life and how quickly my ego wants to start taking credit and dictating terms moving forward. That's my experience with sobriety. My life today is as good as it's ever been and i know that as good as i like to think i am, i'm not that good. That's Power my friend. I'm the guy getting fired from my job, running the car in the ditch, ruining relationships, going to jail, and so on and so forth. Self-will run riot. But hey, that's just me, a real alchohlic. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI never wanted to be an alcoholic fuckup. I at times wanted to just manage well.
ReplyDeleteOnce in a while my ego and I get it right.
If I really want to shed the old ego, I can crash into that cemetery wall and make it to the Land of Milk and Honey in time for dinner.
I'd rather have a bottle infrontofme than a frontal lobotomy.
I'm still looking for this Utopia you speak of... the one where recovered alkies are Sainted and floating with halos around their heads.
I'm not familiar with "being sainted and floating halos", however, the Utopia I am experienced with is as close to me as the good feelings in my heart. I like to think of it as heaven on Earth.
DeleteI assume you're talking about the states of consciousness you have achieved by seeking God rather than spirits... of the distilled kind.
ReplyDeleteBut I think it's safe to assume that neither of us are the original sinner.
As bad as I "was" drinking... I never got fired from a job. In fact, some of my best earnings were from when I was runnin' and gunnin'... burning the candles at both ends. Oh, I got fired many times in sobriety... working for my brother. In fact, I think I got fired twice in one day one time.
To me, it seems like you know what your ego is up to and that you can predict what it wants to do tomorrow... and the only thing you have to do is continue your good works and stay across the street from that gosh darned ego.
I do it differently. I submit to a yearly inventory and let the chips fall where they may. Then I get back to seeking God in 10 11 and 12 for the other 9 or so months out of the year.
I do not spend all year bashing my ego and trying to be a good boy scout helping every old lady cross the street.
MaybeI don't understand something. Is it written somewhere that ego is all bad? Is it written somewhere that I must fear making a mistake? Am I going to go to Heaven based on my good works and my ability to spend my life playing Whack-a-Mole with my ego and the Devil? Are you staying sober better than I? Or is this Heaven on earth and it don't get no better? I've achieved Shangri La because I've folled that Big Book to the letter and this is all there is?
We all have egos. It's part of the human psyche. The trouble is, that AA sometimes tends to give the word "ego" a bad connotation. "my problem is my ego." No, your problem is that your ego is out of whack, that your sense of "self" is inflated and out of control. Thus the insanity we alcoholics experience when drinking.
DeleteAs I worked the steps I noticed that my "Self" diminished and that my spirituality increased. I was being given the opportunity to get God back into my life. I knew how to talk to God (pray), but never knew how to listen until I had worked the steps.
And thus my ego came back into some sense of rationality. When I do the 10th step, I don't look at as ego bashing, rather it's a frank recognition of a fault or defect that I need to work on.
I'm not a boy scout, nor do I try to be one. I'm a human being with all the warts that come from being one. I have emotions.Sometimes that's good, sometimes bad. But that's ok. I do the best I can today, trying to do God's will for me.
My needs, which aren't too great, seem to be always met. They were too when I was drinking, I just didn't know it.
Good points and good to "see" you again Joe.
DeleteI wonder how Jim is. I hope alright.
Like i said in the first post....work the steps, wake your spirit up and then grow in understanding and effectiveness. Then, down the road, as you would say, let the chips fall where they may. I notice you reference Big Frank occasionally. You should listen to some of his old pitches reagarding Power. He describes his experience with coming into contact with that Power so "eloquantly", lol. Classic. I love following your blog Patrick. It helps keep me on the path. Keep the faith. Thank you again.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave. I have a hard time discussing this ego/self-will stuff with others on more restricted forum... and even at meetings.
ReplyDeleteI'm sort of a proponent of Work The Steps myself.
These questions/observations arise out of my experience of having worked steps. It's refreshing to talk about this stuff and not just talking about "the doing of the steps" if you know what I mean.
Frank Frank Frank. I've got a mentor that was under Frank's wing for 20-some years.
Frank is great but I'm sort of Franked out.