Step by Step
Saturday, May 11, 2013
" ...(D)eep down in every man, woman and child is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things but, in some form or other, it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself." - Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 4, p 55.
Today, the words of the Big Book evoke the deeply ingrained thought in all of us that some "fundamental idea of God" exists but that the idea may be more deeply rooted in the agnostic and atheist for whatever reason. To those who grapple with the concept of a Higher Power, an entity that is stronger than any of us, perhaps a first step is to acknowledge the one thing that is stronger than any of us - alcohol. In it, we have more than belief in its power; we have experience. And if we can know that something stronger than ourselves can take us to the gates of Hell, can we not then take a leap of blind faith in something that is capable of guiding us back to sobriety? But even this challenge is prefaced on a single condition: we must be willing to even consider that a Higher Power exists. Today, I can take that leap of faith knowing that if something is so strong as alcohol can kick me in the gutter, there may be something just as strong to lift me out of it. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
" ...(D)eep down in every man, woman and child is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things but, in some form or other, it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself." - Alcoholics Anonymous, Third Edition, 1976, Ch 4, p 55.
Today, the words of the Big Book evoke the deeply ingrained thought in all of us that some "fundamental idea of God" exists but that the idea may be more deeply rooted in the agnostic and atheist for whatever reason. To those who grapple with the concept of a Higher Power, an entity that is stronger than any of us, perhaps a first step is to acknowledge the one thing that is stronger than any of us - alcohol. In it, we have more than belief in its power; we have experience. And if we can know that something stronger than ourselves can take us to the gates of Hell, can we not then take a leap of blind faith in something that is capable of guiding us back to sobriety? But even this challenge is prefaced on a single condition: we must be willing to even consider that a Higher Power exists. Today, I can take that leap of faith knowing that if something is so strong as alcohol can kick me in the gutter, there may be something just as strong to lift me out of it. And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment