Gratitude

I heard someone speak tonight at our group and as she told her story I was overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude of all of the people before me who kept this fellowship together. It made me think of the spiritual advisors I have had along the way.  It made me think of my first sponsor who has passed, it made me think of my current sponsor and the lineage all the way back to Dr. Bob, Bill Wilson, Ebby Thatcher, Rowland Hazzard.

I am so honored and humble just to get to be a part of the most awesome fellowship that has ever existed.  We all do what we can do and God uses all of us to change peoples lives forever.  For once and for all. 

I get to experience life, real life.  I get to experience God's Grace.  Today I got to be on the other side of the amends process with someone I dearly love.

If Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob and the first one hundred had not allowed themselves to be used by God, if they had not taken the action and done the next right thing, where would we be?

My sponsor has told me that gratitude is an action.  I must take action daily, I must fit myself to be of maximum service to God and the people around me, I do that by practicing these principles in all of my affairs if I do less where will this fellowship be 78 years from now.  I will take action because that is what I am supposed to do.  It does not matter how I feel, what I think, or what I believe.  It matters what I do.

Thank you people in our fellowship.  Thank you for listening to God, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Jerry

Spiritual Growth

Once again I have been brought through another one of life's trials by God himself. This time I didn't even try to get through it by myself, I knew I couldn't. It reminds me of a Dr. Seuss line my wife quotes from time to time "this mess is so great and so big and so tall, there is no way to clean it, no way at all". But thankfully both she and I have found out what to do when we come up against one of those messes. The answer is to give it to God.

Now that isn't always the easiest thing to do. Sometimes it is just a few seconds at a time until I have to pray again "Thy will not mine be done. I am no longer running the show." But as the song says "every storm runs out of rain". And sooner or later if I stay in the moment and just stay connected to God, things get better. They don't always work out the way I want them to, but they do work out.

Usually after one of these times I look backwards and realize I have grown spiritually. For me spiritual growth is not about attaining knowledge, it is about experiencing God's grace in the midst of chaos. That becomes a spiritual experience, and experience grows my faith. It has nothing to do with what I have learned. It has everything to do with what God has given me.

It really is quite simple, but it is not easy. Thank God, that I was given a hard head. Because of my experiences in the past I now cling to the actions of the program like a dog to a bone when things get crazy. Why because I know it works... And that persistence is rewarded eventually with the peace that passes all understanding.

I don't know how it works, but I do know that it does work, every time. That is my experience...

Thanks God...

Jerry