Sense of Urgency...

There has been in our fellowship a misconception for years.  This has to do with the working of the steps.  We have been told you it took you years to get sick, it will take you years to get well.

This is not true.  It is documented over and over in the big book and in our other literature how the first people did this deal.

The man that started our fellowship in Chicago worked the steps with Dr. Bob in an afternoon.  Bill Wilson worked the steps in a matter of days.  This is repeated over and over in our early history.

The main reason people stop doing the steps is because we let them "stew" in their own juices. They turn inward and the ego starts to rebuild. This has been my experience from actually taking people through the steps.

The people that go through the steps quickly and start working with others as soon as possible get sober and stay sober.  The ones that don't, don't.

We have become so arrogant and so self important that we think if we take our time and dot every I, and cross every T, that we can earn a spiritual awakening. 

A spiritual awakening is a gift from God, period.  We don't earn it, we don't get it because we were more thorough than the other guy.  We get it by having the humility to follow the simple directions laid out in the book.

Our program is not about believing the steps will work. It is not about desiring to do the steps. It is about taking the action required of us, to clear out the things that block us from God.

Recovering from this hideous disease is about doing what we don't want to do, when we don't want to do it, and reaping the blessings from it.

What is that blessing?  We get to go out and help God's kids for free and for fun.  We get to be of service to God and the people about us and somehow in the midst of all of that our lives change for the better and forever, as long as we continue to seek and do His will on a daily basis.

So if you hear someone telling you it takes years or even months to be happy, joyous and free, don't do what they did...  Find that guy with a few weeks, months, or years that is happy joyous and free, and do what he did.

My God is not on a timer today.  I don't have to spend years doing penance.  I simply have to seek Him and He will reveal Himself to me, and I will be rocketed into a dimension of existence far better than I have ever known...