The approach!!!

I hear in our meetings a lot today people talking about how inappropriate it is to approach a newcomer and offer to sponsor him, that we should wait until he reaches out for help.  What a load of bull.  I think that might be code for "we don't really want to be bothered"

A lot of the people I sponsor today, I have approached.  You see them in every meeting, never smiling, looking uncomfortable, can't sit still, miserable, running out after a meeting trying to get the hell out of there before they have to talk to someone.

Are we to busy getting a cup of coffee to notice?  Are we too busy telling the guy beside us after the meeting about our crappy day?  Or are we just scared?  Or worse yet do we just not care? Are we still caught up in the selfishness and self centeredness which is the root of our problem? Or better yet have we read their mind and decided because they need a court slip signed that they are not ready?  Absolute arrogance...

The guys in my sponsorship lineage will flat chase down a newcomer to strike up a conversation. That's just how we roll in Texas, we ain't shy...

"But the ex problem drinker who is properly armed with the facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such an understanding is reached little or nothing can be accomplished"

I don't run up and say "hey I gonna sponsor you whether you like it or not".  We just visit and then I ask them "have you worked the steps?  I can show you how if you want me to."  Its really pretty simple and to make all you middle of the roaders out there, happy; it isn't even that intrusive.   Alcohol, now that's intrusive...

Why do we expect them to know what they need to do, they need to be shown.  They don't even know if they are a real diagnosed alcoholic or not until we qualify them.  If your scared about this then read on it is real easy.

Are you qualified? 

Have you had a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps?

Do you have a sponsor?

If you answered yes to both of these, then you are ready.

Are they qualified.

Can they control how much they drink every time they drink?

Given sufficient reason can they quit for good?

If they answer either one of these with a no then they are qualified.

Now take them through the work!!!  Start at the Title page and go from there.

If you get stuck talk to your sponsor, it will be good for him!!!

Here is what I get out of this.

Absolute joy!!!

"Our real purpose is to fit ourselves to be of maximum service to God and the people around us"

Real purpose = Real joy!!!

My Job

My God IS today...  And that is good enough...  Do I understand God?  Nope...  But I don't need to, in fact I wasn't even supposed to.  I realize that there is no way my human mind,`as miraculous as it is, could ever come close to conceiving or defining God.

The Creation was never supposed to understand the Creator, just depend on Him.  The arrogance of us humans to try to define God, to put God in a box, and then to judge one another because our definitions don't match.

God just IS, everything I see, touch, hear, smell or taste was created by God and through God. As in fact, I was.  A part of God lies deep within all of us, in every fiber of our beings at a cellular level...

My job is to realize that apart from God I am nothing...

My job is to make a decision to turn over my will and my life to Something bigger than me.

My job is to take the actions to remove the resentments, fear, guilt, shame and remorse that block me off from conscious contact with the God that is within me and within you...

My job is to ask God to remove from me the things that stand in the way of my usefulness to Him and the people around me...

My job is to set right the mistakes of my past by making amends to the people I have harmed...

My job is to continue to take actions that help me grow in understanding and effectiveness...

My job is to let God demonstrate through me what He can do...

My job is to trust that connection that is developing within me...

My job is to take my Awakened Spirit into life, to allow God to speak to and love people in a way that I am incapable of...

No longer do I find it necessary to define God's job or yours.  As you can see I have a pretty busy job of my own to look after...

Basic Text

When I start analyzing and interpreting the simple instructions in our basic text, then I am really just back to trusting my brain instead of God's power.  That didn't work out to well for me.  Our text book is a set of written instructions on how to live and act.  I don't need to analyze it and I don’t need to interpret it, I just need to do it.  I can read the book everyday till I die, I can engage in great debates, I can sit around with the older members and we can intellectualize.  That will not make me happy, joyous and free. And it won’t treat my alcoholism.

 

Taking the actions, working the steps, helping others to work the steps and get connected to God, that is what I am supposed to do.  That is where God wants me. This is what treats the selfishness and self-centeredness of my disease. Around me hundreds of people are dying from alcoholism, and I have the absolute arrogance to sit on my butt and debate what Bill meant by this or that.  How selfish and self-centered can I be.  I used to think I could use my knowledge to find God. I used to think I had to go off by myself and be on the river to find God.  In other words I searched for spiritual experiences. Not anymore.  Do I still like to get by myself on the river absolutely.  Is God there? Absolutely.

 

But the fact of the matter is my next spiritual experience, the next big one will probably come when I am with someone, that I think won’t ever get this deal, going through the steps, when I don’t feel good.  When I would rather be anyplace else.  And then something will come flying out of my mouth that I didn’t even know and then I will see it.  That little spark in his eyes.  And I will end up experiencing the Power of God that day.

 

People are dying all around me from this disease.  Do I sit and watch them and judge them while they slip away?  Or do I reach out of my comfort zone, do I take them by the hand and look them in the eye and tell them the truth.  Do I carry the mess or the clear message of Hope.  Do I worry about how that may make me look to others around me or do I trust the 6^th sense that I have been promised that is being developed inside of me.  Do I pat them on the butt and say keep coming back?  Or do I take the time to qualify them, to show them what it means to be a diagnosed alcoholic.  Do I proclaim truth or do I offer opinions?

 

Back in my sponsorship lineage there was a man named Dr. Bob. He said keep it simple.  He helped over 5000 alcoholics in 15 years.  Someone told me tonight my goal should be to die sober.  SCREW THAT… My goal is to live happy joyous and free everyday… How do I do that? By doing my best to take the actions described in our book.  By trying to help others for free and for fun. I didn’t get a personal relationship with the Creator by studying about Him, or even by trying to discover Him.  I learned what little I know by working a spiritual program of action…  And I learn more everytime I open my heart to one of His children, especially when I don’t want to.

The River

God’s Will has always been taking me somewhere.   When I make a conscious decision and take the appropriate action to flow with the current, things always work better. 

When I get sucked into the whirlpools of selfishness and self-centeredness, I end up bashed against the rocks of anger and fear.  I harm myself and others with my violent struggles. This causes myself and the people around me a great deal of pain and interrupts my journey.

I see thorny vines of emotional, financial, and physical comfort.  I struggle to reach them mightily with all of my effort, using all of my self will, only to grasp them and watch them slip away.  For they are not the Solution, they are fleeting and temporary at best.  Even if I manage to cling to one, it simply comes un-rooted and slips away.

Yet, still I struggle, still I fight, the tension is mounting, the fear grows exponentially! I try to stand on the shifting pebbles on the bottom of the river.  I try to desperately to gain a purchase on the slippery rocks. I try to stand on the backs of my fellows, I try to raise myself, at their expense.  They retaliate, and yet again I am wounded, battered, bloodied by my relentless urge to propel myself against the current of God’s Will.

I shake my fist in defiance.  I make one more feeble attempt to fight. Again I fail, the result, more pain.

The only way to get out of that vortex of destruction is to let go.  I have to let go of the old ideas to which I have always clung.  I have to cease fighting anything or anyone.  I have to float…  And when I do the loving, caring, hand of my Creator, usually in the form of a sponsor or a dear friend, simply plucks me from the whirlpool, and sets me back in the gentle current of His Grace.  

The water is warmer here.  My wounds are healed, my strength is renewed, and my serenity is restored.  Then and only then can I be of service, God can then use me to help rescue the next drowning man, and he in turn helps another.  And so we journey.

To stay on that course takes some action.  A turn here, a kick there.  Some prayer, some meditation, and always being there when someone reaches out for help.

The rewards are immense, the life is joy filled.  Staying on course isn’t always easy, there will be more rapids and whirlpools ahead I am sure.  But there are more of us now, it is harder to get swept away, when one is surrounded by the Power of God.  When it is manifested in so many ways, and it’s evidence is overwhelming.

I thank God for the River of his Grace and my fellow travelers…

 

Jerry

Amazing...

Got hit with some pretty devastating stuff this week, personally and professionally.  Naturally I chose to do what we always do which is to retreat into resentment, fear, self-pity, and all the rest.

Fortunately, I have some people very close to me who are not a bit afraid of calling me on that crap.  So I broke out the old pencil and paper, did the inventory, did the prayers, read it to another recovered person, listened to their input.  Turned it over to God and moved on to doing the next right thing.

I am amazed at the Power and the Grace of God when I even make a small effort to take the right actions.  My mind is renewed, and the things that were blocking me from the Sunlight of the Spirit, no longer are.

God is everything or else He is nothing!!!  Today I choose everything...  I am happy, joyous and free once again...

Awareness...

God has given me a gift through this program. 

I have witnessed terrible, tragic things in just my short time working with alcoholics and addicts. 

I know what it is like to watch people you love die.

I have experienced the heartbreak of watching someone turn away from the gift offered to them by sobriety.

I have seen others lives changed completely, by the Power of God.

But the one thing, the most important thing, the only thing of value I have today is the consciousness of the presence of God.

He has opened my eyes, He has given me the ability to see His Power displayed in a thousand different ways, by a thousand different people. 

The age of miracles is still with us. We see them and experience them everyday.

The brief periods of time when I get to experience His vision without the scales of pride, prejudice, and judgment, are so illuminating, so precious, that I stand amazed.

To keep experiencing this, I must take action, I must turn away from self and outward toward my fellow travelers, and I must do this in all areas of my life.

I wish for you my friend, whoever you are, these little glimpses of peace and joy.

And for my friends that are no longer here...

I promise your memory will not die, your stories will be used to help the next person.  You did not die in vain.  God is everything, and nothing, absolutely nothing happens in this world by mistake.  But I suppose you realize that already....


BB pg 16  "An alcoholic in his cups is an unlovely creature.  Our struggles with them are variously strenuous, comic, and tragic......   Faith has to work 24 hour a day in and through us, or we perish....
Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will towards men....

Join us, take your rightful place in the trench, we need you...

Passion

"Practical experience shows that nothing will insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail."  BB pg 89

Can someone please explain to me how we got from that to "you shouldn't sponsor anybody till you have been sober at least a year, you can't chair a meeting till you have been sober for at least 6 months.

OK, nobody did so I will.  It has been passed along by a bunch of people in our fellowship that were taught in some treatment center that they will always be recovering, that they should stay away from their triggers, and that if they get too hungry, angry, lonely or tired they might drink.  Just try your best to not drink today.  It will be OK just keep coming back. 

I would bet that a good percentage of these people aren't even real alcoholics.  Yet, they rise to power in our groups and make these rules because the real alcoholics are either out in the trenches doing the deal, or trying to practice "love and tolerance." Right???  Nope.... The answer is self-centeredness and fear.

We alcoholics are a sensitive lot.  We let this stuff grow and fester in our fellowship because it might be uncomfortable to call people on their BS and tell them the truth.  People might not like us.  Love and tolerance, absolutely!  I need to love people enough to tell them the truth.  And tolerance for me is talking to the guy on the phone, one more time that just can't get it.  Tolerance is loving someone out when you oppose their entire lifestyle. 

My God does not ask me to tolerate evil, He does not expect me to sit idly by, while someone goes on a rant about some BS in a meeting, while the newcomer is dying because he can't hear the truth.

All I hear in AA is how tough everybody used to be back in the day.  What a bunch of bad asses we all were.  Yet we let some one hijack the meeting because we want to sit back and timidly sip our coffee.

I know confrontation is scary.  I get it.  But we are walking hand in hand with the Creator.  Where is the passion, where is the willingness, the desperation of a drowning man?  So let me get this straight; when we are dying of this disease and trying to get sober we don't let anything stop us.  But when it is the other guys life that hangs in the balance, we just sit by and let him hear a bunch of error.

Stand up guys and gals.  Stand up, learn the book. Speak it, live it, get passionate about it.  If you hear error, correct it! It is our job, if we won't do it who will?  Who cares what people think.  What does God think?  That quote from the big book says "intensive work".  Sometimes things just get intense in this deal.

I don't know about ya'll but with the passion for this way of life comes the Happiness.  With the zeal of passing it on comes Joy, and with the boldness to proclaim the Truth comes Freedom.