How To Use Spirituality to Assist Our Rebirth
and not be a boring slug.
We are not the same person we were when we were in the madness of active alcoholism or addiction.
This is alluded to in the old story that says that if you sober up a drunken horse thief, what you have left is a horse thief.
This is not correct. This is only true if all that is done is that the drunken horse thief only stops drinking and does nothing else to better himself. Stopping drinking is only the beginning.
Of the 12 Steps of Recovery in AA, only the first half of the 1st Step says anything about alcohol. All the rest cover our thinking. When your thinking is being changed, you are becoming sober, not just dry.
We are aware, from our high school biology, that most of our cells change every 7 years. This is a physical change that we can acknowledge.
Emotional changes, without a roadmap to follow, are not the same as physical changes. They are not measured with any of the usual 5 senses. They are measured in the soul of the individual which only the individual can enter.
This is why I should not tell you that you are an alcoholic or you tell me that I am either. Bill and Bob built this program on a spiritual foundation.
The spiritual base of AA was explored by the founders with the assistance of Emmet Fox, who was an Irish/American New Thought spiritual leader of the early 20th century, primarily through the years of the Great Depression, until his death in 1951.
Fox’s Sermon on the Mount was used by early members of AA as probably the forerunner of the Big Book and is where many of the program’s spiritual principles originated.
It was discovered that, if one not only stops drinking but also works the program 24/7/365, the person is not the same as when in the madness either. Hence, a rebirth or resurrection.
This is why I emphasize working the program 24/7/365 and this means more than just stopping drinking or thinking of just the right thing to say at meetings.
There are a total of 12 Steps in this remarkable program and the ONLY Step that mentions alcohol is Step 1. ALL THE REST has to do with our thinking. Change our thinking — change our lives!
The most powerful component of our beings is our mind with its thought processes. Look at a caterpillar. Ugly little brown bug, if that is all that I see.
If I can see the beautiful, graceful butterfly that it becomes, it immediately turns into a different story. Did I ever actually see this transformation? I never have.
If I see a bitter, ugly, spiteful, vindictive person, even a terrorist or street thug, my mind sees an ugly bug. We have heard that God didn’t make any junk. He made us in His perfect image, happy, joyous, and free.
To see the caterpillar with our eyes and envision the beautiful butterfly is called Seeing the Christ in it and so is a being that is in human form.
Looking at the street thug or terrorist and seeing beyond the initial appearance, is seeing the Christ in him. This does not mean to say that one must like the human form that they see, just acknowledge the Christ in them and move on.
The person was not born a killer or rapist. He was made one by others using their own free will.
One of Webster’s definitions of Christ is an ideal type of humanity and in Christian Science: the ideal truth that comes as a divine manifestation of God to destroy incarnate error.
After discovering Spirituality in AA, I studied as much about it as I could and, wanting it passionately, practiced it to the best of my ability. I use it in spiritual healing for myself.
So I am an 82+-year-old man in good physical shape and condition who does not feel any different than I did in my 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Of course, my human organs are showing me signs of wear but not stopping me from doing anything that I really wish.
I have had and still have some cancers in my body but God has placed the right people in my life in the form of medical professionals that take care of it. Why? Because I asked for it. Because I have come to expect it.
What did and do I have to do for this? Use the shortened version of the 3rd Step, saying God help me, and then getting out of His way and having the faith that the right thing is happening.
Our prayers are only as good as the belief that we have in them. I not only must turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him, but I also must not take back ANY PART of it.
SO, HOW DO I REALLY WORK MY PROGRAM 24/7/365 AND NOT BECOME A BORING, PRETENTIOUS SLUG?
Simply by just continually trying to do the next right thing. That’s all, folks! As you study more about spirituality, you add some of the new ideas as they arise.
It is not a race so just do the best you can with this as you learn. Nowhere does it say that you have to do this perfectly, only to the best of your ability. Of course, the best of your ability grows as you learn more.
This is how you use spirituality to assist your rebirth. It doesn’t take the mentality of a brain surgeon to do this. Just do what you are learning to the best of your ability and you will grow beyond your wildest dreams.
Thank you, God!
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