The Lost Theme
Step Twelve
“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
The discussion in the 12&12 opens with this;
“The joy of living is the theme of A.A.’s Twelfth Step, and action is its key word. Here we turn outward toward our fellow alcoholics who are still in distress. Here we experience the kind of giving that asks no rewards. Here we begin to practice all Twelve Steps of the program in our daily lives so that we and those about us may find emotional sobriety. When the Twelfth Step is seen in its full implication, it is really talking about the kind of love that has no price tag on it.”
The Joy of Living - Love - No Rewards - Emotional Sobriety… I wonder how many of us lose this right here.
Spiritual Awakening
“When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel and believe that which he could not do before on his unaided strength and resources alone.”
Doesn’t that feel as if we’re back on Step One? Unaided - Alone? “WE!”
“He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being.”
That a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity?
“He has been set on a path which tells him he is really going somewhere, that life is not a dead end, not something to be endured or mastered. In a very real sense he has been transformed, because he has laid hold of a source of strength which, in one way or another, he had hitherto denied himself.”
Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life.
I really, truly (I want to say hate soooo badly) dislike my dirt job. Really - truly. I feel so deeply as if I were forced into doing it to make someone else happy yet I know it has been very beneficial to me in the short run. The “outfit” I’m working for has no concept, none whatsoever, of decency towards fellow mankind. They use humans up quickly, by the boatload, and do whatever they can to diminish them in the process. Truly disgusting and unconscionable. And despite all my efforts to make the best of it, conduct myself most professionally, treat others around me with dignity and respect, make proper use of my many years of experience in the work area, etc., etc. there is no hope that this employment will continue past this January. That’s how impossible “they” have made the requirements despite the current economy.
So, I return to what has become the root of all my peace of mind - AA and its principles of Love, Tolerance, Kindness and Grace. After all, I was taught in no uncertain terms, that God is more powerful than the disease (and my employer is the disease). God is more powerful and He is for me and us!
Tags: 12th-Step, alcoholics-anonymous, gratitude, RecoveryRelated Stories
POSTED IN: The Twelfth Step
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