Unclean Spirit

 In the first chapter of the gospel of Mark in the New Testament, Jesus encounters a man described as having “an unclean spirit.”  Well, doesn’t that sound like a good description for an alcoholic…and I suppose a few other types of people.  What does Jesus do?  He tells the unclean spirit it to shut up.  “Be quiet” to quote the Bible.  After Step Five of the 12 step recovery process, a person is supposed to sit “quietly” for an hour to see if they got everything out in telling another person the mess they made of their life.  Did they bring up all the spirits of resentment and fear against people, places and things?  Anything left out?  Quiet is part of the healing process.  Our inner demons, whatever they are, hate quiet.  They hate meditation.  They don’t want us to reflect quietly on how are we doing, honestly.  Have we missed or omitted any character defects, shortcomings?  Quiet yourself and you quiet your demons.  They hate sober quiet.  They will go bother someone else if you spend quiet time each day.