Beginnings

 If I say, “Today is a new beginning!” It will not be a real new beginning unless a past “new beginning” comes to an end.  I can make resolutions, but they bear no fruits or little fruit, if I do not let go of the past, which at one time was a new beginning.  I cannot start one thing while still doing another.  It would be like an alcoholic who said they would get into recovery, a new beginning, while still drinking.  Or starting a fitness program while still smoking.  Or getting into a relationship with a new person while still in relationship with someone from your past.  The past is never past until we surrender it.  

The Last Time

 I hear some alcoholics whine about life not being any fun after they stopped drinking.  I try to remind them that they are still alive after their last drunk.  Every alcoholic has a last drunk, but not every one of them lives to whine about it.  When I am going through a patch of a bad day, I try to remind myself that today is a gift and whining was not the purpose of the gift.  

The Poor

 You don’t want to work with or for the poor?  They just stay poor anyway, you think and that is frustrating for your desire for change in the economic system.  Well, you are not God.  But if you can work with the poor out of love, then they may stay poor, but they are poor being loved instead of ignored.  Loneliness is a poverty too, a poverty of soul.  Talking to someone living “rough” on the streets, may not change their living on the streets, but it might change, for the moment, their sense of isolation.  Talking to a newcomer alcoholic might not make them sober, but it might give them a sense of connection.  

Abundance

 Ever feel like your day is empty?  “I got plenty of nothin” is the refrain.  Well, I have found that giving myself in service to others can fill me with abundance.  Abundance of what?  Abundance of companions and connection.  A fellowship is never scarce.  Being all about me is quite lonely.  

Slavery

 Mother Theresa of Calcutta said that work without love is slavery.  I try to keep this in mind when I have some obligation to do, such as go help someone out in my church work.  Am I whining?  Then it is slavery and that is demoralizing.  So I try to put some love into the effort and if I cannot conjure it up myself I ask God to put love into my heart.  Of course, my heart may be full of selfishness and “all about me” stuff, so it can get crowded in there.  I do a daily inventory to see what needs to be tossed out and if I lack the power to do it, God provides the energy.  

Belief

 Some people say, “I do not believe in God.”  But often this is not so much a thought out process, as it is a way to avoid something that requires work.  It is the same with people who do say, “I believe in God.”  Both can be cheap statements, that is, neither one can require much work.  God cannot be had cheaply.  Some don’t believe because it would be costly in time and talent.  Belief to be real requires that you give your all.  “I believe” and do nothing, is no real belief.  To not believe can also be a cheap way out.  Time and effort is costly.  What effort?  Well, the corporal works of mercy, or working on avoiding the seven deadly sins would be work.  I hear some people say how hard it is to just do a few minutes of meditation each day.  God belief is more full-time than that.  

Options

 It can be a good thing to run out of options.  Too many options and you can end up choosing nothing, or choosing something but not “with your whole heart.”  When a drunk runs out of options, cannot stop drinking on their own, this is a bottom for them.  They have run out of options.  If hey enter a recovery process of some sort, such as AA, they just might embrace it with their whole heart and find ongoing sobriety.  People who “try things out,” generally don’t stick to it.  The whole heart is what makes an option a true choice.