The Core Mission

 If you line up the four Gospel resurrection stories, they don’t match up completely.  Jesus appears but the details are not the same.  In one instance the disciples are supposed to go back home to Galilee where they will see Jesus. In another instance it says that all will begin from Jerusalem.  In another, he appears and shows them his hands and side.  In another he shows them his hands and feet.  Then there is Acts of the Apostles with some differences.  What to make of all this?  Well, there is the core belief, Jesus is Risen.  Then there are different experiences, emphasizes, memories of the core event, but the core event is the same.  Look at church.  Lots of differences in worship but the same core belief.  In Recovery, there are lots of different meeting styles but it is the same core belief and reason for being there.  Differences need not divide if we can hold onto the core belief.  The problem comes when we forget the core and argue over the way it is expressed.  Martyrdom can result from this.  

Heart Change

 A lot of people say they are Christian, that is, they believe Jesus is God.  But their faith remains in their heads, yet does not move to their hearts.  How so?  They don’t forgive so easily.  They hold grudges and resentments.  When Jesus rose from the dead, as Christians believe, he came to his surprised and terrified followers, who at that moment were not following at all, and said to them, “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven.  Whose sins you retain, are retained.”  Jesus was forgiving them for their cowardice and betrayal, so they should do the same.  In recovery, people see others who are not drinking, and they may stop drinking themselves.  But that is not recovery, until it moves to the heart where one begins to forgive and let go of resentments.  You can go to church, synagogues, temples and meetings.  But this is but a start.  

Cactus

Become an aloe, like a cactus or aloe plant.  They grow in desert places, dry places and have the capacity to retain moisture to feed birds, air and soil.  They can even flower when least expected.  Prayer gives you the succulent of aloe which is a healer, just like the plant.  Your spiritual life practice can become of service to others who are short on soul-feeding.  So if you feel like life is a bit dry, and desert-like, keep at it.  Your Power is like aloe.  And it is for a purpose.  

Earthquakes

 I live over a fault line in San Francisco.  April is Earthquake month.  Am I prepared?  Well, on the level of foodstuffs and what to turn off and such, yes.  But for the rest of my life, not so much.  I live too much down the road.  Earthquakes take out the road, real or imagined.  We already had an earthquake this month.  It reminds me that I need to ask what am I doing today, instead of being a Scarlett O’Hara, and saying I will think about that tomorrow or down the road.  I will go to a meeting some other day.  I will pray some other day.  I will call so and so some other day and so it goes.  Life lived tomorrow.  So I write this blog today so you can have something in the now.  I feel so good about myself, I will now go off and read the Sports pages.  

Listening

 One of the beat things about listening to someone else is that it can break the stranglehold of self-centeredness.  I find that spiritual paths that focus on sanity, surrender and service, the “Three S’s” are very good for getting me out of myself.  So I try to be a good listener when I know that someone is trying for self-expression, or to untangle emotions, for instance.  On my better days I will even put down the Sports Pages, my breakfast bible, and listen.  If I wish the person would finish so I could get on with my important day, saving the world or whatever, then I am not listening.  Looks can fade and strength can fade, but being a good listener can be an always thing.  And can keep you attractive, or at least worth keeping around!  

Erasure

 If you write something down with a pencil on a piece of paper and then erase it, there is still some mark where the writing was.  It is clearly visible but still there.  Oh, for those who don’t write or don’t write with a pencil, the erasure is at other opposite end of the pointy part.  I digress.  Anyhow, I hope that I can be the kind of person that when I am gone from someone, though my presence is erased from their mind, I leave some good impression.  Like a blog that you read and then forget it.  But you remember it was good at the time.  Or it was so stupid and shallow that you cannot fully erase it from your mind.  Let us try to leave good impressions.  

The Killer

 If you offer an alcoholic in recovery a drink of alcohol, they will refuse.  It is not a choice.  Alcohol will kill them.  Why?  Because they cannot drink just a little.  Would you in-jest something that would kill you?  Not if you are sane.  Someone with a height phobia would not go near a high cliff.  They have a propensity to jump or get dizzy and fall off.  If you have the propensity to check your phone while driving, you would leave it in a bag or out of reach or just turn it off.  The life you save might not be just your own.  So too it is with foods.  Once you know, you know.  Second chances don’t always end in survival.