God

I hear many people in alcohol recovery programs say that they don’t believe in God.  Yet they are sober and becoming better persons than when they drank.  They are following the recovery program of AA.  So I think that they do believe in God, but don’t want to let go of their skepticism with organized religion.  Don’t blame God for some earlier brush with religion.  Recovery people really do believe in God because it says in their recovery program that alcoholism is fatal and incurable, except that God could and would, if God were sought.  So they are seeking a God they don’t believe in.  That’s a lot of work.  Maybe it would be easier to accept the existence of a God you don’t believe in.  It would make meditation a lot more productive.  

Proof

 Did you ever say to your self that you would not believe something until there was more or some proof?  Well, faith and proof don’t mix.   Nor does such proof change you.  Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus had lots of proof, but it did not make him a better person.  And he probably did not get a second opinion before his betrayal of Jesus.  Some people say they believe that AA will keep them sober because they see, they have proof, of sober people working AA Program.  But if they don’t work it, then even such proof is useless.  Christians think they would be better Christians if they had more proof.  Action is what makes us better, not proof.  And belief is only a first step.  No one ever got sober with only a first step of belief.  

Junk Mail

 Someone reminds me that God does get “junk mail.”  It is when I pray all about me and how miserable I am, or how I want to win and not lose something that is quite trivial in the larger scheme of things.  When it is all about me, nothing is trivial.  So now when I ask God for “me only” stuff, I say first, “God this is junk mail, but” and then go on from there.  It keeps me in a good humor and this is better than whining, or resentment.  But when I ask for forgiveness or mercy, well, that is never junk mail.  I know this because God answers with the solution.  That means action on my part.  This puts self-pity out the window.  

Happy Thanksgiving

On this Thanksgiving Day, I give thanks for all those people who have been a window for me so that I can see.  But first I must see the light in my life.  And my hope is that my prayer practice, spiritual reading and service to others will make me a window for light to shine where someone might only be seeing darkness and gloom in their life.  But first I must let in the light come to shine brightly.  For this I give Thanksgiving.  

Loss

 Some solutions call for the asset of loss.  It is the letting go that solves a problem or dilemma.  The sacrifice of something precious to us can make us a better person for the sake of another.  When one becomes an alcoholic they lose their ability to drink like a normal person.  The solution to this situation is to lose the practice of drinking totally.  Abstinence.  The loss of drinking, if in a Recovery program brings great assets.  When one takes on a religious or spiritual practice of meditation, they give up time for some other things so as to practice the meditation.  And that leads to a sense of compassion for others.  Which in turn leads to letting go of something for the sake of another person.  Love is an asset of loss.  With surprising gain to often follow.  

Thanksgiving Plans

Do you have Thanksgiving plans this week?  I am going to my sister Jane’s home for a family dinner, and some football on TV.  But if you have no place to go, why not go where people are fed who have no place to go?  Alcoholics Anonymous will feed you.  Or you could go to somewhere that feeds people who have no place to go.  Be of service and become one of the servers or one who cleans up, and eat with the many who are there.  There is rarely “no place to go,” in a town.  Local churches, synagogues, can tell you where to go.  Self-pity can end up in a bar drinking alone with others.   

Grace

 I love the phrase from Romans, Chapter 5, in the Bible.  “Where sins abounds, grace aboundeth more.”  No matter what mess I make, God has my back.  I just need to surrender and cooperate.  So I like the phrase, “Turn it over.”  I don’t so much solve something unaided, a mess I have made, as I cooperate in letting God in, trust, hope.  This is often part of my meditation.  While I will never become a guru, I can get out of my own way.  A mess cannot solve the mess unaided.