Spirituality in AA

[Larrylive]

I don't know what happened in AA, but I certainly don't get the message the book seems to tell by sitting in meetings.

Primarily; the AA book mentions God 64 times in the primary text (first 164pgs) and never says sponsor. Yet at meetings no one talks about God and they always mention sponsors, what gives?

Concious Contact through prayer and meditation have changed my life more than anything. So if your sponsor doesn't talk to you about God, I'd suggest getting a new one. Then again I used to smoke crack, which might be why I need more than a drunks help

Be Well,
Larry

[MajestyJo]

Thank you for sharing. The drug is but a symptom of my disease. The problem was me and my thinking. I went to a CA meeting and heard a girl tell her story. She had time about 9 years, had relapsed and was back a year. She told my story. She was a heroin addict and had never drank due to her father. I didn`t use street drugs, but I used alcohol the same way I used prescription drugs. They were like dried up alcohol. She told my story so well, that my boyfriend of the time, kept looking at me and smiling and nodding his head, because he heard my words coming from her. The reality for me, it wasn`t my words, it was her Higher Power`s words and they were her God speaking through her.

We all need a God of our understanding. In the last 21 years, I have seen enough people to fill a meeting walk out because they heard the word God, and even more when Jesus Christ is mentioned in person at a meeting. I find it very sad. They say attraction, rather than promotion. We need to live Jesus`walk and people will ask us what we have that is special. It happened many times to me.

Don`t leave someone outside the circle. Someone may just have a different concept of God than you. It says we are not to talk religion in the Preamble of AA. There are many religions within religion. I had trouble walking into the doors of a Roman Catholic Church to attend a friend`s father`s funeral. It stands for everything that I do not believe in. My God paid the price, I don`t have to pay every week for my forgiveness.

I have also had a very strong affinity for the Native Teachings. I am a firm believer that God created the earth and placed everything on this Earth to help us to live, we are all part of the whole.

God Bless you on your journey. May you continue to live clean and sober, doing what ever it takes one day at a time. Our concepts and inner knowing changes, even if they were good ones before, they sometimes, get even better, more enriched and I need to keep limiting our God by our narrow outlook on life.

[Larrylive]

Originally Posted by MajestyJo

It says we are not to talk religion in the Preamble of AA. [/IMG]

Not really, but I think I know what you mean. And it certainly doesn't say anything about a sponsor. God is mention in 5 of the 12 steps, so I am thinking this is an important concept for ones recovery. Tomorrow a Muslim AA will chair a meeting in a Lutheran Church Basement that this Catholic is looking forward to. It will be his first and he has asked to discuss steps 2 and 3. I am praying for the giudance that this shall go well. I don't care by what name you call God as long as we agree on the golden rule after that it's all just a matter of fit.
I am however always interested in improving my conscious contact, and am willing to discuss all avenues, as I have been told they all lead to the summit.

Be Well,
Larry

[MajestyJo]

That is what I was trying to get across, we are all a part of a whole and we often forget that people of other faiths, can recover too.

We have to find our own understanding of God and build a relationship, not put someone else down because they don't believe the same as we do. I have a very good, long-time friend, who went back to her Native roots and her sister, keeps putting her down, all in the name of her own religious beliefs. She has 20 years sober, so she must be doing something right.

For me it has been a spiritual quest, looking for the good in all things.

[Larrylive]

Originally Posted by MajestyJo

We have to find our own understanding of God and build a relationship, not put someone else down because they don't believe the same as we do.

I almost agree.

Where I see the problem is in the word "find'. Seems to me (IMHO) the the program was crafted at a time when most people had an understanding, they did not need to "develope" one. This takes time and effort. 2 things the hopeless addict/alcohol can't or won't afford. I used the word "hopeless", well, because the big book does. And now I have confounded the topic.

So, in order to assist/promote/provide with the program and aid in developing and understanding would be helpful. This reqiures dialogue. Limiting this discussion to ones sponsor results in one piont of view. Therefor in order to keep with the unaffiliated tenets multiple understandings should be considered. Surely the newcomer is lacking in the sound descision department, and we wouldn't really want them turning their will and their lives over to the care of a doorknob, would we?

It has also occured to me that, upon making a 12th step call, should the person want what we have to offer, after hearing our story, steps 1,2 & 3 should be finished before the end of the conversation. With step 4 explained and the choice of "shall we keep going or continue in the morning?"

I hold these views, as I was a "hopeless" case and nothing, save God, could have relieve my addiction. Some fare well with chit-chat ie; sponsors and meetings, I on the other hand needed something a little more drastic, a conversion, a spiritual awakening.

I guess what I am trying to say is.......
If you have been in and out of the program for as long as I was, give yourself a break and ask God for help, you don't even need an understanding, all you have to do is believe.

Be Well
Larry

[MajestyJo]

Thank you, I do understand what you mean. With me, I thought I had an understanding and everyone else was off the wall and needed enlightenment. It didn't matter that I was angry at God, the whole world, with a big chip on my shoulder. It was the only God I understanding I knew, I had been brought up in a very strict Gospel Church, where to my mind, everything was "Thou Shall Not." My misunderstanding was my attitude, which said, "Why Not. "

In the 12 & 12 in says, `God of our understanding`and later in the Steps, it says, `God of our understanding` because as a result of working the Steps, you have come to understand God.

Seventh Step Prayer:

When ready, we say something like this:

"My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding, Amen."

You can`t know something you have never been taught. I was taught things and I found them to be false information. You can`t do if you don`t know, you can`t force feed these Steps, you can go through the motions, but they don`t heal and change you if you are not honest, open-minded, and willing.

Thanks for your great shares.

[MajestyJo]

Like what you said about find. You say, many people didn't need to find, they knew.

The program started with the Oxford Group, and Bill and Bob changed it to include everyone. To my way of thinking they were truly inspired. We often forget that there were 100 men and women who made the decisions and it was a we collaboration.

For me, I never lost my beliefs, my life became enriched as a result of applying the spiritual principle and applying the program to my life.

For me, it is my contact with my God and my personal relationship with my God that made the difference. We can know He/She is there, but what are we doing about it. Have faith He is there? Do we take Him for granted? Do we spend time talking to him and asking His advice? Are we open to what He would have us do with our life, or are we still going our own way? So many questions we can ask, but in today, I no longer have to question my God.