Reliance Not Defiance

[MajestyJo]

"We believe, and so suggested a few years ago, that the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limted to this class and never occurs in the average temperate drinker. These allergic types can never safely use alcohol in any form at all; and once having lost their self confidence, their reliance upon things human, their problems pile up on them and become astonishingly difficult to solve."

A couple weeks ago I got stuck on that little part of the sentence and it was making me nutzoid. And this isn't even close to the first time I've read that Big Book. LOL

Mostly I wanted to have someone make it make sense to me, especially since Dr. Silkworth started the letter earlier, declaring what the doctors--in all their infinite wisdom--had already concluded about alcoholism.

I had a good A.A. friend--a good friend PERIOD--share with me his interpretation of 'reliance upon things human': psychology, methodology, human aid, self help programs, moderation management, guru's, spouses, doctors--anything solely reliant on human beings as solutions to the problem.

And BOY did I run the gambit. Moderation management, self help books up the whazoo, doctors, psychiatrists/psychologists, therapy, group therapy.....a whole lot of 'reliance upon things human'..... But it wasn't until that reliance upon things human caved that I was able to find something different in life.

Makes sense to me that the opposite of 'reliance upon things human' is 'reliance upon things divine'.

Therein lies my freedom.

This was post on another site by a friend who gave me permission to share it on my site, which is now gone, so hopefully, she won't mind me posting it here. This was true in 2006, and still true in today.

Some of my freedom comes from knowing that things human are often sent by the God of my understanding. For many years, I used people, places and things. In today, God utilizes people, places and things, to show me the way. I have been blessed many times over by those Earthlings that have been put i my path as well as the alcoholics and addicts who shared their journey with me. I am granted freedom from active addiction as long as I remember that this is a spiritual program and my disease is not just a physical one.

[MajestyJo]

Belief meant reliance, not; defiance. In A.A, we saw the fruits of this belief: men and women spared from alcohol's final catastrophe. We saw them meet and transcend their other pains and trials. We saw them calmly accept impossible situations, seeking neither to run nor to recriminate. This was not only faith; it was faith that worked under all conditions. We soon concluded that whatever price in humility we must pay, we would pay." Now let's take the guy full of faith, but still reeking of alcohol. He believes he is devout. His religious observance is scrupulous. He's sure he still believes in God, but suspects that God doesn't believe in him. He takes pledges and more pledges. Following each, he not only drinks again, but acts worse than the last time. Valiantly he tries to fight alcohol, imploring God's help, but the help doesn't come. What, then, can be the matter?

To clergymen, doctors, friends, and families, the alcoholic who means well and tries hard is a heartbreaking riddle. To most A.A.'s, he is not. There are too many of us who have been just like him, and have found the riddle's answer.

From Step Two in AA 12 & 12 (see Step Two section in this site for more)

I always had a belief in God but didn't have much faith in Him because I was told that I was a bad girl and everything I did was a sin. I walked in fear of being struck down at any moment and yet I didn't know how to change. There were so many rules and thou shall nots that I didn't feel like I could live that way. I didn't have faith in myself, and it wasn't until I came to believe that God had faith in me that I could find it within myself. It was through the program that I found that faith and became to rely on the God I found through AA.

I learned to rely on that God to show me a new way to live.

[MajestyJo]

May God grant you always-
A sunbeam to warm you,
A moonbeam to charm you,
A sheltering angel
So nothing can harm you.
Laughter to cheer you,
Faithful friends near you,
And whenever you pray
Heaven to hear you.

- Author Unknown