A.a. Thread

[AnneLine]

Tab, do what you need to make AA work for you. 

 

Like Phatmass and any other community, you can't expect everyone to be exactly like you... but you can look for the kernel you have in common.  

 

That kernel is where God comes to dwell at AA 'where two or more are gathered in My Name."   A lot of people have a lot of baggage, things that could keep them from God and from sobriety... honor that they are doing what they can to find God and to get free of alcohol... you share this in common with them. 

 

Focus on what you have in common, not that which would divide (Satan is totally into the divisive stuff....).  

 

You share God with them in that space.   Don't let the machinations people need to make it possible for them to make AA work for them derail you..... just trust God is gathering them into Himself. OK?

 

Praying for you. 

 

Oh... and I love the image of the Holy Spirit brooding the world like an egg!!!!!   It's beautifully expressed in a poem by a Jesuit, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89):

 

God's Grandeur

 

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.

 It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like like the ooze of oil

Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod? 

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

  And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

 

And for all this, nature is never spent;

  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

  Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

 

 

 

What a beautiful image - the Holy Spirit brooding our world like a giant egg!!!!   Did you know... that there is a bare patch on mother birds 'the brood patch' where she holds her eggs close to hear heart to keep them warm?  I often think of how God holds us close to His Heart in much the same way.

 

May God hold you all THAT CLOSE to His heart this night/day....

Edited November 22, 2013 by AnneLine

[AnneLine]

Sorry, Tab and all... it took a few tries to get that poem in correctly!

 

If you read it before, maybe look at it again, now that it is not jumbled.... but be prepared to read it a few times and pray over it... because there is a lot there...

 

Blessings!  Pray for  me as I do for you!

[Luigi]

How goes it?

[Guest]

Missed last night....Was the first time I missed in pry about 3 weeks or so....The last few meetings have been good....The other night I was at a 10 pm meeting with not many people there and was called on to share....So I did....My second time sharing....Both times very brief but it was good to add something to the meeting....Still haven't had a drink....Looking forward to hitting the 3 month mark in a few weeeks....I'm still on the seventh step which I will be on for a long time.....Asking God to remove character defects....I have to ask Him everyday and I am becoming more aware what these defects are....And not getting drunk helps a lot in having God remove these defects....

Edited November 26, 2013 by Guest

[Guest]

This is not to be a rebel or "defy" what aa teaches....But the other night a guy was saying its impossible to stick with aa and remain sober without a sponser....Although that is exactly what I am doing and its worked so far....I said this before but God is my sponser and He's all I need....And I believe He led me to the meetings so I am not saying I don't need them....The meetings have helped and I believe God is in the midst of them because we are gathering there in His name and saying the Our Father at the end of every meeeting....Mabey the last laugh will be on me though and I will end up getting a recovered alcoholic as a sponser.....Although as of right now I don't see it happening and I am doing a decent job at completing the steps honestly on my own with Gods help....

Edited November 26, 2013 by Guest

[Luigi]

Everybody's different. Some people really ned a sponsor - they start feeling weak or whatever and they need someone to talk to. You might not need that - at least it seems so right now.

 

Glad to know you're not really struggling with it.

 

And don't get stuck on the Step Seven - if you (or any of us) wait for all our character flaws to be eliminated, we'd never leave the house! 

[AnneLine]

AA Purists might disagree, but in some ways, Josh, you are using this thread as your accountability piece, and US as your sponsor....

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

I busted last night and can't get to a meeting today, please pray for me that the desire to not drink alcohol continues and that i just get straight back into it and get back to meetings asap.

[AnneLine]

Tab, yesterday is history.... you can't change it.

 

All you have is right now.  So....just for today, don't drink.   Don't make a big deal of it.   Just for the rest of today, don't drink.

 

If you need to, just for this hour, don't drink... and then extend to another hour.

 

We're proud of you for trying... and we are praying for you.

 

As my Addictions Class teacher kept saying to us when I was in counseling school:

 

"You are not responsible for your addiction; you are responsible for your recovery."

 

Words to change and live by, Tab.....  :heart:

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

ok thanks anneline. I plan on going to a meeting tonight. I really don't wan't to drink anymore, i actually hate it. Please pray for my family too, this is rough for them and i just had to ask my mum and step dad to hide all alcohol from me and not leave it laying around or in the fridge, that that would aid my recovery. And they said yes, thanks be to GOD. I will post after my meeting tonight. I need to find me again and i really don't wan't to loose my family, especially not at the hands of Drugs and Alcohol. For Jesus yes, for these NO!

[PhuturePriest]

I haven't read this thread until now, but my goodness, it's a very good thread and very eye-opening. My grandfathers on both sides were alcoholics (One a functioning alcoholic and the other the more scary, mean type), so alcoholism runs in the family, and sometimes it's good to get a wake-up call so I don't treat alcoholism as a joke.

 

If I may, one thing I would recommend is if you do start to get really tempted, go back to daily meetings. What sometimes happens with people who struggle with depression is they are given pills that cure their depression, but after a while they stop because they don't feel depressed anymore, not realizing it's because of the pills, and it's never too long after that they become depressed again. If you start to feel a considerable amount of temptation, go back to daily meetings. I know that when I'm tempted to do something, it's never a gigantic temptation -- it's just a small thought, and that small thought leads to more, and with those comes a consideration of "Well, maybe..." and that thought leads to actually doing it.

 

Also, do you have a spiritual director? Everyone should have one, really. I'm sure if you asked a Priest nearby you could find one to be your spiritual director, and he could help you with your spiritual life, which will ultimately help you with your addiction (And despite what you are sometimes tempted to think, this IS an addiction. Just because you never hit rock-bottom in the way other people did, that doesn't excuse the fact you display a need for alcohol, rather than a want, which is what addiction is. A want is a habit, a need is an addiction, especially if it persists.). I'm glad you say that you are very close to God, but even the Saints who were closest to God would never have passed up the opportunity to get even closer. The master never believes he knows all there is to know, and in the same way the holy person with the close friendship with God never believes he has attained the closest relationship he possibly can. There's always a new height you can get to, and a spiritual director can really help you reach it.

[Guest]

Thanks for that Miles....I don't have a spirtual director but I will look into getting one....It would be good for me....

[Guest]

Prayers Tab...You said before you weren't an alcoholic but I think its clear you are....You are getting drunk when you don't want to....Do the first step and admit you are powerless over alcohol and your life has become unmanagable...Do the 1st step and believe it 100 percent...Without doing that first step and doing it legit you can't move on to the others....I wouldn't be in aa if I thought I wasn't poweless over alcohol....That's why I could never fix it on my own when I tried....And I tried many times without the help of aa and it never worked....Because I always thought alcohol was somethinng I coulld control and keep in check...And the truth is its something I'm powerless over....Godbless...

[Guest]

O and get a sponser....

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Thanks bro i have a sponsor as of today, and i start the 1st step tomorrow, and i am powerless over alcohol and my life has become unmanageable whether a lot or a little or half half i don't know, but it is unmanageable at least in a few areas and i don't wan't it expanding into all areas. But this still does not mean i'm an alcoholic, but also if Jesus reveals to me that i am an alcoholic than of course i will surrender that up. The 3rd tradition is the only requirement for membership, that is 'the desire to stop drinking alcohol.' and i do wan't to give up alcohol, you don't have to be an alcoholic to be a member of a.a, although according to the big book you do have to identify as being an alcoholic to share from the floor. My last 3 failed attempts at a.a and giving up alcohol i never actually did the steps, also each time i identified as being an alcoholic and i feel like i lied and i hate lying almost more than anything except getting drunk or high, i don't lie much and i don't wan't to lie ever again, so we will see, i identify as being a hard drinker whom is present in the big book and welcome at a.a, and this time i have a home group also which is one of the suggested things. I'm really going to give it a better go this time around, and hopefully this is the time i quit alcohol for the rest of my life. I actually hate getting drunk now, it's hell for me and sometimes for days afterwards it feels like the gates of hell are about to open up and swallow me for eternity especially the day after, and that is very scary.Also with the grace of God the thought of moderating has been banished this time around, so far anyway, i really don't even wan't to moderate, hopefully i can keep this mind set, please Lord let me keep this mind set, send your spirit to renew my mind.

 

But all in all Just for today, yesterday is gone and tomorrow never comes. I alone can do it but alone i can not. To God as you understand him. May God bless the people whom can moderate alcohol, i can't.

 

Onward christian souls

 

Jesus is Lord.

 

St Paul " Drunkenness is evil." " Don't get drunk off wine, be content with the spirit of God."

 

 

 

 

P.s. If God has revealed to you that your an alcoholic Josh than good for you bro, time to heal.

 

Edited November 29, 2013 by Tab'le De'Bah-Rye