c
h a n g e ?
I would like to hear about CHANGE. For me CHANGE as an acronym means; Come Hear and
know God Eternally. In the beginning it was Come Here (meetings) and know Gods Energy. Things change and so am I. Thanx -- anonymous
Preface: Because this
book has become the basic text for our Society and has helped such large numbers
of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists a sentiment against
any radical changes.
(the
first one hundred and sixty four pages, including "The Doctor's Opinion," have not
changed, except that Dr. Silkworth finally signed his name, in the second
edition. He signed it Anonymous, in the first edition.)
Doctor's Opinion
page xxvi; "Men and women drink
essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is
so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time
differentiate the true from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the
only normal one. They are restless, irritable and discontented, unless they can
again experience the sense of ease and comfort which comes at once by taking a
few drinks
- drinks which they see others taking with impunity. After they have
succumbed to the desire again, as so many do, and the phenomenon of craving
develops, they pass through the well known stages of a spree, emerging
remorseful, with a firm resolution not to drink again. This is repeated over and
over, and unless this person can experience an entire psychic change
there is very little hope of his recovery."
page xxvii; "Faced with this
problem, if a doctor is honest with himself, he must sometimes feel his own
inadequacy. Although he gives all that is in him, it often is not enough. One
feels that something more than human power is needed to produce the essential
psychic change. Though the aggregate of recoveries resulting from
psychiatric effort is considerable, we physicians must admit we have made little
impression upon the problem as a whole. Many types do not respond to the
ordinary psychological approach."
WE AGNOSTICS
page 50; "Here are thousands
of men and women, worldly indeed. They flatly declare that since they have come
to believe in a Power greater than themselves, to take a certain attitude toward
that Power, and to do certain simple things. There has been a
revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking. In the face
of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human
resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of
direction flowed into them. This happened soon after they wholeheartedly
met a few simple requirements."
page 53; "We had to ask
ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems this same readiness to change
our point of view. We were having trouble with personal relationships,
we couldn't control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and
depression, we couldn't make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were
full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn't seem to be of real help to other
people...."
page 55; "In this book you
will read the experience of a man who thought he was an atheist. His story is so
interesting that some of it should be told now. His change of heart was
dramatic, convincing, and moving."
Being one of the "sometimes slowly" types,
I am keenly aware when some of my old tapes - attitudes - are being erased, with
God's mighty touch, from heaven. This process is still underway, just
short of three decades. It is definitely a process, relating to the entire
psychic change, and not an event.
At nineteen years sober, someone was
writing his thesis for graduate school and asked me if he could interview me.
His thesis, about religion, was centered on the spiritual awakening.
I agreed, and he asked me for three references, so that he could verify my
testimony. After a few weeks, I saw him again, and he said that one of the
references told him, "I have known him all of his life, and he has not
changed one damn bit."
What
I have to accept is that ronnie is ronnie. His personality can't change.
He is a flawed individual. Because of
his error, his shortcomings, his defects of character, his short sightedness,
his rebellion, his defiance, his humanness, and his nature, finally, he
understands the need for spiritual access to the precious one. In that
spiritual contact is our hope, our faith, our inspiration, our comfort, our
guidance, our wisdom, our truth, our love. But ronnie does not have any of
those things. The deal for me is to starve to death what ronnie is.
In other words, in practicing the principles, we are focused on the solution.
And on that boulevard* of anonymous recovery, the problems
disappear. But should I choose to revert to, and participate in, self-will, all of my old
stuff returns, with a vengeance.
The most painful part of recovery for me has been
to get acclimated to the concepts of the
spirit that we are awakened into, which recovery demands that we embrace, and
is described in the book of Isaiah 53:1-6.
"Who
has believed our message? To whom will the LORD reveal his saving power?
My servant grew up in the LORD’s presence like a tender green shoot, sprouting
from a root in dry and sterile ground. There was nothing beautiful or
majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was
despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He
was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were
a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for
our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped,
and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have
left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the guilt
and sins of us all."
About change however, be assured that
I went from being a multi-millionaire to being a pauper. I went from being
dependent on the ways of the world, to being God dependent. I use to
depend on insurance policies, the legal profession, the medical community,
family, career, money, property, prestige, and religion. Now I depend
on lowly service, weakness, prayer, the recovery process, honesty, and truth.
No more propaganda nor spin for me. Hopefully, I have been deceived enough.
But be sure that had
I not deceived
people, I would never have been deceived. Now, I do understand the law
of reciprocity. What ever I have done, I will get to take a look at, from
the other side. Things that I have done have been done unto me, until I
learn how to forgive those people, in Christ. Some of you know about my
forgiveness process. But God's only son did not even have the power to
forgive, and neither do I. God does have the power to forgive,
however. If I did have the power to forgive, I would not only not need god,
I would be
trying to be God.
Now
let us get into some real change:
"If
your man accepts your offer, it should be pointed out that physical treatment is
but a small part of the picture. Though you are providing him with the best
possible medical attention, he should understand that he must undergo a
change of heart. To get over drinking will require a transformation of
thought and attitude. We all had to place recovery above everything, for without
recovery we would have lost both home and business."
(bigbook page 143)
We
have already mentioned the need for an entire psychic change above. Even
one of the promises to be fulfilled states:
"Our
whole attitude and outlook upon life will change."
Now
let us reveal the scriptures in Romans
2:27-29;
"In fact, uncircumcised
Gentiles who keep God’s law will be much better off than you Jews who are
circumcised and know so much about God’s law but don’t obey it.
For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or
because you have gone through the Jewish ceremony of circumcision. No,
a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision
is not a cutting of the body but a change of heart produced by God’s
Spirit. Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God, not from
people."
Now
let us bring to the forefront of our consciousness, the scriptures in the gospel
of John 4:21-24;
Jesus replied, “Believe
me, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the
Father here or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know so little about the one
you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes
through the Jews. But the time is coming and is already here when
true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father
is looking for anyone who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so
those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
We
definitely need to understand that God's chosen, the ones
whose heart is right with God, are God's Jews, in truth. The Jews of this
world are just unchosen Jews, unless they go through the rebirth process.
But Jesus was, is, and will always be a Jew; the king of God's Jews.
And Jesus, God's only son, is the only one that lived a life that pleased
God. He is the only one that became spirit, at his
crucifixion.
Luke
23:46 states: And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT."
Having said this, He breathed His last.
(NASB)
When we are awakened into his spirit, we have the opportunity to
become the vision that God has of us, but it is a long process that gets us
through discipleship training, before our new employer shows up.
Please notice that salvation does not come through
Christians however. Remember many years ago evangelists were so proud of the large number that
came to the alter, for salvation. Friends, that is just like our entering
the doors of abstinence, for the first time. The process has not even
started, yet. We have just arrived at the opportunity of "many
are called, few are chosen."
In the days
that a lot of the bible was inspired to be written, the word saved meant to be
made complete.
Seems
that the book of James has an idea of what being made complete is, in the mind
of God:
Dear brothers and sisters, whenever
trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your
faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for
when your endurance is fully developed,
you will be strong in character and ready for anything.
(James 1:2-4)
We
need to understand what Jesus means when he says,
"I
am life." In the doctor's
opinion, it states:
"The physician who, at our request, gave us this letter, has been kind enough to enlarge upon his views in another statement which follows. In this statement he confirms what we who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It did not satisfy us to be told that we could not control our drinking just because
we were maladjusted to life, that we were in full flight from reality, or were outright mental defectives. These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of us. But we are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. In our belief, any picture of the alcoholic which leaves out this physical factor is incomplete."
To put this in perspective, let us understand that we are intelligent people,
but we do not know how to manage our lives, so that we can arrive safe and
sound, in the Kingdom of God. That is the destiny for all that are
wholehearted and enthusiastic in their efforts of anonymous recovery, that are
willing to learn how to let go absolutely; happy
sojourn.
Before we close this perspective, let us take a moment for a small amount of
humor, since we are generally so intense. Seems that a Roman
Catholic went to confessional recently, and as he entered the booth, he spoke to
the Roman Catholic priest and said through the small screen, "You
first."
Let us close this perspective with the thought that what we learn, after we
think we know it all, is really important.
ps: *
have used the word avenue of recovery for years. now i choose the word boulevard,
because we see so many people going in a different direction than we are headed.
