" . . . . Which Answered All My Problems"

"There is scarcely any form of trouble
and misery which has not been overcome among us."

 Page: 52

Step we're on: Step Two

Chapter: "We Agnostics"

Subject: Faith, Intellect, Doubt, Bedevilments

Read Time: 1.5 minutes

 

Good morning. We are onto page 52.

This is hope for those still suffering from bad relationships, depression, even financial woes and unemployment --  drinking or not.

• What question did we have to ask ourselves?       

We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems this same readiness to change our point of view. 

Bedevil  - to torment, to abuse in a fiendish (diabolical) manner, to throw into confusion; worry.

~ The Winston Simplified Dictionary – 1938

• With what were we having trouble?

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

"Business failure, insanity, fatal illness, suicide -
these calamities in his immediate family embittered and depressed"

Notice how the co-authors never do that little thing so many of us do, threading into our recovery pitch, repeating over and over how crappy life still is and how, "We are not saints," as if we have to keep excusing the inability to "maintain anything like perfect adherence”. 

These co-authors claim to have really LOST all of these bedevilments, even though they remained imperfect and unsaintly.  

Even the 'imperfect' lose these bedevilments! 

You do not have to be a virtual saint to live without these miseries.

" If there was a Devil, he seemed
the Boss Universal, and he certainly had me."

These bedevilments are presented in past tense:  "Were."   After our spiritual awakening and recovery, our relationships, emotions, depression, finances, purpose, all straighten out. We gain courage, happiness and become usefully whole. 

If not ... then something is seriously wrong with what we think is our "recovery".

• Looking at the quality of our lives, what seemed to be most important?

was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight? Of course it was.

• When we saw others solve these problems, we had to do what?

When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God.

When falling short of sainthood becomes an excuse for continuing misery, then spiritual unraveling also continues. Hitting a spiritual brick wall certainly satisfies the "we are not saints" principle, but it's also a backslide of progress and willful failure to enlarge a spiritual existence.  

• How good are our ideas?

Our ideas did not work.         

• What did work?

But the God idea did.

Don’t let anyone convince you that God doesn't remove these 'bedevilments." That is simply NOT the experience conveyed in this book. He does remove them if we maintain conscious contact with Him, practicing these principles in all our affairs. 

It is a fact for the co-authors of "Alcoholics Anonymous" and those of us who have turned life and will over to God through conscious contact with Him. 

TOMORROW

• What made it possible for the Wright brothers to be successful?
• What would have happened without it?
• What were the agnostics and atheists doing?
• What did the recovered alcoholics show everyone?
• Is logic entirely useless? 
• How do we feel about logic (2 sentences)

Peace and  Love,

Danny S – RLRA

Real Live Recovered Alcoholic

http://stepelevencomesalive.blogspot.com/