Emmet Fox and Alcoholics Anonymous
One of the very early recovering alcoholics who worked with co-founder Bill W. was a man named Al, whose mother was secretary to Emmet Fox, a popular lecturer on New Thought philosophy. When the early groups were meeting in New York, members would frequently adjourn after a meeting and go to Steinway Hall to listen to Fox's lecture. To this day there are AA groups that distribute Fox's pamphlets along with Conference-approved AA literature.
An account sets forth in "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers" tells of the influence of Emmet Fox and his classic work, "Sermon on the Mount." An AA old-timer recollected: "The first thing he (Dr. Bob) did was to get Emmet Fox's 'Sermon on the Mount'....Once when I was working on a woman in Cleveland, I called and asked him what to do for someone who is going into DT's. He told me to give her the medication and he said, 'When she comes out of it and she decides she wants to be a different woman, get her Drummond's 'The Greatest Thing in the World.' Tell her to read it through every day for thirty days and she'll be a different woman.' Those were the three main books at the time; that and 'The Upper Room' and 'The Sermon on the Mount.'"
Perhaps the fundamental contribution of Emmet Fox to Alcoholics Anonymous was the simplicity and power of "The Sermon on the Mount." This book sets forth the basic principles of the New Thought philosophy that "God is the only power, and that evil is insubstantial; that we form our own destiny by our thoughts and our beliefs; that conditions do not matter when we pray; that time and space and matter are human illusions; that there is a solution to every problem; that man is the child of God, and God is perfect good."
Central to New Thought philosophy was the perspective which saw that love and personal forgiveness were the keys to fundamental transformation: "Love is by far the most important thing of all. It is the Golden Gate of Paradise. Pray for the understanding of love, and meditate upon it daily. It casts out fear. It is the fulfilling of the Law. It covers a multitude of sins. Love is absolutely invincible."
Fox went on to say that forgiveness was an integral part of the Pathway of Love, "which is open to everyone in all circumstances, and upon which you may step at any moment - at this moment if you like - requires no formal introduction, has no conditions whatever. It calls for no expensive laboratory in which to work, because your own daily life, and your ordinary daily surroundings are your laboratory. It needs no reference library, no professional training, no external apparatus of any kind. All it does need is that you should begin steadfastly to expel from your mentality every thought of personal condemnation (you must condemn a wrong action, but not the actor), of resentment for old injuries, and of everything which is contrary to the law of Love. You must not allow yourself to hate either person, or group, or nation, or anything whatever. "You must build-up by faithful daily exercise the true Love-consciousness, and then all the rest of spiritual development will follow upon that. Love will heal you. Love will illumine you."
One of the cornerstones of Fox's philosophy was to live but one day at a time, to be responsible for one's own thoughts and to clear up resentments, just as AA was to teach that "resentments are our number one cause of slips." For Fox, one of the most important rules for growth was to live in the present: "Live in today, and do not allow yourself to live in the past under any pretense. Living the past means thinking about the past, rehearsing past events, especially if you do this with feeling...train yourself to be a man or woman who lives one day at a time. You'll be surprised how rapidly conditions will change for the better when you approach this ideal."
Emmet Fox emphasized the idea that thoughts are real things, and that one cannot have one kind of mind and another kind of life. According to Fox, if we want to change our lives, then we must change our thoughts first. Many of his simply stated profundities have contributed to an AA philosophy that has transformed the lives of literally two million recovering alcoholics.
Igor S., Hartford, Conn.
February 1996 AA Grapevine©
Showing posts with label Alcoholics Anonymous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alcoholics Anonymous. Show all posts
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
A.A.'s Eleventh Step: Prayer and Meditation
A.A.’s Eleventh Step Prayer and Meditation
The Opportunity, The Reward, A Guide
Dick B. © 2005
The Opportunity to Communicate with our Creator and Know His Will
God either is, or He isn’t.
In its basic text, Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson wrote:
When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be? (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001, p. 53, bold face added).
Bill said that Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, was the well spring of A.A. ideas, was a co-founder of A.A., and that almost every one of the Twelve Step ideas came directly from the teaching of Shoemaker (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957, pp. 38-40; The Language of the Heart. NY: The AA Grapevine, Inc., 1988, pp 297-298). And, in fact, Sam’s influence was so great that we have the eye-witness account by Rev. Garrett Stearly (friend of both Shoemaker and Wilson) that Shoemaker told him (Stearly) that Bill Wilson asked Sam to write the Twelve Steps, but Shoemaker declined – saying they should be written by an alcoholic, namely Bill (See Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed. Kihei HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999, p. 374).
Students of A.A. history must therefore look closely at what Sam Shoemaker said and wrote over a period of some fifteen years before Bill Wilson ever took pen to paper. In 1932, Sam Shoemaker published his book Confident Faith. A copy was owned by Dr. Bob, was tucked into the copy of Anne Smith’s Journal that I found at Stepping Stones, and had language which seems to have found its way into page 53 of Bill’s Big Book – almost verbatim. Sam wrote:
Faith is not sight; it is a high gamble. There are only two alternatives here. God is, or He isn’t. You leap one way or the other. It is a risk to take to bet everything you have on God. So it is a risk not to (Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Confident Faith. NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1932, p. 187; Extraordinary Living for Ordinary Men. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1965, pp. 20-21, bold face added)
Long before these books were published, Sam was quoting Hebrews 11:6:
But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (bold face added. See Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Religion That Works. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1928, p. 88; The Gospel According to You. NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1934, p. 47.
That God is our Creator, Yahweh—God as He specifically names Himself in the Bible
Start with Genesis 1:1—the first verse in the Good Book, as early AAs described the Bible:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The Bible repeatedly speaks of God as our Creator. For example, the New Jerusalem Bible translates Isaiah 40:28:
Did you not know? Had you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, he created the remotest parts of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.
And Ecclesiastes 12:1:
Remember your Creator while you are still young, before the bad days come, before the years come which, you will say, give you no pleasure.
Though hardly a Bible student, Bill Wilson explicitly refers to God as “Creator” twelve times (Big Book, pp. 13, 25, 28, 56, 68, 72, 75, 76, 80, 83, 158, 161).
And only a fool could read the Big Book, discover its over 400 references to God as Creator, Maker, Father of Light, Heavenly Father, and God, and still conclude that A.A.’s Eleventh Step discussion suggests praying to some mysterious god of one’s own making, rather than Yahweh, the Creator, Maker, Father of Light, God of our fathers, and Heavenly Father, to which Bill and Bob so often referred.
The references were clearly to Yahweh, the God of the Bible, as they understood Him—as they sooner or later came to Him through Jesus Christ
Bill Wilson and Sam Shoemaker both spoke of a surrender to Yahweh our Creator. They indicated that, for a start, you need only surrender as much of yourself as you understood to as much of God as you understood. They said this long before the Eleventh Step was written.
In his own personal story in the first chapter of A.A.’s Big Book, Bill wrote of his surrender:
There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, to do with me as he would. I placed myself unreservedly under his care and direction (Big Book, p. 13, bold face added).
Explaining that he (Bill) was then following the instructions that his sponsor Edwin Thacher (Ebby) had received from his Oxford Group friends, Bill told his distinguished audience at the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies:
Ebby said, “Where does the religion come in?” And his friends went on to say, “Ebby, it is our experience that no one can carry out such a program with enough thoroughness and enough continuity on pure self-sufficiency. One must have help. Now we are willing to help you, as individuals, but we think you ought to call upon a power greater than yourself, for your dilemma is well-nigh insurmountable. So call on God as you understand God. Try prayer” (Lecture 29, The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. W.W. Alcohol, Science and Society: Twenty-nine Lectures with Discussion as given at the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies. New Haven: Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 1945, p. 463)
Thus instructed by Ebby, and though he told the following details in varying ways, Bill, the conservative atheist (as he then called himself), said in his 1954 autobiographical tape:
“But what of the Great Physician? For a brief moment, I suppose, the last trace of my obstinacy was crushed out as the abyss yawned. I remember saying to myself, “I’ll do anything, anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on him.” Then, with neither faith nor hope, I cried out, “If there be a God, let him show himself.” The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. . . .Then came the blazing thought, “You are a free man”. . . . “This,” I thought, “must be the great reality. The God of the preachers” . . . . I’d been incapable of faith and so, God’s help. . . . Yet, out of no faith, faith had suddenly appeared. No blind faith either, for it was fortified by the consciousness of the presence of God. . . . For sure I’d been born again (Bill W. My First 40 Years: An Autobiography by the Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000, pp. 145-147).
Many forget that only a few days before his Towns Hospital appeal to our Creator, as Bill then understood Him, Bill had gone to Calvary Rescue Mission, the rescue mission run by Sam Shoemaker’s Episcopal Church. There Bill made a decision for Christ at the altar or, as his wife Lois put it, “He gave his life to Christ.” And that trip to Calvary was made as the result of Ebby’s first declaration to Bill that it was there at the Mission that he (Ebby) had “got religion.” It was from that event at Calvary Mission that Ebby was able to declare to Bill that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. And this challenge was what propelled Bill to the altar at Calvary.
After his Calvary Mission conversion, Bill wandered around drunk. But he made his way to Towns Hospital where Dr. William D. Silkworth met him in the hall. Bill shouted: “At last, Doc, I’ve found something!” (Bill W., My First 40 Years, supra, pp. 137-140). And it was at Towns Hospital that Bill, with coaching there by Ebby, made—as a follow-through appeal of a newly born again Christian (as Bill then thought of himself)—to the Great Physician. That Physician, as Jesus referred to himself in Luke 4:23 (“Physician, heal thyself”) and Luke 5:31 (“They that are whole need not a physician: but they that are sick”). This was the Great Physician, whose treatment Dr. William Duncan Silkworth prescribed for Charles, his alcoholic patient (Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ: Life Changing Adventures in Faith (Pauling, NY: Foundation for Christian Living, 1980, pp 59-63). This was the Great Physician of whom Old-timer Clarence Snyder spoke to the men he sponsored (Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder. NY: A.A. Big Book Study Group, 1997, p. 6). This was the Great Physician spoken of by Earle M. in his Big Book story when he said “I couldn’t practice medicine without the Great Physician” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976, p. 351).
Bill’s spiritual mentor, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, had taught, since his first important title, that the spiritually miserable person needed to have a vital religious experience, needed to find God, and needed Jesus Christ. In Realizing Religion, Sam wrote:
What you want is simply a vital religious experience. You need to find God. You need Jesus Christ (Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Realizing Religion. NY: Association Press, 1929, p. 9)
Could the emerging Twelve Step path be any more obvious, even considering Bill’s scanty religious exposure and his own lack of faith?
1. Bill Wilson had characterized himself as a conservative atheist. He had no faith.
2. His friend Ebby Thacher told Bill plainly of the Oxford Group’s Christian program, of how he had “got” religion through them and his surrender to Jesus Christ at the altar at Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary Rescue Mission, and of Carl Jung’s advice to Rowland Hazard that there would be no cure without conversion – a religious experience as that of which Shoemaker spoke.
3. Convinced, Bill sallied forth to Calvary Rescue Mission as his first stop on the way to a conversion and getting the religion that Ebby said he had “got.”
4. There at the Rescue Mission altar, Bill seems to have achieved salvation by thus declaring his belief in God’s only begotten son, the Great Physician, Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-7; Romans 10:9-13)
5. Lois Wilson reports what really happened there: Well, people got up and went to the altar and gave themselves to Christ. And the leader of the meeting asked if there was anybody that wanted to come up. And Bill started up. . . . And he went up to the front, and really, in very great sincerity, did hand his life to Christ (Record of Lois Wilson’s June 29, 1973 talk in Dallas, Texas).
6. Mrs. Samuel Shoemaker told me personally on the telephone that she was present at the Rescue Mission and that Bill there made his “decision for Christ.” And that, of course, was precisely the intended purpose of the altar calls. Though some might dispute the new birth, and though only Yahweh knows for certain, Bill wrote, said, and concluded: “For sure, I had been born again” (Bill W., My First 40 Years, supra, p. 147).
7. But the Oxford Group had taught that still more was involved in the new design for living and being changed, through the “vital religious experience” of which Shoemaker was speaking. They believed and taught that it was necessary to cut out or clean out sin by their “soul surgery” process of inventory, and the Five C’s - Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Continuance. And that aspect was involved in the coaching from Ebby at Towns Hospital (See Big Book, pp. 12-15).
8. Having been indoctrinated in the life-change requirement, then the born again Bill believed it was time to “find” God through an actual experience. And he underwent the experience by crying out to the Great Physician and asking that, if he existed, he then and there show himself. It was at that point that Bill said he actually experienced his “hot flash” and believed he had gone through the requisite vital religious experience (the kind he felt he quickly validated through the findings of Professor William James). Bill’s conclusion: “So this is the God of the Preachers.” He had, he believed, “found God” (Bill W., My First 40 Years, supra, pp. 145-147). And, in finding Him, been cured of his alcoholism (Big Book, p. 191). Hence in his famous Big Book Chapter Five, Bill expressed the need for all to find God and urged: “May you find Him now!” (Big Book, p. 59).
9. Jung had taught that a conversion was necessary. Bill received that at the Rescue Mission. Shoemaker had taught that one needed a “vital religious experience.” To receive that, you needed Jesus Christ, taught Shoemaker. If you became born again of God’s spirit by accepting Christ, you would then have the power to change by cutting out sin, making restitution, and continuing your relationship with the Creator you had found. That process of “finding God” and “continuing” the relationship through the practice of Steps Ten, Eleven, and Twelve is the heart of the program of recovery Bill fashioned and suggested in the Big Book.
There is nothing that establishes that Bill had given his life to a radiator, a light bulb, a group, a chair, a table, or Santa Claus—as many have since chosen to characterize their “higher power.”
Bill had been a conservative atheist. Yet his grandfather had been an alcoholic who had been relieved of his alcoholism in a mountain-top experience much like that which Bill was to have many years later. Bill had never studied the Bible. He had not been a church member. He quite simply did not believe in God. But as Ebby witnessed to him and told him what he (Ebby) had done, and Bill perceived what he felt was a cure, Bill became willing to believe and to act. This, of course, is what Sam Shoemaker was teaching and writing in his oft-quoted and favorite verse, John 7:17 (See references in Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed. Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999, p. 89). It is what Bill was seeking. And there is not a scintilla of evidence that suggests Bill thought he went to Calvary Mission to surrender to a radiator; nor to Towns Hospital to find a light bulb, nor that he ever believed Ebby had surrendered to a chair; nor that Santa Claus was in any way involved.
No!
Consider Bill’s plain language as he wrote the Big Book. He spoke of the Creator. He spoke of his Maker. He spoke of the Father of Light. He spoke of God. Never, ever, did the strange concepts that emerged in A.A. in later years appear during the formative A.A. events of 1934 to 1939. No Big Book talk about making the “group” your god. No Oxford Group talk about humbly surrendering to chairs or radiators. No Bible endorsement of “other gods” or idolatry. No Shoemaker teachings intended to establish an understanding of light bulbs or Santa Claus. Not even talk of a “higher power” until perhaps Bill heard the expression later on from or through the teachings of Emmet Fox.
Shoemaker explicitly suggested that one could “surrender as much of himself as he understood to as much of God as he understood”—the very God of the Bible about whom Shoemaker regularly and consistently taught.
In 1936, Sam Shoemaker published National Awakening (NY: Harper and Brothers, 1936), where he spelled out some critical ideas that must have been part of what Bill and Lois Wilson heard. Sam wrote:
One argument in religion is about as good as another; but an experience beats an argument. Men run from your arguments about God, they will not listen to your elaborate explanations; but when you tell them what it is with Him, their hearts, as John Wesley said, are “strangely warmed,” and their minds are strangely persuaded . . . . Jesus gave His answer to John. . . . He just gathered up in a cascade of living words the living deeds He and they had been seeing, and said, “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.” It was proof by evidence (p. 28)
Speaking of real security, Sam added:
And where is it? It lies in a faith in God which includes an experiment. It lies in believing that God is, that He has a plan, and that He will reveal that plan to us. It lies in fitting in with that plan ourselves, and finding that God will take care of us when we dare to make that experiment (p. 40).
Further:
We hear him saying to us (about Psalm 46:10), “Give in, admit that God is, and that He is the great Answer to your life, and that your life never is nor will be complete without Him.. . . .” We want God because He created the hunger within us for Him. We want Him from dependence, from fear, from loneliness, from the craving for perfection in our souls. We want Him from bewilderment, confusion, and darkness. We want Him from innate love for Him, for insatiable preoccupation with the invisible Reality of the world (p. 47)
Finally:
A man is born again when the control of his life, its center and its direction pass from himself to God. You can go to church for years without having that happen. . . . We shall begin by knowing the need of a new birth when we begin knowing that it is the sins of people like you and me that have made the world into the hell it is today. And the thing to do with sin is to do what Nicodemus did: go and search out someone with whom we can talk privately and frankly. Tell them of these things, and, with them as witness, give these sins and our old selves to God. . . . I said I was going to do that for years, but it never happened until I let a human witness come in on my decision. That is the “how” of getting rid of sin if you are in earnest about doing it at all: face it, share it, surrender it. Hate it, forsake it, confess it, and restore for it (pp. 57-58)
You can find this obvious “12 Step” material in the first few pages of the Big Book. They describe what Ebby Thacher had done and experienced. They describe how he had sought out Bill. They describe how Ebby proclaimed his victory. And they describe the facing, sharing, surrendering, forsaking, and restitution that Ebby said were required for Bill to make what AAs were later to call a “real” surrender. Bill said:
My friend (Ebby) promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator, that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. . . . It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all (Big Book, pp. 13-14)
When Bill was telling his story, whenever and wherever, whether in the Big Book, or at Yale, or in his 1954 taping, or at St. Louis, you can be sure he was talking about Yahweh, our Creator, “the Father of Light who presides over us all.”
Just God as Bill understood Him
This talk of God as we understood Him was as old as the teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker in the 1920’s, and of many before him.
Sam published Children of the Second Birth (NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1927), and elaborated on a well-known Oxford Group idea that even Anne Smith included in her spiritual journal (Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939, 3rd ed., Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998, pp. 24-29; Stephen Foot, Life Began Yesterday. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1935, pp. 12-13, 175; James D. Newton, Uncommon Friends. NY Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1953, p. 72).
That idea was to “surrender as much of yourself as you know to as much of God as you know.”
Sam phrased it this way in Children of the Second Birth. He described sin as “anything , and the only thing, that walled men away from God.” And see Dick B. The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 130-133.
In Children, Sam told of a man that, at the beginning of his surrender, he simply needed to “surrender as much of himself as he could, to as much of Christ as he understood” (p. 25). Of the man, Shoemaker said he knelt in prayer and dedicated his life not only to belief in Jesus Christ, but also to His life and work. The man recorded in his diary: “I do feel reborn, born of the Spirit” (Children, pp. 33-34). Telling in another story of a group which had prayed together to help a man find the man find the “Power,” Shoemaker said they prayed as follows:
Opening their minds to as much of God as he [the man] understood, removing first the hindrance of self-will allowing the Spirit to focus an impression upon the mind, like light upon a camera exposed (p. 47)
Shoemaker reported that the man lifted his own life to God; the everlasting miracle of second birth happened; and the man experienced a sense of liberty, of peace, an inward glow, and a sense of rightness.
Compare the Big Book’s description of what happened when the early AAs took their Third Step:
As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn (p. 63)
Quite plainly, neither Sam Shoemaker nor Bill Wilson was talking about a surrender to some illusory chair or table. They were talking about a new birth that comes from belief in God and what His Son accomplished (John 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-7; Romans 10:9). For these same ideas and verses were quoted by Shoemaker himself.
For more information on the roots of Big Book prayer and meditation, see Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., supra.
The Reward: A Rebirth and New Life
Bill opened his Eleventh Step discussion in the Big Book by insisting on the importance of prayer and meditation. First, he mentioned the Oxford Group idea that his program of recovery was a “design for living” (p. 81) He was discussing the Ninth Step and the last phase of clearing away the wreckage of the past. He then promised that if AAs were painstaking about this phase of their development, they would know a new freedom and a new happiness. They would realize “that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves” (pp. 83-84)—using a phrase that Ebby had used in his witness to Bill. After discussing the Tenth Step, Bill turned to the action he said was required to receive strength, inspiration, and direction from God “who has all knowledge and power” (p. 85).
Bill said we shouldn’t be shy on the matter of prayer. He said it works if we have the proper attitude and work at it. And then he lays out what I call the four parts of the Eleventh Step: (1) What you constructively review on retiring at night—how well you practiced the Tenth Step. (2) How to ask God for direction in the twenty-four hours ahead. (3) He then turns to the actual dealing with the day. He speaks of prayer and meditation, suggesting that there are many helpful books, which may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. He adds: “Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer” (4) Finally, he covers the means of dealing with agitation and doubt.
And what is the purpose of all this “conscious contact” with God? Bill does not really dive into the subject, but rather turns to “working with others” as his presentation of the Twelfth Step.
And yet, the bonus, the prize, the fruit of practicing the new design for living is a solid and rewarding relationship with God. One that needs continuing study, prayer, nurture, fellowship, and witness. Fortunately, the Bible—with which Bill had little familiarity—points up the purposes. And most certainly Dr. Bob, his wife Anne, and the Akron pioneers pointed up the Biblical points quite well.
Bob said that the oldtimers felt that the answer to all their problems was in the Bible. He suggested that the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 contained the absolute essentials. Anne Smith said the Bible was the main source book of all and that not a day should pass without reading it. Bob, Anne, and many old timers pointed to the Four Absolute Standards of Jesus that the Oxford Group had appropriated from two books: (1) Robert E. Speer’s The Principles of Jesus. (2) Henry B. Wright. The Will of God and a Man’s Life Work.
The standards, known in A.A. usually as the “Four Absolutes,” were Absolute Honesty, Absolute Purity, Absolute Unselfishness, and Absolute Love. And these absolute standards could, they seemed strongly to believe, provide the guide to obedience to God and His Will.
The reward?
First, there was the assurance of Jesus Christ that he had come that believers might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
Second, there was the assurance that those who were born again of the Spirit of God would be saved, have everlasting life, and be free from condemnation (John 3:1-8,16-17; Romans 8:1; 1 Peter 1:23-25)
Third, there were—among many others—four Biblical assurances that captured the enthusiasm and repetitive statements of Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, and Cleveland Old-timer Clarence Snyder. They were:
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33) – First things first, as explained by Dr. Bob.
“And now abideth, faith, hope, charity [love]; but the greatest of these is charity” [love] (1 Corinthians 13:13). The entire chapter on love is the subject of Drummond’s widely read The Greatest Thing in the World—a book strongly recommended by Dr. Bob.
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2) – a verse that especially captivated the interest of Dr.Bob’s wife and is quoted in Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939. See Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17) – a verse that was specifically recommended by A.A. pioneer Bill Van Horn and became a favorite quote and tool used by A.A. pioneer Clarence Snyder. See Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community by Three Clarence Snyder Sponsee Old-timer and Their Wives, Compiled and Edited by Dick B. FL: Came To Believe Publications, 2005, p. 28; Dick B., That Amazing Grace: The Role of Clarence and Grace S. in Alcoholics Anonymous. San Rafael, CA: Paradise Research Publications, 1996, pp. 33-34.
Fourth, the alcoholic was given the specific instruction to obey, do, and conform requests for help to, the will of God:
“Not every one that saith unto me [Jesus], Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
“And this is the confidence that we have in him [God], that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15)
As a prelude to embarking on the Eleventh Step, a newcomer who had “found” God and become one of God’s kids, could know he or she was a new creature in Christ, assured of eternal life; and assured, in the latter case, of an abundant, healthy, and prosperous life, conditioned upon doing the will of the Father, and walking in love. To this end, the Eleventh Step is the most profound, continuing duty of members of the fellowship. It’s one thing to “find God.” It’s another to learn about, understand, and obey God—a process that the Eleventh Step lays out.
You cannot read about pioneer A.A. without realizing what the drunks—long despairing, lonely, selfish, frightened, confused, and at the bottom of the well—were expecting. They didn’t want to be just dry. They didn’t want to be just “sober”—whatever that means. They didn’t want to be perpetual members of a sick society. They wanted a new life, a design for living, and a purpose that conformed to God’s will, not their own.
That is why the Eleventh Step opportunity is so challenging. Take God out of A.A., and you have nothing but good deeds and congenial meetings. Take God out of the Eleventh Step and you merely have a plan for “doing good.” Take God out of the primary purpose of the Twelve Steps (which was to enable you to find God and establish a relationship with Him), and you merely have what Bill was later to call “a personality change sufficient to overcome the disease of alcoholism.” But none of these holds a candle to Dr. Bob’s promise to those who really trusted in God, cleaned house, and helped others: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” (Big Book, p. 181). Never! Ever!
A Guide to Eleventh Step Prayer and Meditation the “Old School” Way
There is plenty of authority in the Bible for what some have called “the Morning Watch.” On the back cover of my prayer and meditation history title, I’ve listed some helpful sources: (1) In the morning, we will direct our prayers to God—Psalm 5:1-3. (2) We can meditate in God’s Word (the Bible) day and night—Psalm 1:2. (3) Study to show yourself approved of God—2 Timothy 2:15. (4) We must look to God to teach us His will—Psalm 143:10. (5) When we trust God, rely not merely on our own understanding, and acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will direct our paths—Proverbs 3:5-6. See Dick B. Good Morning! Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A., 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998.
How simply it can be described:
1. Heed God’s commands, and it will go well with you: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you” (Jeremiah 7:23).
2. God our Saviour wants you to become His kids and know learn His ways “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4)
3. The prophet Samuel got the message: Tell God to speak, and that you are listening:
“And the Lord [Yahweh] came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak: for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:10)
4. Saul, later to be Apostle Paul, heard Jesus and asked what Jesus wanted him to do:
“And he [Saul] trembling and astonished said, Lord [Jesus], what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 9:6)
5. In a morning worship, George Washington thanked the Creator for His many mercies, asked a blessing on the house, and concluded his prayer as follows::
“Grant the petition of Thy servant for the sake of Him whom Thou has called Thy Beloved Son; nevertheless, not by will, but Thine be done. Amen” (William J. Johnson, George Washington the Christian. TX: Accelerated Christian Education, Inc., 1986, p. 127)
6. In the middle of confused debate, Benjamin Franklin suggested asking God for light:
“humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings” (Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Freedom and Faith, NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1949, pp. 70, 71)
7. Oxford Group writer Victor Kitchen told how very very simple it could be:
“Where I used to plan the day, making a list of all the jobs I thought I had to finish, all the people I thought I had to see, all ‘phone calls I thought I had to make and all the letters I thought I had to write, I now simply ask God’s guidance for the day (Victor C. Kitchen, I Was a Pagan. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1934, p. 122).
8. In his very first radio broadcast, Sam Shoemaker explained laying out the day:
“May I tell you what we do in our house? When my wife and I get up, the first thing we reach for is our Bible—not a cigarette, nor a drink, nor the morning paper—but our Bibles. We read a chapter or two. Then we get quiet and spend some time in prayer. . . . In quietness we pray for the people, the causes, the immediate responsibilities of the day, and ask God to direct us. . . . We ask Him for direction. . . . Bring the family and business problems before Him, ask Him about them, and trust Him to tell you” (Dick B., Good Morning, supra, p. 3).
9. Nan Robertson summarized the simple, take it or leave it approach by Dr. Bob:
“Beginning in 1935, Dr. Bob quickly became an extraordinarily effective worker with active alcoholics. He was tough. He was inflexible. He told his prospects: “Do you want to surrender to God? Take it or leave it” Soon, carloads of drunks were coming to Akron from as far away as Cleveland to meet in his house. Recently, Young Bob tried to explain why his father had been so successful at “fixing” drunks: . . . . “He knew that a drunk coming out of an alcoholic haze would be absolutely overwhelmed by anything but a straightforward program that anyone could understand. It wasn’t aimed at college grads—he kept it simple so that anyone was capable of grasping it.” The doctor was authoritative, and he was impressive” Nan Robertson, Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous. NY: Fawcett Crest, 1988, p. 48)
10. And Dr. Bob practiced the very simplicity he “preached” when it came to Quiet Time:
“Prayer, of course, was an important part of Dr. Bob’s faith. According to Paul S., ‘Dr. Bob’s morning devotion consisted of a short prayer, a 20-minutes study of a familiar verse from the Bible, and a quiet period of waiting for directions as to where he, that day, should find use for his talent. Having heard, he would religiously go about his Father’s business, as he put it’.” ( DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., p. 314)
“Elgie R. recalled, ‘Doc told me that when he had an operation and wasn’t sure, he would pray before he started. He said, ‘When I operated under those conditions, I never made a move that wasn’t right’.” (DR. BOB, supra, p. 314)
There have been many approaches within the A.A. umbrella:
1. Anne Smith conducted a Quiet Time at the Smith home every single morning at the crack of dawn. Alcoholics and family members gathered for what some joshingly called “spiritual pablum.” But the meetings were simple. First, came the Bible reading then came a discussion from Anne’s own spiritual journal or from a devotional like the Upper Room. Coffee and stale doughnuts were part of the scene.
2. Oxford Group people often described a more elaborate process for their Quiet Times. There was Bible. There was prayer. But the main emphasis was on “listening” and “writing down thoughts” and then “checking them.” “Journaling,” as some liked to call it was the focus. “The palest ink is better than the strongest memory,” they often suggested. First came “listening.” Then came the flood of thoughts with every item being “journaled” or written down. It was conceded that not all thoughts had come from God. Therefore “checking” was the next step. You checked to see if the thoughts conformed to Scripture. You checked to see if they conformed to the teachings of Jesus Christ and to the “Four Absolutes.” You checked “circumstances.” And you frequently checked with other Oxford Group people for their view. There were also topical discussions if there was a group. And some devotionals like My Utmost for His Highest were read as well.
3. As time went by, still more elaborate guides became popular. There were a host of devotionals in use. There were a host of prayer books in use. There were a host of Quiet Time guides in use—guides that elaborated on “two-way” prayer, on “how to listen to God,” on how to study the Bible, and on “meditation.” In the latter case, the comment of one observer seems right: There are not only many meditation books. There are too many. Nonetheless, when A.A. left the Bible and the Oxford Group and Sam Shoemaker and Anne Smith behind, meditation became a wandering field of confusion. Bill Wilson said that considerable study was required for “guidance” to be effective. Several Roman Catholic critics said that lay people were ill-equipped to receive guidance without the assistance of clergy and without the infallible guidance of the Church. And then the publishers joined the game. The Twenty Four Hour book was widely sold and used. It was often given to everyone who entered a treatment program. But apparently not content with the vast number of Hazelden meditation efforts, A.A. itself finally published Daily Reflections which contains a wild assortment of opinions and statements that were allegedly the result of the combined views of AAs.
4. How, then, could one “take” and continue to “practice” the Eleventh Step? One method was to take Bill’s self-made set of instructions at Big Book pages 85 to 88 and follow them. They amount to four ideas: (a) Before you retire at night, take a look at your day, see how well you practiced the Tenth Step, and ask for forgiveness and corrective measures where there was failure. That’s not Biblical, but it has merit and simplicity. (b) When you awake in the morning, tender your day and plans to God for guidance. Here the language is not Biblical; and some of the theology is just plan wild – with talk of “inspiration,” “intuitive thought.” a “hunch,” “absurd actions and ideas.” Nonetheless the Shoemaker idea of laying out your day before God and asking direction seems at the heart. (c) Growth factors which might be achieved through religious bodies, a few set prayers, and “helpful books.” No mention of the Bible or of any of the early literature. Just a bow to “one’s priest, minister, or rabbi.” Here can be seen Bill’s efforts to secularize and universalize his program. Certainly a far cry from Dr. Bob’s take it or leave it approach. Yet probably a mouthful that even a tenacious believer can swallow by going to church, reading the Bible, consulting with clergy, and absorbing religious literature. Essentially, that’s what I did—much to the displeasure of my sponsor, and his sponsor! (d) The idea of dealing with agitation and doubt by proclaiming that God is in charge also has merit. But it is small advice when compared to what one can gain from the early Christian concepts of healing, forgiveness, kindness, tolerance, peace, revelation, deliverance, and a renewed mind that casts out negatives and replaces them with the word of God.
How can you use the Eleventh Step as an A.A. today and still further your fellowship with Yahweh, our Creator?
The first suggestion is that you learn the Big Book and the Twelve Steps, get instruction from teachers or seminars, steep yourself in our real religious history, and recognize that the Big Book is not the Bible, nor is it even a book that incorporated the Biblical ideas or the principles and practices of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship in Akron. When in Rome, do what the Romans do!
The second suggestion is that you make up your mind to brave the storm, stay the course, hold your nose, and keep your mouth shut when the atheists, intimidators, pseudo-control people, and purported “Tradition” proponents make their remarks against God, the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Church, and religion. You have a choice. You can fight them or ignore them. And, though it’s hard to ignore an engine putting out hot air and steam, it may seem very wise to move away and go about your own business. But not to surrender your beliefs and practices!
Any AA today has as much right as the next person to believe what he or she wants, to read what he or she wants, and to say what he or she wants. Though it may look like it at times, there are no A.A. police, no sergeants-at-arms, no kangaroo courts, no censors, and no governors who have any right or opportunity to change your views. Hold your A.A. membership high. Wave your A.A. banner, and don’t shrink under fire. Believe in God if you want to. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour if you want to. Read the Bible all you wish. Read any religious literature you choose to read if you like. Rely on the gift of the Holy Spirit to the utmost if you want to. Go to a Bible fellowship, a church, or a religious meeting any time you want to. And accept the fact that whether A.A. is “spiritual” or “religious” doesn’t matter a fig to you.
A.A. today is what it is. It isn’t what it was. But it can be what it can be—an immeasurably valuable support factor if you decide to quit drinking for good, to abstain, to resist temptation, to accept the helping hands of other AAs, to learn and apply the principles of the Steps, and to help others at every opportunity. Practicing the Eleventh Step is your privilege and your own business. It’s not subject to the dictated interpretation of some bigot, nor to someone else’s mandate. The Big Book was written to guide you. By its own statement, its contents are meant to be suggestive only. It should not be the vehicle that drives you away from A.A., your church, your Bible, or Almighty God, our Creator. And how you practice it can most assuredly be based on your belief in Almighty God, in the accomplishments of His son Jesus Christ, in the truth of the Bible, in your personal religious convictions, in your church or Bible fellowship’s position, and in the religious literature of your choice. Bill Wilson wrote in connection with the Tenth Step that “love and tolerance” is our code. Dr. Bob said in his final address to AAs that the whole show could be simmered to “love and service.” Both expressions bring to mind the basic Biblical ideas A.A. borrowed from the Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James, and 1 Corinthians 13. And I can’t think of any greater application of the A.A. Biblical principles than to adhere to God’s commandments that you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:26-40).
And for a Biblical perspective on Quiet Time, Morning Watch, and Meditation as they relate to Alcoholics Anonymous and its program of recovery and spiritual history, I strongly recommend you obtain and read the details in my title, Good Morning! Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A., supra. See the description on http://www.dickb.com/goodmorn.shtml.
In case the reader might ask, What do you do? The answers are that I am a long-time active, sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I haven’t left, and I’m not going to. I read and study the Big Book and Twelve Steps very very often. I believe they have helped me to emphasize love instead of anger, trust instead of fear, honesty in place of deceit, unselfishness in place of self-centered living, and Godly thinking and actions in place of transgressions against God’s will. I believe in Almighty God, Yahweh our Creator. I am born again of His spirit by reason of believing in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. I try to read the Bible or listen to Bible tapes every single day. I try to pray to God every single day—offering thanksgiving, praise, petitions, requests for forgiveness and guidance, requests for protection, strength, and healing, and requests for His care of me, my family, others, my possessions, and activities. I ask Him for revelation and frequently receive it as and when He chooses to provide it. I know that He is my refuge and my fortress and in Him I should place my trust. I also know that obedience to His will is sometimes the most difficult challenge of all, yet an indispensable part of fellowship with Him as one of His loving sons. All these I do to His glory in the name of Jesus Christ.
Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; 808 874 4876; dickb@dickb.com; http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml; http://www.dickb-blog.com
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The Opportunity, The Reward, A Guide
Dick B. © 2005
The Opportunity to Communicate with our Creator and Know His Will
God either is, or He isn’t.
In its basic text, Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson wrote:
When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be? (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001, p. 53, bold face added).
Bill said that Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, was the well spring of A.A. ideas, was a co-founder of A.A., and that almost every one of the Twelve Step ideas came directly from the teaching of Shoemaker (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957, pp. 38-40; The Language of the Heart. NY: The AA Grapevine, Inc., 1988, pp 297-298). And, in fact, Sam’s influence was so great that we have the eye-witness account by Rev. Garrett Stearly (friend of both Shoemaker and Wilson) that Shoemaker told him (Stearly) that Bill Wilson asked Sam to write the Twelve Steps, but Shoemaker declined – saying they should be written by an alcoholic, namely Bill (See Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed. Kihei HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999, p. 374).
Students of A.A. history must therefore look closely at what Sam Shoemaker said and wrote over a period of some fifteen years before Bill Wilson ever took pen to paper. In 1932, Sam Shoemaker published his book Confident Faith. A copy was owned by Dr. Bob, was tucked into the copy of Anne Smith’s Journal that I found at Stepping Stones, and had language which seems to have found its way into page 53 of Bill’s Big Book – almost verbatim. Sam wrote:
Faith is not sight; it is a high gamble. There are only two alternatives here. God is, or He isn’t. You leap one way or the other. It is a risk to take to bet everything you have on God. So it is a risk not to (Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Confident Faith. NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1932, p. 187; Extraordinary Living for Ordinary Men. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1965, pp. 20-21, bold face added)
Long before these books were published, Sam was quoting Hebrews 11:6:
But without faith, it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (bold face added. See Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Religion That Works. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1928, p. 88; The Gospel According to You. NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1934, p. 47.
That God is our Creator, Yahweh—God as He specifically names Himself in the Bible
Start with Genesis 1:1—the first verse in the Good Book, as early AAs described the Bible:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The Bible repeatedly speaks of God as our Creator. For example, the New Jerusalem Bible translates Isaiah 40:28:
Did you not know? Had you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, he created the remotest parts of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.
And Ecclesiastes 12:1:
Remember your Creator while you are still young, before the bad days come, before the years come which, you will say, give you no pleasure.
Though hardly a Bible student, Bill Wilson explicitly refers to God as “Creator” twelve times (Big Book, pp. 13, 25, 28, 56, 68, 72, 75, 76, 80, 83, 158, 161).
And only a fool could read the Big Book, discover its over 400 references to God as Creator, Maker, Father of Light, Heavenly Father, and God, and still conclude that A.A.’s Eleventh Step discussion suggests praying to some mysterious god of one’s own making, rather than Yahweh, the Creator, Maker, Father of Light, God of our fathers, and Heavenly Father, to which Bill and Bob so often referred.
The references were clearly to Yahweh, the God of the Bible, as they understood Him—as they sooner or later came to Him through Jesus Christ
Bill Wilson and Sam Shoemaker both spoke of a surrender to Yahweh our Creator. They indicated that, for a start, you need only surrender as much of yourself as you understood to as much of God as you understood. They said this long before the Eleventh Step was written.
In his own personal story in the first chapter of A.A.’s Big Book, Bill wrote of his surrender:
There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, to do with me as he would. I placed myself unreservedly under his care and direction (Big Book, p. 13, bold face added).
Explaining that he (Bill) was then following the instructions that his sponsor Edwin Thacher (Ebby) had received from his Oxford Group friends, Bill told his distinguished audience at the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies:
Ebby said, “Where does the religion come in?” And his friends went on to say, “Ebby, it is our experience that no one can carry out such a program with enough thoroughness and enough continuity on pure self-sufficiency. One must have help. Now we are willing to help you, as individuals, but we think you ought to call upon a power greater than yourself, for your dilemma is well-nigh insurmountable. So call on God as you understand God. Try prayer” (Lecture 29, The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. W.W. Alcohol, Science and Society: Twenty-nine Lectures with Discussion as given at the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies. New Haven: Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 1945, p. 463)
Thus instructed by Ebby, and though he told the following details in varying ways, Bill, the conservative atheist (as he then called himself), said in his 1954 autobiographical tape:
“But what of the Great Physician? For a brief moment, I suppose, the last trace of my obstinacy was crushed out as the abyss yawned. I remember saying to myself, “I’ll do anything, anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on him.” Then, with neither faith nor hope, I cried out, “If there be a God, let him show himself.” The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. . . .Then came the blazing thought, “You are a free man”. . . . “This,” I thought, “must be the great reality. The God of the preachers” . . . . I’d been incapable of faith and so, God’s help. . . . Yet, out of no faith, faith had suddenly appeared. No blind faith either, for it was fortified by the consciousness of the presence of God. . . . For sure I’d been born again (Bill W. My First 40 Years: An Autobiography by the Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000, pp. 145-147).
Many forget that only a few days before his Towns Hospital appeal to our Creator, as Bill then understood Him, Bill had gone to Calvary Rescue Mission, the rescue mission run by Sam Shoemaker’s Episcopal Church. There Bill made a decision for Christ at the altar or, as his wife Lois put it, “He gave his life to Christ.” And that trip to Calvary was made as the result of Ebby’s first declaration to Bill that it was there at the Mission that he (Ebby) had “got religion.” It was from that event at Calvary Mission that Ebby was able to declare to Bill that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. And this challenge was what propelled Bill to the altar at Calvary.
After his Calvary Mission conversion, Bill wandered around drunk. But he made his way to Towns Hospital where Dr. William D. Silkworth met him in the hall. Bill shouted: “At last, Doc, I’ve found something!” (Bill W., My First 40 Years, supra, pp. 137-140). And it was at Towns Hospital that Bill, with coaching there by Ebby, made—as a follow-through appeal of a newly born again Christian (as Bill then thought of himself)—to the Great Physician. That Physician, as Jesus referred to himself in Luke 4:23 (“Physician, heal thyself”) and Luke 5:31 (“They that are whole need not a physician: but they that are sick”). This was the Great Physician, whose treatment Dr. William Duncan Silkworth prescribed for Charles, his alcoholic patient (Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ: Life Changing Adventures in Faith (Pauling, NY: Foundation for Christian Living, 1980, pp 59-63). This was the Great Physician of whom Old-timer Clarence Snyder spoke to the men he sponsored (Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder. NY: A.A. Big Book Study Group, 1997, p. 6). This was the Great Physician spoken of by Earle M. in his Big Book story when he said “I couldn’t practice medicine without the Great Physician” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976, p. 351).
Bill’s spiritual mentor, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, had taught, since his first important title, that the spiritually miserable person needed to have a vital religious experience, needed to find God, and needed Jesus Christ. In Realizing Religion, Sam wrote:
What you want is simply a vital religious experience. You need to find God. You need Jesus Christ (Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Realizing Religion. NY: Association Press, 1929, p. 9)
Could the emerging Twelve Step path be any more obvious, even considering Bill’s scanty religious exposure and his own lack of faith?
1. Bill Wilson had characterized himself as a conservative atheist. He had no faith.
2. His friend Ebby Thacher told Bill plainly of the Oxford Group’s Christian program, of how he had “got” religion through them and his surrender to Jesus Christ at the altar at Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary Rescue Mission, and of Carl Jung’s advice to Rowland Hazard that there would be no cure without conversion – a religious experience as that of which Shoemaker spoke.
3. Convinced, Bill sallied forth to Calvary Rescue Mission as his first stop on the way to a conversion and getting the religion that Ebby said he had “got.”
4. There at the Rescue Mission altar, Bill seems to have achieved salvation by thus declaring his belief in God’s only begotten son, the Great Physician, Jesus Christ (John 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-7; Romans 10:9-13)
5. Lois Wilson reports what really happened there: Well, people got up and went to the altar and gave themselves to Christ. And the leader of the meeting asked if there was anybody that wanted to come up. And Bill started up. . . . And he went up to the front, and really, in very great sincerity, did hand his life to Christ (Record of Lois Wilson’s June 29, 1973 talk in Dallas, Texas).
6. Mrs. Samuel Shoemaker told me personally on the telephone that she was present at the Rescue Mission and that Bill there made his “decision for Christ.” And that, of course, was precisely the intended purpose of the altar calls. Though some might dispute the new birth, and though only Yahweh knows for certain, Bill wrote, said, and concluded: “For sure, I had been born again” (Bill W., My First 40 Years, supra, p. 147).
7. But the Oxford Group had taught that still more was involved in the new design for living and being changed, through the “vital religious experience” of which Shoemaker was speaking. They believed and taught that it was necessary to cut out or clean out sin by their “soul surgery” process of inventory, and the Five C’s - Confidence, Confession, Conviction, Conversion, and Continuance. And that aspect was involved in the coaching from Ebby at Towns Hospital (See Big Book, pp. 12-15).
8. Having been indoctrinated in the life-change requirement, then the born again Bill believed it was time to “find” God through an actual experience. And he underwent the experience by crying out to the Great Physician and asking that, if he existed, he then and there show himself. It was at that point that Bill said he actually experienced his “hot flash” and believed he had gone through the requisite vital religious experience (the kind he felt he quickly validated through the findings of Professor William James). Bill’s conclusion: “So this is the God of the Preachers.” He had, he believed, “found God” (Bill W., My First 40 Years, supra, pp. 145-147). And, in finding Him, been cured of his alcoholism (Big Book, p. 191). Hence in his famous Big Book Chapter Five, Bill expressed the need for all to find God and urged: “May you find Him now!” (Big Book, p. 59).
9. Jung had taught that a conversion was necessary. Bill received that at the Rescue Mission. Shoemaker had taught that one needed a “vital religious experience.” To receive that, you needed Jesus Christ, taught Shoemaker. If you became born again of God’s spirit by accepting Christ, you would then have the power to change by cutting out sin, making restitution, and continuing your relationship with the Creator you had found. That process of “finding God” and “continuing” the relationship through the practice of Steps Ten, Eleven, and Twelve is the heart of the program of recovery Bill fashioned and suggested in the Big Book.
There is nothing that establishes that Bill had given his life to a radiator, a light bulb, a group, a chair, a table, or Santa Claus—as many have since chosen to characterize their “higher power.”
Bill had been a conservative atheist. Yet his grandfather had been an alcoholic who had been relieved of his alcoholism in a mountain-top experience much like that which Bill was to have many years later. Bill had never studied the Bible. He had not been a church member. He quite simply did not believe in God. But as Ebby witnessed to him and told him what he (Ebby) had done, and Bill perceived what he felt was a cure, Bill became willing to believe and to act. This, of course, is what Sam Shoemaker was teaching and writing in his oft-quoted and favorite verse, John 7:17 (See references in Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed. Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999, p. 89). It is what Bill was seeking. And there is not a scintilla of evidence that suggests Bill thought he went to Calvary Mission to surrender to a radiator; nor to Towns Hospital to find a light bulb, nor that he ever believed Ebby had surrendered to a chair; nor that Santa Claus was in any way involved.
No!
Consider Bill’s plain language as he wrote the Big Book. He spoke of the Creator. He spoke of his Maker. He spoke of the Father of Light. He spoke of God. Never, ever, did the strange concepts that emerged in A.A. in later years appear during the formative A.A. events of 1934 to 1939. No Big Book talk about making the “group” your god. No Oxford Group talk about humbly surrendering to chairs or radiators. No Bible endorsement of “other gods” or idolatry. No Shoemaker teachings intended to establish an understanding of light bulbs or Santa Claus. Not even talk of a “higher power” until perhaps Bill heard the expression later on from or through the teachings of Emmet Fox.
Shoemaker explicitly suggested that one could “surrender as much of himself as he understood to as much of God as he understood”—the very God of the Bible about whom Shoemaker regularly and consistently taught.
In 1936, Sam Shoemaker published National Awakening (NY: Harper and Brothers, 1936), where he spelled out some critical ideas that must have been part of what Bill and Lois Wilson heard. Sam wrote:
One argument in religion is about as good as another; but an experience beats an argument. Men run from your arguments about God, they will not listen to your elaborate explanations; but when you tell them what it is with Him, their hearts, as John Wesley said, are “strangely warmed,” and their minds are strangely persuaded . . . . Jesus gave His answer to John. . . . He just gathered up in a cascade of living words the living deeds He and they had been seeing, and said, “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.” It was proof by evidence (p. 28)
Speaking of real security, Sam added:
And where is it? It lies in a faith in God which includes an experiment. It lies in believing that God is, that He has a plan, and that He will reveal that plan to us. It lies in fitting in with that plan ourselves, and finding that God will take care of us when we dare to make that experiment (p. 40).
Further:
We hear him saying to us (about Psalm 46:10), “Give in, admit that God is, and that He is the great Answer to your life, and that your life never is nor will be complete without Him.. . . .” We want God because He created the hunger within us for Him. We want Him from dependence, from fear, from loneliness, from the craving for perfection in our souls. We want Him from bewilderment, confusion, and darkness. We want Him from innate love for Him, for insatiable preoccupation with the invisible Reality of the world (p. 47)
Finally:
A man is born again when the control of his life, its center and its direction pass from himself to God. You can go to church for years without having that happen. . . . We shall begin by knowing the need of a new birth when we begin knowing that it is the sins of people like you and me that have made the world into the hell it is today. And the thing to do with sin is to do what Nicodemus did: go and search out someone with whom we can talk privately and frankly. Tell them of these things, and, with them as witness, give these sins and our old selves to God. . . . I said I was going to do that for years, but it never happened until I let a human witness come in on my decision. That is the “how” of getting rid of sin if you are in earnest about doing it at all: face it, share it, surrender it. Hate it, forsake it, confess it, and restore for it (pp. 57-58)
You can find this obvious “12 Step” material in the first few pages of the Big Book. They describe what Ebby Thacher had done and experienced. They describe how he had sought out Bill. They describe how Ebby proclaimed his victory. And they describe the facing, sharing, surrendering, forsaking, and restitution that Ebby said were required for Bill to make what AAs were later to call a “real” surrender. Bill said:
My friend (Ebby) promised when these things were done I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator, that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. . . . It meant destruction of self-centeredness. I must turn in all things to the Father of Light who presides over us all (Big Book, pp. 13-14)
When Bill was telling his story, whenever and wherever, whether in the Big Book, or at Yale, or in his 1954 taping, or at St. Louis, you can be sure he was talking about Yahweh, our Creator, “the Father of Light who presides over us all.”
Just God as Bill understood Him
This talk of God as we understood Him was as old as the teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker in the 1920’s, and of many before him.
Sam published Children of the Second Birth (NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1927), and elaborated on a well-known Oxford Group idea that even Anne Smith included in her spiritual journal (Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939, 3rd ed., Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998, pp. 24-29; Stephen Foot, Life Began Yesterday. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1935, pp. 12-13, 175; James D. Newton, Uncommon Friends. NY Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1953, p. 72).
That idea was to “surrender as much of yourself as you know to as much of God as you know.”
Sam phrased it this way in Children of the Second Birth. He described sin as “anything , and the only thing, that walled men away from God.” And see Dick B. The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 130-133.
In Children, Sam told of a man that, at the beginning of his surrender, he simply needed to “surrender as much of himself as he could, to as much of Christ as he understood” (p. 25). Of the man, Shoemaker said he knelt in prayer and dedicated his life not only to belief in Jesus Christ, but also to His life and work. The man recorded in his diary: “I do feel reborn, born of the Spirit” (Children, pp. 33-34). Telling in another story of a group which had prayed together to help a man find the man find the “Power,” Shoemaker said they prayed as follows:
Opening their minds to as much of God as he [the man] understood, removing first the hindrance of self-will allowing the Spirit to focus an impression upon the mind, like light upon a camera exposed (p. 47)
Shoemaker reported that the man lifted his own life to God; the everlasting miracle of second birth happened; and the man experienced a sense of liberty, of peace, an inward glow, and a sense of rightness.
Compare the Big Book’s description of what happened when the early AAs took their Third Step:
As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn (p. 63)
Quite plainly, neither Sam Shoemaker nor Bill Wilson was talking about a surrender to some illusory chair or table. They were talking about a new birth that comes from belief in God and what His Son accomplished (John 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-7; Romans 10:9). For these same ideas and verses were quoted by Shoemaker himself.
For more information on the roots of Big Book prayer and meditation, see Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., supra.
The Reward: A Rebirth and New Life
Bill opened his Eleventh Step discussion in the Big Book by insisting on the importance of prayer and meditation. First, he mentioned the Oxford Group idea that his program of recovery was a “design for living” (p. 81) He was discussing the Ninth Step and the last phase of clearing away the wreckage of the past. He then promised that if AAs were painstaking about this phase of their development, they would know a new freedom and a new happiness. They would realize “that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves” (pp. 83-84)—using a phrase that Ebby had used in his witness to Bill. After discussing the Tenth Step, Bill turned to the action he said was required to receive strength, inspiration, and direction from God “who has all knowledge and power” (p. 85).
Bill said we shouldn’t be shy on the matter of prayer. He said it works if we have the proper attitude and work at it. And then he lays out what I call the four parts of the Eleventh Step: (1) What you constructively review on retiring at night—how well you practiced the Tenth Step. (2) How to ask God for direction in the twenty-four hours ahead. (3) He then turns to the actual dealing with the day. He speaks of prayer and meditation, suggesting that there are many helpful books, which may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. He adds: “Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer” (4) Finally, he covers the means of dealing with agitation and doubt.
And what is the purpose of all this “conscious contact” with God? Bill does not really dive into the subject, but rather turns to “working with others” as his presentation of the Twelfth Step.
And yet, the bonus, the prize, the fruit of practicing the new design for living is a solid and rewarding relationship with God. One that needs continuing study, prayer, nurture, fellowship, and witness. Fortunately, the Bible—with which Bill had little familiarity—points up the purposes. And most certainly Dr. Bob, his wife Anne, and the Akron pioneers pointed up the Biblical points quite well.
Bob said that the oldtimers felt that the answer to all their problems was in the Bible. He suggested that the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 contained the absolute essentials. Anne Smith said the Bible was the main source book of all and that not a day should pass without reading it. Bob, Anne, and many old timers pointed to the Four Absolute Standards of Jesus that the Oxford Group had appropriated from two books: (1) Robert E. Speer’s The Principles of Jesus. (2) Henry B. Wright. The Will of God and a Man’s Life Work.
The standards, known in A.A. usually as the “Four Absolutes,” were Absolute Honesty, Absolute Purity, Absolute Unselfishness, and Absolute Love. And these absolute standards could, they seemed strongly to believe, provide the guide to obedience to God and His Will.
The reward?
First, there was the assurance of Jesus Christ that he had come that believers might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).
Second, there was the assurance that those who were born again of the Spirit of God would be saved, have everlasting life, and be free from condemnation (John 3:1-8,16-17; Romans 8:1; 1 Peter 1:23-25)
Third, there were—among many others—four Biblical assurances that captured the enthusiasm and repetitive statements of Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, and Cleveland Old-timer Clarence Snyder. They were:
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33) – First things first, as explained by Dr. Bob.
“And now abideth, faith, hope, charity [love]; but the greatest of these is charity” [love] (1 Corinthians 13:13). The entire chapter on love is the subject of Drummond’s widely read The Greatest Thing in the World—a book strongly recommended by Dr. Bob.
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 John 2) – a verse that especially captivated the interest of Dr.Bob’s wife and is quoted in Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939. See Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17) – a verse that was specifically recommended by A.A. pioneer Bill Van Horn and became a favorite quote and tool used by A.A. pioneer Clarence Snyder. See Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community by Three Clarence Snyder Sponsee Old-timer and Their Wives, Compiled and Edited by Dick B. FL: Came To Believe Publications, 2005, p. 28; Dick B., That Amazing Grace: The Role of Clarence and Grace S. in Alcoholics Anonymous. San Rafael, CA: Paradise Research Publications, 1996, pp. 33-34.
Fourth, the alcoholic was given the specific instruction to obey, do, and conform requests for help to, the will of God:
“Not every one that saith unto me [Jesus], Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
“And this is the confidence that we have in him [God], that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (1 John 5:14-15)
As a prelude to embarking on the Eleventh Step, a newcomer who had “found” God and become one of God’s kids, could know he or she was a new creature in Christ, assured of eternal life; and assured, in the latter case, of an abundant, healthy, and prosperous life, conditioned upon doing the will of the Father, and walking in love. To this end, the Eleventh Step is the most profound, continuing duty of members of the fellowship. It’s one thing to “find God.” It’s another to learn about, understand, and obey God—a process that the Eleventh Step lays out.
You cannot read about pioneer A.A. without realizing what the drunks—long despairing, lonely, selfish, frightened, confused, and at the bottom of the well—were expecting. They didn’t want to be just dry. They didn’t want to be just “sober”—whatever that means. They didn’t want to be perpetual members of a sick society. They wanted a new life, a design for living, and a purpose that conformed to God’s will, not their own.
That is why the Eleventh Step opportunity is so challenging. Take God out of A.A., and you have nothing but good deeds and congenial meetings. Take God out of the Eleventh Step and you merely have a plan for “doing good.” Take God out of the primary purpose of the Twelve Steps (which was to enable you to find God and establish a relationship with Him), and you merely have what Bill was later to call “a personality change sufficient to overcome the disease of alcoholism.” But none of these holds a candle to Dr. Bob’s promise to those who really trusted in God, cleaned house, and helped others: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!” (Big Book, p. 181). Never! Ever!
A Guide to Eleventh Step Prayer and Meditation the “Old School” Way
There is plenty of authority in the Bible for what some have called “the Morning Watch.” On the back cover of my prayer and meditation history title, I’ve listed some helpful sources: (1) In the morning, we will direct our prayers to God—Psalm 5:1-3. (2) We can meditate in God’s Word (the Bible) day and night—Psalm 1:2. (3) Study to show yourself approved of God—2 Timothy 2:15. (4) We must look to God to teach us His will—Psalm 143:10. (5) When we trust God, rely not merely on our own understanding, and acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will direct our paths—Proverbs 3:5-6. See Dick B. Good Morning! Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A., 2d ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998.
How simply it can be described:
1. Heed God’s commands, and it will go well with you: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you” (Jeremiah 7:23).
2. God our Saviour wants you to become His kids and know learn His ways “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4)
3. The prophet Samuel got the message: Tell God to speak, and that you are listening:
“And the Lord [Yahweh] came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak: for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:10)
4. Saul, later to be Apostle Paul, heard Jesus and asked what Jesus wanted him to do:
“And he [Saul] trembling and astonished said, Lord [Jesus], what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 9:6)
5. In a morning worship, George Washington thanked the Creator for His many mercies, asked a blessing on the house, and concluded his prayer as follows::
“Grant the petition of Thy servant for the sake of Him whom Thou has called Thy Beloved Son; nevertheless, not by will, but Thine be done. Amen” (William J. Johnson, George Washington the Christian. TX: Accelerated Christian Education, Inc., 1986, p. 127)
6. In the middle of confused debate, Benjamin Franklin suggested asking God for light:
“humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings” (Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Freedom and Faith, NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1949, pp. 70, 71)
7. Oxford Group writer Victor Kitchen told how very very simple it could be:
“Where I used to plan the day, making a list of all the jobs I thought I had to finish, all the people I thought I had to see, all ‘phone calls I thought I had to make and all the letters I thought I had to write, I now simply ask God’s guidance for the day (Victor C. Kitchen, I Was a Pagan. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1934, p. 122).
8. In his very first radio broadcast, Sam Shoemaker explained laying out the day:
“May I tell you what we do in our house? When my wife and I get up, the first thing we reach for is our Bible—not a cigarette, nor a drink, nor the morning paper—but our Bibles. We read a chapter or two. Then we get quiet and spend some time in prayer. . . . In quietness we pray for the people, the causes, the immediate responsibilities of the day, and ask God to direct us. . . . We ask Him for direction. . . . Bring the family and business problems before Him, ask Him about them, and trust Him to tell you” (Dick B., Good Morning, supra, p. 3).
9. Nan Robertson summarized the simple, take it or leave it approach by Dr. Bob:
“Beginning in 1935, Dr. Bob quickly became an extraordinarily effective worker with active alcoholics. He was tough. He was inflexible. He told his prospects: “Do you want to surrender to God? Take it or leave it” Soon, carloads of drunks were coming to Akron from as far away as Cleveland to meet in his house. Recently, Young Bob tried to explain why his father had been so successful at “fixing” drunks: . . . . “He knew that a drunk coming out of an alcoholic haze would be absolutely overwhelmed by anything but a straightforward program that anyone could understand. It wasn’t aimed at college grads—he kept it simple so that anyone was capable of grasping it.” The doctor was authoritative, and he was impressive” Nan Robertson, Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous. NY: Fawcett Crest, 1988, p. 48)
10. And Dr. Bob practiced the very simplicity he “preached” when it came to Quiet Time:
“Prayer, of course, was an important part of Dr. Bob’s faith. According to Paul S., ‘Dr. Bob’s morning devotion consisted of a short prayer, a 20-minutes study of a familiar verse from the Bible, and a quiet period of waiting for directions as to where he, that day, should find use for his talent. Having heard, he would religiously go about his Father’s business, as he put it’.” ( DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., p. 314)
“Elgie R. recalled, ‘Doc told me that when he had an operation and wasn’t sure, he would pray before he started. He said, ‘When I operated under those conditions, I never made a move that wasn’t right’.” (DR. BOB, supra, p. 314)
There have been many approaches within the A.A. umbrella:
1. Anne Smith conducted a Quiet Time at the Smith home every single morning at the crack of dawn. Alcoholics and family members gathered for what some joshingly called “spiritual pablum.” But the meetings were simple. First, came the Bible reading then came a discussion from Anne’s own spiritual journal or from a devotional like the Upper Room. Coffee and stale doughnuts were part of the scene.
2. Oxford Group people often described a more elaborate process for their Quiet Times. There was Bible. There was prayer. But the main emphasis was on “listening” and “writing down thoughts” and then “checking them.” “Journaling,” as some liked to call it was the focus. “The palest ink is better than the strongest memory,” they often suggested. First came “listening.” Then came the flood of thoughts with every item being “journaled” or written down. It was conceded that not all thoughts had come from God. Therefore “checking” was the next step. You checked to see if the thoughts conformed to Scripture. You checked to see if they conformed to the teachings of Jesus Christ and to the “Four Absolutes.” You checked “circumstances.” And you frequently checked with other Oxford Group people for their view. There were also topical discussions if there was a group. And some devotionals like My Utmost for His Highest were read as well.
3. As time went by, still more elaborate guides became popular. There were a host of devotionals in use. There were a host of prayer books in use. There were a host of Quiet Time guides in use—guides that elaborated on “two-way” prayer, on “how to listen to God,” on how to study the Bible, and on “meditation.” In the latter case, the comment of one observer seems right: There are not only many meditation books. There are too many. Nonetheless, when A.A. left the Bible and the Oxford Group and Sam Shoemaker and Anne Smith behind, meditation became a wandering field of confusion. Bill Wilson said that considerable study was required for “guidance” to be effective. Several Roman Catholic critics said that lay people were ill-equipped to receive guidance without the assistance of clergy and without the infallible guidance of the Church. And then the publishers joined the game. The Twenty Four Hour book was widely sold and used. It was often given to everyone who entered a treatment program. But apparently not content with the vast number of Hazelden meditation efforts, A.A. itself finally published Daily Reflections which contains a wild assortment of opinions and statements that were allegedly the result of the combined views of AAs.
4. How, then, could one “take” and continue to “practice” the Eleventh Step? One method was to take Bill’s self-made set of instructions at Big Book pages 85 to 88 and follow them. They amount to four ideas: (a) Before you retire at night, take a look at your day, see how well you practiced the Tenth Step, and ask for forgiveness and corrective measures where there was failure. That’s not Biblical, but it has merit and simplicity. (b) When you awake in the morning, tender your day and plans to God for guidance. Here the language is not Biblical; and some of the theology is just plan wild – with talk of “inspiration,” “intuitive thought.” a “hunch,” “absurd actions and ideas.” Nonetheless the Shoemaker idea of laying out your day before God and asking direction seems at the heart. (c) Growth factors which might be achieved through religious bodies, a few set prayers, and “helpful books.” No mention of the Bible or of any of the early literature. Just a bow to “one’s priest, minister, or rabbi.” Here can be seen Bill’s efforts to secularize and universalize his program. Certainly a far cry from Dr. Bob’s take it or leave it approach. Yet probably a mouthful that even a tenacious believer can swallow by going to church, reading the Bible, consulting with clergy, and absorbing religious literature. Essentially, that’s what I did—much to the displeasure of my sponsor, and his sponsor! (d) The idea of dealing with agitation and doubt by proclaiming that God is in charge also has merit. But it is small advice when compared to what one can gain from the early Christian concepts of healing, forgiveness, kindness, tolerance, peace, revelation, deliverance, and a renewed mind that casts out negatives and replaces them with the word of God.
How can you use the Eleventh Step as an A.A. today and still further your fellowship with Yahweh, our Creator?
The first suggestion is that you learn the Big Book and the Twelve Steps, get instruction from teachers or seminars, steep yourself in our real religious history, and recognize that the Big Book is not the Bible, nor is it even a book that incorporated the Biblical ideas or the principles and practices of the early A.A. Christian Fellowship in Akron. When in Rome, do what the Romans do!
The second suggestion is that you make up your mind to brave the storm, stay the course, hold your nose, and keep your mouth shut when the atheists, intimidators, pseudo-control people, and purported “Tradition” proponents make their remarks against God, the Bible, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Church, and religion. You have a choice. You can fight them or ignore them. And, though it’s hard to ignore an engine putting out hot air and steam, it may seem very wise to move away and go about your own business. But not to surrender your beliefs and practices!
Any AA today has as much right as the next person to believe what he or she wants, to read what he or she wants, and to say what he or she wants. Though it may look like it at times, there are no A.A. police, no sergeants-at-arms, no kangaroo courts, no censors, and no governors who have any right or opportunity to change your views. Hold your A.A. membership high. Wave your A.A. banner, and don’t shrink under fire. Believe in God if you want to. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour if you want to. Read the Bible all you wish. Read any religious literature you choose to read if you like. Rely on the gift of the Holy Spirit to the utmost if you want to. Go to a Bible fellowship, a church, or a religious meeting any time you want to. And accept the fact that whether A.A. is “spiritual” or “religious” doesn’t matter a fig to you.
A.A. today is what it is. It isn’t what it was. But it can be what it can be—an immeasurably valuable support factor if you decide to quit drinking for good, to abstain, to resist temptation, to accept the helping hands of other AAs, to learn and apply the principles of the Steps, and to help others at every opportunity. Practicing the Eleventh Step is your privilege and your own business. It’s not subject to the dictated interpretation of some bigot, nor to someone else’s mandate. The Big Book was written to guide you. By its own statement, its contents are meant to be suggestive only. It should not be the vehicle that drives you away from A.A., your church, your Bible, or Almighty God, our Creator. And how you practice it can most assuredly be based on your belief in Almighty God, in the accomplishments of His son Jesus Christ, in the truth of the Bible, in your personal religious convictions, in your church or Bible fellowship’s position, and in the religious literature of your choice. Bill Wilson wrote in connection with the Tenth Step that “love and tolerance” is our code. Dr. Bob said in his final address to AAs that the whole show could be simmered to “love and service.” Both expressions bring to mind the basic Biblical ideas A.A. borrowed from the Sermon on the Mount, the Book of James, and 1 Corinthians 13. And I can’t think of any greater application of the A.A. Biblical principles than to adhere to God’s commandments that you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:26-40).
And for a Biblical perspective on Quiet Time, Morning Watch, and Meditation as they relate to Alcoholics Anonymous and its program of recovery and spiritual history, I strongly recommend you obtain and read the details in my title, Good Morning! Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A., supra. See the description on http://www.dickb.com/goodmorn.shtml.
In case the reader might ask, What do you do? The answers are that I am a long-time active, sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I haven’t left, and I’m not going to. I read and study the Big Book and Twelve Steps very very often. I believe they have helped me to emphasize love instead of anger, trust instead of fear, honesty in place of deceit, unselfishness in place of self-centered living, and Godly thinking and actions in place of transgressions against God’s will. I believe in Almighty God, Yahweh our Creator. I am born again of His spirit by reason of believing in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. I try to read the Bible or listen to Bible tapes every single day. I try to pray to God every single day—offering thanksgiving, praise, petitions, requests for forgiveness and guidance, requests for protection, strength, and healing, and requests for His care of me, my family, others, my possessions, and activities. I ask Him for revelation and frequently receive it as and when He chooses to provide it. I know that He is my refuge and my fortress and in Him I should place my trust. I also know that obedience to His will is sometimes the most difficult challenge of all, yet an indispensable part of fellowship with Him as one of His loving sons. All these I do to His glory in the name of Jesus Christ.
Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; 808 874 4876; dickb@dickb.com; http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml; http://www.dickb-blog.com
END
You Are Creating Your Future Now
YOU ARE CREATING YOUR FUTURE NOW
October 25, 2005
It is a marvelous thing to see the change that can be brought about in the lives of those who try the Alcoholics Anonymous Program. There is no real secret, it has been built upon the fundamental principles common to most religions, but in particular Christianity. If you get to know the New Testament Bible you will see where a lot of the Big Book and stories in the 3rd Edition came from. In Alcoholics Anonymous the same thought or teaching is repeated in many similar ways that we are to love God, and love our neighbor, as we think so it will be, be renewed by the renewing of your mind, we are born again. Nothing can be done by force but only through willingness. Judge not less you be judged. Love is the strongest force in the world. Alcoholics Anonymous combined with where it was derived from Religion, is a mighty force of God.
We learn to “live one day at a time” in both religion and A.A. in religion we practice the sacrament of the moment of the now. In A.A. we take things one day at a time, each moment at a time if necessary to stay clean and sober. The great fact is yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is the present to open and see what it brings. Living in the past usually gets us to dwell on regrets, living in the future usually brings on fears. Living in today in the presence of God can usually result in peace of mind, for we have all we need today. What we choose to do now, is what will eventually make up your life. Life is a succession of choices in the now. Each moment is given us by the grace of God to do something wonderful with. We can work at continuing to overcome ourselves, persistently preparing our minds for action in God’s service and use our moments so that we don’t fall into nor choose the Seven Deadly Sins. Better to use each moment seeking the Will of God for our life. We can at least try and make the effort of working the Twelve Steps and conquering the self-life, the ego driven life and seek daily more and more to obtain God’s Kingdom.
Take a lot around and see the beauty of God’s creation, it is constantly moving and changing. We are changed through God’s love for us, His love in our life profoundly and positively affects our attitude and outlook. What we treat others with, we treat ourselves with as well. God is love and He sends out love and love is returned, when we love our neighbor as ourselves it can’t help but be positively returned to us in some way. For most of our alcoholism and the temptation to drink can be traced back to a lack of love for our fellow man. Page 507 A.A. Big Book 3rd Edition; …temptation …began with my desire for material success becoming greater than my interest in the welfare of my fellow man. Page 549; I had lived with no sense of social obligation nor had I known the meaning of moral responsibility to my fellow man.
Each positive response I give to another changes us more into the likeness and image of God. The beauty of a loving posture is that it calls forth love in response. The more we give, the more we receive. Love conquers fear, love opens the way to God, which assures us of the love, power, wisdom and strength we need for each day. God loves us unconditional it is true, but at the same time He expects us to help ourselves and our neighbor. Give love away, and let love change you. Our past was full of harm and hurt, we failed to live to our potential. Through the Program and confession, admitting our wrongs, making amends (which can be a charitable donation if direct amends is not possible), we have been forgiven, and now have the opportunity to do our best. Through God’s love, His establishments and the sacrament of forgiveness, we are free, we have experienced God’s pardon and mercy. The Bible gives us examples that we are to do likewise to our fellows who have ever harmed us. We can live a life with a clear conscience and help others to do the same, forgive even before anyone ever asks., forgive all things, bless and pray for all people. Look forward to the day ahead with peace and confidence. Your day will be like a spiritual retreat in each moment. These spiritual moments will pull you deeper in love with God and nourish your soul and add serenity to your life. We will grow as we learn to carry the Twelve Steps and our Lord’s Commandments into each moment of our day. In our willingness we simply will not miss out on opportunities to love people and admire the beauty of sobriety and recovery and the world around us. We will let God nourish our minds with the A.A. Literature and His Holy Word in the New Testament Bible. We will reflect the beauty of these to the world around us.
October 25, 2005
It is a marvelous thing to see the change that can be brought about in the lives of those who try the Alcoholics Anonymous Program. There is no real secret, it has been built upon the fundamental principles common to most religions, but in particular Christianity. If you get to know the New Testament Bible you will see where a lot of the Big Book and stories in the 3rd Edition came from. In Alcoholics Anonymous the same thought or teaching is repeated in many similar ways that we are to love God, and love our neighbor, as we think so it will be, be renewed by the renewing of your mind, we are born again. Nothing can be done by force but only through willingness. Judge not less you be judged. Love is the strongest force in the world. Alcoholics Anonymous combined with where it was derived from Religion, is a mighty force of God.
We learn to “live one day at a time” in both religion and A.A. in religion we practice the sacrament of the moment of the now. In A.A. we take things one day at a time, each moment at a time if necessary to stay clean and sober. The great fact is yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is the present to open and see what it brings. Living in the past usually gets us to dwell on regrets, living in the future usually brings on fears. Living in today in the presence of God can usually result in peace of mind, for we have all we need today. What we choose to do now, is what will eventually make up your life. Life is a succession of choices in the now. Each moment is given us by the grace of God to do something wonderful with. We can work at continuing to overcome ourselves, persistently preparing our minds for action in God’s service and use our moments so that we don’t fall into nor choose the Seven Deadly Sins. Better to use each moment seeking the Will of God for our life. We can at least try and make the effort of working the Twelve Steps and conquering the self-life, the ego driven life and seek daily more and more to obtain God’s Kingdom.
Take a lot around and see the beauty of God’s creation, it is constantly moving and changing. We are changed through God’s love for us, His love in our life profoundly and positively affects our attitude and outlook. What we treat others with, we treat ourselves with as well. God is love and He sends out love and love is returned, when we love our neighbor as ourselves it can’t help but be positively returned to us in some way. For most of our alcoholism and the temptation to drink can be traced back to a lack of love for our fellow man. Page 507 A.A. Big Book 3rd Edition; …temptation …began with my desire for material success becoming greater than my interest in the welfare of my fellow man. Page 549; I had lived with no sense of social obligation nor had I known the meaning of moral responsibility to my fellow man.
Each positive response I give to another changes us more into the likeness and image of God. The beauty of a loving posture is that it calls forth love in response. The more we give, the more we receive. Love conquers fear, love opens the way to God, which assures us of the love, power, wisdom and strength we need for each day. God loves us unconditional it is true, but at the same time He expects us to help ourselves and our neighbor. Give love away, and let love change you. Our past was full of harm and hurt, we failed to live to our potential. Through the Program and confession, admitting our wrongs, making amends (which can be a charitable donation if direct amends is not possible), we have been forgiven, and now have the opportunity to do our best. Through God’s love, His establishments and the sacrament of forgiveness, we are free, we have experienced God’s pardon and mercy. The Bible gives us examples that we are to do likewise to our fellows who have ever harmed us. We can live a life with a clear conscience and help others to do the same, forgive even before anyone ever asks., forgive all things, bless and pray for all people. Look forward to the day ahead with peace and confidence. Your day will be like a spiritual retreat in each moment. These spiritual moments will pull you deeper in love with God and nourish your soul and add serenity to your life. We will grow as we learn to carry the Twelve Steps and our Lord’s Commandments into each moment of our day. In our willingness we simply will not miss out on opportunities to love people and admire the beauty of sobriety and recovery and the world around us. We will let God nourish our minds with the A.A. Literature and His Holy Word in the New Testament Bible. We will reflect the beauty of these to the world around us.
Store Up In Yourselve the Riches of God
STORE UP IN YOURSELF THE RICHES OF GOD
The Twelve Steps require our attention, time and study of them, then applying and practicing them in our lives to allow understanding and eventually wisdom to grow in us. The one Step that most of us have applied from the start and that got a lot of us into Alcoholics Anonymous and can be applied at anytime is of course Step Eleven. Prayer and Meditation are good at anytime, anywhere; it can throw light on the other Steps, and any situation or problem we may be experiencing. Meditation can be simply a quieting of the mind and the contemplation of spiritual truths. Prayer can simply be a conversation with God, whether it is a memorized prayer, or personal words from ourselves. The purpose of prayer and meditation is to put God first and foremost into our life. It can celebrate a success with thanks, and it can move our minds away from the problem and raise our minds to higher thoughts. It is a good idea to take time morning, afternoon, evening and at night to purposefully develop the habit of prayer and reflection on God and to pray about our tasks or events. It removes our minds from their business, and onto God and or one spiritual idea, a slogan, a phrase, a one liner from the Big Book or Bible that may be helpful to us. It brings us into conscious contact and awareness of God.
Step Eleven: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Prayer and Meditation are about doing something. It is an action towards situations and or circumstances, to bring peace to our minds and souls, to ask God’s help and to bring our will into line with God’s Will. It helps us to get things done, to think and say and do the right things. Prayer gives us an upward look towards God, it ought to turn negatives into positives and help us see the beauty and goodness and truth in and around us. Prayer and Meditation can bring God’s calmness, patience and tolerance to our situations. Keeping our thoughts and eyes towards God, keeps us going onward and upward, keeps our spirit growing. As we continue in prayer and meditation we will grow in the spiritual life and be enabled to do many things that seemed too hard and difficult for us before. In and with God there is limitlessness and infinite possibilities for spiritual growth and therefore growth in all ways.
Our minds are fascinating busy places; we alcoholics have minds that can fabricate, multiply, magically magnify stuff that doesn’t even exist in personal relationships. We can create or get ourselves into all sorts of trouble. A thought harbored long enough will become an action. So the deal is what are we going to allow our minds to think about, to dwell upon. We cannot afford to lose touch with Divine guidance. We must remember God and think about the things of God so we are steered towards sobriety, faith, trust, confidence, positive thinking, an optimistic attitude and outlook. Our dependence is upon God, and we must remember this fact.
The Program is spiritual, we stress this feature freely, we stress the need for God, for could and would help and guide us if we seek Him and ask for His help, peace and comfort. We can pray for the resources, personalities and information we need, for new knowledge and understanding can come through instruments, people and new spiritual tools. The Twelve Steps are spiritual tools, instruments to use as a means of realizing and remembering and surrendering will and life over to God. We use these Twelve Tools to reach beyond ourselves and our senses to receive help and communion with God, and to be lead ever further. We will be guided to get even more out of this A.A. Program and other establishments of God as we stay in touch with our Heavenly Father. Our conscious contact, our peace of mind and of soul, God’s Will for us will become known to us. Requesting God’s help is a requirement for our growth and learning how to live the spiritual way of life. The Twelve Steps are disciplines if you like, containing principles that we need to master to be spiritually awakened to a life that is happy, joyous and free. We still have much to learn, the lessons of God are only complicated by our unwillingness. We learn how to live; we look at how we’ve messed up our lives and then turn to God to help us straighten it all out. Stresses, a heavy burden, things seeming hard or complicated, all indicate were not on track with God’s ways. Do not fret, simplify your life, open yourself back up to God, do some new learning, train your mind to “Let go and let God” enter, if it is relationship issues, “Live and let live.” We must offer everyone and each other perfect freedom to totally be who God means for them to be.
We must review and return to the Twelve Steps of discipline again and again, we can learn new ways to work on the Steps, new circumstances will come along, new personalities will enter our lives to help us practice and master the Steps for our growth. We don’t need so much to figure out the “Whys” of things, so much as just that there are solutions that work. God is the solution, He has given us what we need, and the rest is up to us.
John 14: 12 “And greater works than these shall you do; because I (Jesus Christ) go unto my Father (in heaven).
Prayer is greater works. Prayer prepares us for God’s works. Prayer produces miracles by the power of God, prayer is the way to God, in battle and peace our duty is to pray. With prayer we are all of some use where we are, in all circumstances, wherever you are, God has put you there to pray. We labor the best we can, when it is in the line of God’s direction, we pray that we make the most of God’s Will possible. Prayer and action with the Twelve Steps is our labor and the results happen as God will’s it. You will be amazed before your half-way through the Steps at the result of God and prayer with action in your life. Keep up the habit of prayer and you will take the right actions and orders from God.
Matthew 6: 33 “Seek” ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and these things shall be added unto you.
Wherever you are, in whatever circumstances you find yourself seek God. Where God is remembered and brought, reality, truth and the solution will be as well. When we put into practice remembering “the Presence of God” the solution appears, and the difficulty will soon disappear.
Romans 4: 20- 25 …in view of the Promise of God, he did not waver through unbelief but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, being fully aware that whatever God has promised He is able also to perform.
Luke 12: 13- 21 …take heed and guard yourselves from all covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (But be rich in as regards to the things of God).
The Twelve Steps require our attention, time and study of them, then applying and practicing them in our lives to allow understanding and eventually wisdom to grow in us. The one Step that most of us have applied from the start and that got a lot of us into Alcoholics Anonymous and can be applied at anytime is of course Step Eleven. Prayer and Meditation are good at anytime, anywhere; it can throw light on the other Steps, and any situation or problem we may be experiencing. Meditation can be simply a quieting of the mind and the contemplation of spiritual truths. Prayer can simply be a conversation with God, whether it is a memorized prayer, or personal words from ourselves. The purpose of prayer and meditation is to put God first and foremost into our life. It can celebrate a success with thanks, and it can move our minds away from the problem and raise our minds to higher thoughts. It is a good idea to take time morning, afternoon, evening and at night to purposefully develop the habit of prayer and reflection on God and to pray about our tasks or events. It removes our minds from their business, and onto God and or one spiritual idea, a slogan, a phrase, a one liner from the Big Book or Bible that may be helpful to us. It brings us into conscious contact and awareness of God.
Step Eleven: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Prayer and Meditation are about doing something. It is an action towards situations and or circumstances, to bring peace to our minds and souls, to ask God’s help and to bring our will into line with God’s Will. It helps us to get things done, to think and say and do the right things. Prayer gives us an upward look towards God, it ought to turn negatives into positives and help us see the beauty and goodness and truth in and around us. Prayer and Meditation can bring God’s calmness, patience and tolerance to our situations. Keeping our thoughts and eyes towards God, keeps us going onward and upward, keeps our spirit growing. As we continue in prayer and meditation we will grow in the spiritual life and be enabled to do many things that seemed too hard and difficult for us before. In and with God there is limitlessness and infinite possibilities for spiritual growth and therefore growth in all ways.
Our minds are fascinating busy places; we alcoholics have minds that can fabricate, multiply, magically magnify stuff that doesn’t even exist in personal relationships. We can create or get ourselves into all sorts of trouble. A thought harbored long enough will become an action. So the deal is what are we going to allow our minds to think about, to dwell upon. We cannot afford to lose touch with Divine guidance. We must remember God and think about the things of God so we are steered towards sobriety, faith, trust, confidence, positive thinking, an optimistic attitude and outlook. Our dependence is upon God, and we must remember this fact.
The Program is spiritual, we stress this feature freely, we stress the need for God, for could and would help and guide us if we seek Him and ask for His help, peace and comfort. We can pray for the resources, personalities and information we need, for new knowledge and understanding can come through instruments, people and new spiritual tools. The Twelve Steps are spiritual tools, instruments to use as a means of realizing and remembering and surrendering will and life over to God. We use these Twelve Tools to reach beyond ourselves and our senses to receive help and communion with God, and to be lead ever further. We will be guided to get even more out of this A.A. Program and other establishments of God as we stay in touch with our Heavenly Father. Our conscious contact, our peace of mind and of soul, God’s Will for us will become known to us. Requesting God’s help is a requirement for our growth and learning how to live the spiritual way of life. The Twelve Steps are disciplines if you like, containing principles that we need to master to be spiritually awakened to a life that is happy, joyous and free. We still have much to learn, the lessons of God are only complicated by our unwillingness. We learn how to live; we look at how we’ve messed up our lives and then turn to God to help us straighten it all out. Stresses, a heavy burden, things seeming hard or complicated, all indicate were not on track with God’s ways. Do not fret, simplify your life, open yourself back up to God, do some new learning, train your mind to “Let go and let God” enter, if it is relationship issues, “Live and let live.” We must offer everyone and each other perfect freedom to totally be who God means for them to be.
We must review and return to the Twelve Steps of discipline again and again, we can learn new ways to work on the Steps, new circumstances will come along, new personalities will enter our lives to help us practice and master the Steps for our growth. We don’t need so much to figure out the “Whys” of things, so much as just that there are solutions that work. God is the solution, He has given us what we need, and the rest is up to us.
John 14: 12 “And greater works than these shall you do; because I (Jesus Christ) go unto my Father (in heaven).
Prayer is greater works. Prayer prepares us for God’s works. Prayer produces miracles by the power of God, prayer is the way to God, in battle and peace our duty is to pray. With prayer we are all of some use where we are, in all circumstances, wherever you are, God has put you there to pray. We labor the best we can, when it is in the line of God’s direction, we pray that we make the most of God’s Will possible. Prayer and action with the Twelve Steps is our labor and the results happen as God will’s it. You will be amazed before your half-way through the Steps at the result of God and prayer with action in your life. Keep up the habit of prayer and you will take the right actions and orders from God.
Matthew 6: 33 “Seek” ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and these things shall be added unto you.
Wherever you are, in whatever circumstances you find yourself seek God. Where God is remembered and brought, reality, truth and the solution will be as well. When we put into practice remembering “the Presence of God” the solution appears, and the difficulty will soon disappear.
Romans 4: 20- 25 …in view of the Promise of God, he did not waver through unbelief but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, being fully aware that whatever God has promised He is able also to perform.
Luke 12: 13- 21 …take heed and guard yourselves from all covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (But be rich in as regards to the things of God).
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
Problems Other Than Alcoholic
WITH THIS NEEDLE, I THEE WED.
So now little girl you’re tired of Grass and Hash, LSD Acid, Crack and Cocaine. When someone pretending to be a true friend says I’ll introduce you to Miss. Heroin.
Well Honey, before you start fooling with me let me inform you of just “How It Will BE”. For I will seduce you and make you my slave I’ve sent stronger women than you straight to their Graves.
You’ll think you could never be such a disgrace then you’ll end up addicted to Poppy Seed Waste, you’ll start by Inhaling me, one afternoon, then you’ll take me into your arms soon and once I have entered deep down in your vein the craving will really drive you insane. You’ll need lots of money or have you already been told? For Darling, I am much more expensive than gold.
You’ll swindle your mother for less than a Buck. You’ll end up an Animal, Vile and Corrupt for a narcotic charm, and only feel content when I’m deep in your arm.
One day you’ll realize the Monster you’ve grown then solemnly promise to leave me alone. Mystical knock just come on and try getting me off your back.
The Vomit, the cramps, your guts in a knot, the jangling nerves screaming for just one more shot, the chills, the cold sweat, the withdrawal pains can only be eased by my little white grains.
There is no other way, no need to look for deep down inside you’ll know that you’re hooked you’ll desperately run to the pusher and then you’ll welcome me back to your vein once again.
And when you return, as I have foretold you’ll ultimately give me your Body and Soul.
You’ll give up your morals, your conscience, your heart and then you’ll be mine till DEATH DO US PART.
(Take the time to think about it.)
A Prisoner
So now little girl you’re tired of Grass and Hash, LSD Acid, Crack and Cocaine. When someone pretending to be a true friend says I’ll introduce you to Miss. Heroin.
Well Honey, before you start fooling with me let me inform you of just “How It Will BE”. For I will seduce you and make you my slave I’ve sent stronger women than you straight to their Graves.
You’ll think you could never be such a disgrace then you’ll end up addicted to Poppy Seed Waste, you’ll start by Inhaling me, one afternoon, then you’ll take me into your arms soon and once I have entered deep down in your vein the craving will really drive you insane. You’ll need lots of money or have you already been told? For Darling, I am much more expensive than gold.
You’ll swindle your mother for less than a Buck. You’ll end up an Animal, Vile and Corrupt for a narcotic charm, and only feel content when I’m deep in your arm.
One day you’ll realize the Monster you’ve grown then solemnly promise to leave me alone. Mystical knock just come on and try getting me off your back.
The Vomit, the cramps, your guts in a knot, the jangling nerves screaming for just one more shot, the chills, the cold sweat, the withdrawal pains can only be eased by my little white grains.
There is no other way, no need to look for deep down inside you’ll know that you’re hooked you’ll desperately run to the pusher and then you’ll welcome me back to your vein once again.
And when you return, as I have foretold you’ll ultimately give me your Body and Soul.
You’ll give up your morals, your conscience, your heart and then you’ll be mine till DEATH DO US PART.
(Take the time to think about it.)
A Prisoner
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Drifted Away from Church
Twenty Years in Twenty Seconds
Volume 42 Issue 11April 1986
By the time I was twenty-five, I had given birth to six children in seven years, had a broken marriage behind me, and was a full-blown alcoholic. Since I had grown up in a very religious atmosphere (Catholic school, Mass every day, three times on weekends, etc.) it wasn't too difficult to drift away from the rigid confines of religion early in my adulthood.
Wallowing in self-pity, all alone raising these children, I constantly told myself and anyone who'd listen just how I needed to drink, how much I deserved it.
I drifted in and out of the AA program for several years and the progression worsened as the time went by. After many car accidents, the loss of several jobs, and most of my sanity, I finally found my way back to this wonderful program.
My sponsor convinced me to try the spiritual route and took me to Mass. It was Palm Sunday and I was told I should try Confession. The thought terrified me, but I did as was suggested. The kind words of the dear man (an alcoholic priest) who heard my confession lifted my spirits so that I could actually feel a weight removed from my heart and soul. With the final absolution, a passage of a mere twenty seconds, I knew the insanity of twenty years was gone. It was as if the hand of God was on my shoulder, touching me, guiding me toward sobriety and a much better way of life.
I haven't touched a drink since that fantastic day. There are times when the way is hard and life seems impossible, but now I know the means of coping. I have but to turn to God. Sensing his presence, I have no need for alcohol or that horrendous way of life that I endured for so long.
M. M.
Arizona
Volume 42 Issue 11April 1986
By the time I was twenty-five, I had given birth to six children in seven years, had a broken marriage behind me, and was a full-blown alcoholic. Since I had grown up in a very religious atmosphere (Catholic school, Mass every day, three times on weekends, etc.) it wasn't too difficult to drift away from the rigid confines of religion early in my adulthood.
Wallowing in self-pity, all alone raising these children, I constantly told myself and anyone who'd listen just how I needed to drink, how much I deserved it.
I drifted in and out of the AA program for several years and the progression worsened as the time went by. After many car accidents, the loss of several jobs, and most of my sanity, I finally found my way back to this wonderful program.
My sponsor convinced me to try the spiritual route and took me to Mass. It was Palm Sunday and I was told I should try Confession. The thought terrified me, but I did as was suggested. The kind words of the dear man (an alcoholic priest) who heard my confession lifted my spirits so that I could actually feel a weight removed from my heart and soul. With the final absolution, a passage of a mere twenty seconds, I knew the insanity of twenty years was gone. It was as if the hand of God was on my shoulder, touching me, guiding me toward sobriety and a much better way of life.
I haven't touched a drink since that fantastic day. There are times when the way is hard and life seems impossible, but now I know the means of coping. I have but to turn to God. Sensing his presence, I have no need for alcohol or that horrendous way of life that I endured for so long.
M. M.
Arizona
Twelve Steps and Twelve Promises
Twelve Steps and Twelve Promises
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Promise: We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Promise: We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
understood Him.
Promise: We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Promise: No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.
Promise: That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Promise: We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Promise: Self-seeking will slip away.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them
all.
Promise: Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would
injure them or others.
Promise: Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
10.Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Promise: We will intuitively know how to handle situations which use to baffle us.
11.Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as
we understood Him, praying only for a knowledge of His will for us and the power to
carry that out.
Promise: We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
12.Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics, and to practice these principals in all our affairs.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Promise: We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Promise: We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we
understood Him.
Promise: We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Promise: No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.
Promise: That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Promise: We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Promise: Self-seeking will slip away.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them
all.
Promise: Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would
injure them or others.
Promise: Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
10.Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Promise: We will intuitively know how to handle situations which use to baffle us.
11.Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as
we understood Him, praying only for a knowledge of His will for us and the power to
carry that out.
Promise: We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
12.Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics, and to practice these principals in all our affairs.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.
Spiritual Suggestions from the Twelve Traditions
Spiritual Expansion Study of
A.A’s Twelve Traditions Book
Tradition One Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
129- unity – our most cherished quality / the life-giving grace of God; / A.A. – guards the individuals right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No A.A. can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled.
130- The A.A. member has to conform to the principles of recovery. His life actually depends upon obedience to spiritual principles. If he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift; he sickens and dies. / a way of life he really wants to live. / no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship. / desires and ambitions within him must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. / the group must survive or the individual will not.
131- Each needed to consider the others, and in abiding faith they knew they must find their real strength.
Tradition Two For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
132- no A.A. can give another a directive and enforce obedience, / channel spirituality to newcomers,
134- a group conscience / rotating committee / They are servants. / the group conscience decree the terms upon which its leaders shall serve.
135- “elder statesmen” and “bleeding deacons.” The elder statesman – sees the wisdom of group’s decision – holds no resentment – willing to sit quietly – patiently / The bleeding deacon – is – surely convinced that the group cannot get along without him – connives for reelection – consumed with self-pity. / elder statesmen – they lead by example.
136- my head doctor, Silkworth, began to tell me of the idea of helping drunks by spirituality.
137-138 a matter of life and death / I listened, and – thank God – I obeyed.
Tradition Three The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
139- no matter how low you’ve gone – how grave your emotional complications – how twisted or violent you may be. – you get the same chance for sobriety
141- we must never compel anyone to pay anything, believe anything, or conform to anything / alcoholics trying to hold their faces up to the light.
143- I am the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism, you may not want me among you. Or will you. / “‘What would the Master do?’”
144- he talked – against God. “Leave him alone! Let him try it by himself for once; maybe he’ll learn a lesson!” (Relapsed). / in a cheap hotel. / This is the end…nothing is left.
145- touching a book. Opening the book, he read. It was a Gideon Bible. / He hasn’t had a drink since. / the hand of Providence early gave us a sign
Tradition Four Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
146- the grace of God, has brought us to where we stand today. / the group – the individual, must eventually conform to whatever tested principles would guarantee survival.
147- The A.A. group would have to stick to its course or be hopelessly lost. Sobriety had to be its sole objective.
Tradition Five Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
150- better do one thing well than many badly.
151- The only thing that matters is that he is an alcoholic who has found a key to sobriety. / legacies of suffering and recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, / our gift from God. / we can seldom keep the precious gift of sobriety unless we give it away. / one high mission – to carry the A.A. message to those who don’t know there’s a way out.
153- humility was the main key to sobriety. / I wanted him to find the grace in his own religion that would aid his recovery.
154- sold me one idea, and that was sobriety.
Tradition Six An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
157- We of Alcoholics Anonymous could not be all things to all men, nor should we try.
159- Alcoholics Anonymous saved my life, and it comes first. / we could not lend the A.A. name to any other cause than our own.
Tradition Seven Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
160- it was high time – now sober – paid our own way.
161- we were astounded to find that we were as tight as the bark on a tree.
162- simple services would require small sums of money which we could and would pay ourselves. / Would they send us a dollar a member a year? / There was a place in A.A. where spirituality and money would mix, and that was in the hat!
165- A.A. must always stay poor. Bare running expenses plus a prudent reserve would henceforth be the Foundation’s financial policy. / by making financial independence part of its tradition, Alcoholics Anonymous had revived an ideal that its era had almost forgotten.
Tradition Eight Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
166- the ancient words “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
169- they could not be expected to carry this load day in and day out. / So we hire A.A. staff members.
171- We see that we have no right or need to discourage A.A.’s who wish to work as individuals in these wider fields. / Our Twelfth Step is never to be paid for, but those who labor in service for us are worthy of their hire.
Tradition Nine A.A. as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
172- no membership rules?
173- Alcoholics Anonymous is an exception. / its General Service Conference, its Foundation Board, nor the humblest group committee can issue a single directive to an A.A. member and make it stick, / “This is life for us; you can’t keep us out.” / “How I do my Twelfth Step work is my business. Who are you to judge?” / they could do no more than make suggestions / you are at perfect liberty to handle this matter anyway you please.
174- Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. / drunkenness and dissolution – they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles. / Unless there is approximate conformity to A.A.’s Twelve Traditions, the group, too, can deteriorate and die. So we of A.A. do obey spiritual principles – we love the kind of life such obedience brings. Great suffering and great love are A.A.’s disciplinarians;
175- the aim of each A.A. member is personal sobriety, the aim of our services is to bring sobriety within reach of all who want it.
Tradition Ten Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
176- we must never – publicly take sides in any fight,
177- we do not enter into public controversy, because we know that our Society will perish if it does. / it is imperative that we preserve in full strength our means of survival.
178- The Washingtonian Society, / almost discovered the answer to alcoholism. The early members foresaw that they should dedicate themselves to this sole aim. / But this didn’t happen.
179- As we surveyed the wreck of that movement, early A.A. members resolved to keep our Society out of public controversy.
Tradition Eleven Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
181- we had to rely upon the principle of attraction rather than of promotion. / composed almost entirely of promoters – we knew we had to exercise self-restraint.
182- rare in the world – a society which said it wished to publicize its principles and its works, but not its individual members.
183- personal ambition has no place in A.A. In it, each member becomes an active guardian of our Fellowship.
Tradition Twelve Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
184-The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Because A.A.’s Twelve Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good, we realize that the sacrificial spirit – well symbolized by anonymity – is the foundation of them all.
185- Clearly, every A.A. member’s name – and story, too – had to be confidential, if he wished. / “How anonymous should an A.A. member be?” / we couldn’t be a secret society,
186- When opportunities to be helpful came along, he found he could talk easily about A.A. to almost anyone. / A.A. groups would have to reach quickly as many despairing alcoholics as they could. / groups began to hold meetings which were open to – the public, so that the average citizen could see for himself just what A.A. was all about.
187- newspapers and magazines / Film companies / Radio – television / The promoter instinct in us might be our doing. / Here, principles would have to come before personalities, without exception. These experiences taught us that anonymity is real humility at work. It is an all-pervading spiritual quality which today keynotes A.A. life everywhere.
A.A’s Twelve Traditions Book
Tradition One Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
129- unity – our most cherished quality / the life-giving grace of God; / A.A. – guards the individuals right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No A.A. can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled.
130- The A.A. member has to conform to the principles of recovery. His life actually depends upon obedience to spiritual principles. If he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift; he sickens and dies. / a way of life he really wants to live. / no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship. / desires and ambitions within him must be silenced whenever these could damage the group. / the group must survive or the individual will not.
131- Each needed to consider the others, and in abiding faith they knew they must find their real strength.
Tradition Two For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
132- no A.A. can give another a directive and enforce obedience, / channel spirituality to newcomers,
134- a group conscience / rotating committee / They are servants. / the group conscience decree the terms upon which its leaders shall serve.
135- “elder statesmen” and “bleeding deacons.” The elder statesman – sees the wisdom of group’s decision – holds no resentment – willing to sit quietly – patiently / The bleeding deacon – is – surely convinced that the group cannot get along without him – connives for reelection – consumed with self-pity. / elder statesmen – they lead by example.
136- my head doctor, Silkworth, began to tell me of the idea of helping drunks by spirituality.
137-138 a matter of life and death / I listened, and – thank God – I obeyed.
Tradition Three The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
139- no matter how low you’ve gone – how grave your emotional complications – how twisted or violent you may be. – you get the same chance for sobriety
141- we must never compel anyone to pay anything, believe anything, or conform to anything / alcoholics trying to hold their faces up to the light.
143- I am the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism, you may not want me among you. Or will you. / “‘What would the Master do?’”
144- he talked – against God. “Leave him alone! Let him try it by himself for once; maybe he’ll learn a lesson!” (Relapsed). / in a cheap hotel. / This is the end…nothing is left.
145- touching a book. Opening the book, he read. It was a Gideon Bible. / He hasn’t had a drink since. / the hand of Providence early gave us a sign
Tradition Four Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
146- the grace of God, has brought us to where we stand today. / the group – the individual, must eventually conform to whatever tested principles would guarantee survival.
147- The A.A. group would have to stick to its course or be hopelessly lost. Sobriety had to be its sole objective.
Tradition Five Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
150- better do one thing well than many badly.
151- The only thing that matters is that he is an alcoholic who has found a key to sobriety. / legacies of suffering and recovery are easily passed among alcoholics, / our gift from God. / we can seldom keep the precious gift of sobriety unless we give it away. / one high mission – to carry the A.A. message to those who don’t know there’s a way out.
153- humility was the main key to sobriety. / I wanted him to find the grace in his own religion that would aid his recovery.
154- sold me one idea, and that was sobriety.
Tradition Six An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
157- We of Alcoholics Anonymous could not be all things to all men, nor should we try.
159- Alcoholics Anonymous saved my life, and it comes first. / we could not lend the A.A. name to any other cause than our own.
Tradition Seven Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
160- it was high time – now sober – paid our own way.
161- we were astounded to find that we were as tight as the bark on a tree.
162- simple services would require small sums of money which we could and would pay ourselves. / Would they send us a dollar a member a year? / There was a place in A.A. where spirituality and money would mix, and that was in the hat!
165- A.A. must always stay poor. Bare running expenses plus a prudent reserve would henceforth be the Foundation’s financial policy. / by making financial independence part of its tradition, Alcoholics Anonymous had revived an ideal that its era had almost forgotten.
Tradition Eight Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
166- the ancient words “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
169- they could not be expected to carry this load day in and day out. / So we hire A.A. staff members.
171- We see that we have no right or need to discourage A.A.’s who wish to work as individuals in these wider fields. / Our Twelfth Step is never to be paid for, but those who labor in service for us are worthy of their hire.
Tradition Nine A.A. as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
172- no membership rules?
173- Alcoholics Anonymous is an exception. / its General Service Conference, its Foundation Board, nor the humblest group committee can issue a single directive to an A.A. member and make it stick, / “This is life for us; you can’t keep us out.” / “How I do my Twelfth Step work is my business. Who are you to judge?” / they could do no more than make suggestions / you are at perfect liberty to handle this matter anyway you please.
174- Unless each A.A. member follows to the best of his ability our suggested Twelve Steps to recovery, he almost certainly signs his own death warrant. / drunkenness and dissolution – they result from his personal disobedience to spiritual principles. / Unless there is approximate conformity to A.A.’s Twelve Traditions, the group, too, can deteriorate and die. So we of A.A. do obey spiritual principles – we love the kind of life such obedience brings. Great suffering and great love are A.A.’s disciplinarians;
175- the aim of each A.A. member is personal sobriety, the aim of our services is to bring sobriety within reach of all who want it.
Tradition Ten Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
176- we must never – publicly take sides in any fight,
177- we do not enter into public controversy, because we know that our Society will perish if it does. / it is imperative that we preserve in full strength our means of survival.
178- The Washingtonian Society, / almost discovered the answer to alcoholism. The early members foresaw that they should dedicate themselves to this sole aim. / But this didn’t happen.
179- As we surveyed the wreck of that movement, early A.A. members resolved to keep our Society out of public controversy.
Tradition Eleven Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.
181- we had to rely upon the principle of attraction rather than of promotion. / composed almost entirely of promoters – we knew we had to exercise self-restraint.
182- rare in the world – a society which said it wished to publicize its principles and its works, but not its individual members.
183- personal ambition has no place in A.A. In it, each member becomes an active guardian of our Fellowship.
Tradition Twelve Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
184-The spiritual substance of anonymity is sacrifice. Because A.A.’s Twelve Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good, we realize that the sacrificial spirit – well symbolized by anonymity – is the foundation of them all.
185- Clearly, every A.A. member’s name – and story, too – had to be confidential, if he wished. / “How anonymous should an A.A. member be?” / we couldn’t be a secret society,
186- When opportunities to be helpful came along, he found he could talk easily about A.A. to almost anyone. / A.A. groups would have to reach quickly as many despairing alcoholics as they could. / groups began to hold meetings which were open to – the public, so that the average citizen could see for himself just what A.A. was all about.
187- newspapers and magazines / Film companies / Radio – television / The promoter instinct in us might be our doing. / Here, principles would have to come before personalities, without exception. These experiences taught us that anonymity is real humility at work. It is an all-pervading spiritual quality which today keynotes A.A. life everywhere.
Things to do List for an AA member
“THINGS TO DO LIST”
1- Get a sponsor.
2- Attend Meetings, A.A. Church etc…
3- Build a relationship with God.
4- Continue to practice the Steps.
5- Learn to be happy.
6- Apply to your life what you’re learning about recovery and God.
7- Go about looking for ways to help other people.
You have been given a spiritual tool kit, start making use of it.
1- Get a sponsor.
2- Attend Meetings, A.A. Church etc…
3- Build a relationship with God.
4- Continue to practice the Steps.
5- Learn to be happy.
6- Apply to your life what you’re learning about recovery and God.
7- Go about looking for ways to help other people.
You have been given a spiritual tool kit, start making use of it.
The Spiritual Angle of A.A.
The Spiritual Angle of AA
Volume 12 Issue 5October 1955
IT was clear to Bill from the first, I take it, that Dr. Jung's simple declaration that science knew no answer, and Dr. Silk worth's incalculable help from the medical angle, and William James' great wisdom in "Varieties of Religious Experience" still left the great need for a spiritual factor which would create a synthesis and offer a dynamic motive to sobriety. The problem was how to translate the spiritual experience into universal terms without letting it evaporate into mere ideals and generalities.
And so, immediately after Step One, which concerned the unmanageableness of life as some of us had been living it, came Step Two: we "came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." The basis of this belief was not theoretical, it was evidential. Before us were people in whose lives the beginnings of a transformation had taken place. You could question the interpretation of the experience, but you could not question the transformation itself. In Acts 3 and 4 is the story of the healing of a lame man by Peter and John. A lot of the ecclesiastics wanted to know how it came about. The apostles told them it was through the name of Christ that the man was healed. And it says, "And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it." You can fight a theory about an experience, but you have to acknowledge the experience itself.
AA has been supremely wise to emphasize the reality of the experience, and to acknowledge that it came from a Higher Power than human, and then leave it at that.
It would have been easy, and must have been something of a temptation, to go into the theological business. Here the evidence was. It was evidence of a Power. All right: then let's define the Power! But this would have struck against several possible difficulties. If they had said more, some people would have wanted them to say much more, and define God in the way most acceptable to them. It would only have taken two or three groups like this, dissenting from one another, to wreck the whole thing.
Moreover, there were people with an unhappy association with religion--a dead church or parson, some church-going people whose weekday lives did not support their Sunday professions; and this would have added a factor to be overcome in addition to those already present. Also there are the agnostics and atheists, who say they either do not know anything at all about ultimate realities in the universe; or else definitely disbelieve in any definable or reachable god. There are a good many people who disbelieve in God for emotional reasons. As Unamuno says, "those who deny God deny Him because of their despair at not finding Him."
For an outfit like AA to become dogmatic would have been fatal. So the founders stuck to the inescapable experience, and told people to "turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." That left the theory and the theology--very important as they are--to the churches to which people belonged. And if they belonged to no church, and could as yet hold no theory, then they must give themselves to the God they saw in other people. This is not a bad way to set in motion a spiritual experiment and the beginnings of a spiritual experience. Maybe it is what we all do when we let religion change over from a mere tradition to a living power.
I want to emphasize the psychological soundness of all this. Do not think it applies to alcoholics alone; it applies to everyone who is seeking genuine spiritual faith and experience. When one has done the best he can with the intellectual reasoning, there yet comes a time for decision and action. It may be a relatively simple decision: really to enter wholly into the experiment. The approach is more like science than like philosophy. We do not so much try to reason it out in abstract logic: we choose a hypothesis, act as if it were true, and see whether it is. If it's not, we can discard it. If it is, we are free to call the experiment a success.
You can sit about in a vacuum--whether this be the privacy of your room, or an academic classroom, or a pulpit--and discuss the truth of a theory forever, and it may do you no good. It is when you let truth go into action, and hurl your life after your held conception of truth, that things start to happen. If it is genuine truth, it will accomplish things on the plane of actual living. If God is what Christ said He is, then He is more eager to help us than we are to be helped. He does not trespass on man's freedom, and we can reject Him and deny Him and ignore Him as long as we like.
But when we open the door on a spiritual search, with our whole lives thrown into it, we shall find Him always there, ready to receive our feeblest approaches, our most selfish and childish prayers, our always entirely unworthy selves, and get down to business with us.
The experimental approach seems to me to be of the essence of our finding the help of the Higher Power. We first lean on another human being who seems to be finding the answer. Then we come to lean on the Higher Power who stands behind him. William James, in the famous passage from "Varieties of Religious Experience," says "The crisis (of self-surrender) is the throwing of our conscious selves on the mercy of powers which, whatever they may be, are more ideal than we are actually, and make for our redemption. . . . Self-surrender has been and always must be regarded as the vital turning point of the religious life. . . . One may say that the whole development of Christianity in inwardness has consisted in little more than greater and greater emphasis attached to this crisis of self-surrender."
This, of course, becomes the heart of all religion. Most of us come to God in the first instance from a need. If you want to say so, we come selfishly; but I would point out that, before we can be of any use to anybody else, we must find the beginnings of the answer for ourselves, so that this may represent a necessary step in progress.
There is a great hue and cry today about people seeking benefits from God. I'd like to know where, in Heaven's name, a bewildered and defeated person is to go for the help he desperately needs, if he doesn't go to God! Of course he is concerned about himself--he ought to be--he must be, if he is ever to be made useful to others. But later on he must also grow-up, stop just using God, and ask God to use him.
One begins a mature religion at the point where he stops trying to get God to do what he wants, and begins asking God to show him what He wants.
Many people will tell you they have given up faith: they prayed for something they wanted, and it did not come--so either there is no God, or else He is not interested in them.
What childish nonsense! How can you expect God to listen to every selfish half-baked prayer we send up to Him; He'd have the world in worse chaos than it is, in five minutes! Prayer is not telling God what we want, it is putting ourselves at His disposal so that He can tell us what He wants. Prayer is not meant to try to change the will of God, it is meant to find the will of God, to align or realign ourselves with His purposes for His world and for us. That is why it is at least as important for us to listen as to speak in prayer.
Oftentimes we come to Him feverishly and wilfully, and we just have to quiet down before He can do anything for us. When our voices are clamorous and demanding, there is no place for His voice. When we let the wilfulness cool out of us, He can begin to get His will across to us. And, as Dante said, "In His will is our peace."
There are many people who do not like the implication of weakness in the word "surrender." They like to think they are strong characters who can take care of their own destinies. This is fictitious thinking. Everyone in this world is some kind of a weakling; and if he thinks he is not, then pride is his weakness, and it is the greatest weakness of all. People may think they avoid the overtly disreputable sins; none of us avoids the folly of selfishness, of self-centeredness, or pride. That man is fortunate whose problems are of such a kind that they get him into trouble, and he has to do something about them. Would that temper and pride and laziness and scornfulness and irritability and greed brought people to the same state of conscious need as alcoholism does! No one is strong, and the people who think they are only self-deceived. We act as if character and reasonably good behavior were the end and aim of existence.
The real questions in life, which underlie matters of behavior, are definitely of a religious nature and can have only a religious answer, an answer that comes from God, Whence came I? What am I meant to be doing here? Whither am I going? These are the questions that, unanswered, leave us without direction or moorings. But science has no answer to them, and philosophy only the answers of a human guess. Religious faith is the one candle in the darkness of life's mystery. If Christ came down from God to represent Him and speak for Him, then we have an answer. The lesser revelations to prophets and seers are of the same nature, but not of the same authority, judged (if you will) simply by the size of their effects in human history. All these truly wise men seem to begin with the acknowledgment of their finiteness, their darkness and their need. When we get through to God, by whatever name we call Him, or rather when we let Him get through to us, then we begin finding light and the answer.
The great need of our world and of our time is for a vast, world-wide spiritual awakening. There are many signs that it is upon us. Western man is gradually getting it through his head that he owes the greatest of all human blessings--the blessing of liberty--to God and religion.
There are four factors, it seems to me, in all genuine spiritual awakening: conversion, prayer, fellowship and witness.
By conversion I mean the place where one turns towards God, where one begins to want to be honest about oneself in the light of one's religion. I do not mean perfection, I mean the search for it and the start towards it. It is within the reach of all, and it is the beginning. A lot of religious people are like a crowd sitting in a railway station, thinking they are travelling. They hear the names of trains and stations, there is the smell of luggage and the stir of travel. But they have never gotten on the train. Conversion is where you get on the train. You leave St. Louis for Chicago, and you are not in Chicago right away; but you are soon out of St. Louis for Chicago, and you are really on the train. Conversion is getting on the train and beginning to move away from where you were.
Prayer--private, group or public--is the place where we get in touch anew with God and His power. God's power is always there, as there is always potential electricity in a wire plugged into a socket that is in touch with a dynamo. But you do not get the power till you close the circuit by turning the switch. Prayer, in ways unfathomable to us theoretically, but always open to us actually, turns on the switch, opens up the power by closing the circuit. We do not so much "get what we want" as find out what we should do. Awakening, in the individual, or in companies, or in nations always includes discovering the power that is in prayer.
But somehow we never can do this alone. From the first, Christ drew about Him a company. To join Him, you had also to join that company. The church has always been a scratch company of sinners. It is not the best people in the community gathered together for self-congratulation; it is the people who know they have a great need gathered to find its answer in worship towards God and fellowship with one another. The church is not a museum, it is a hospital. That's why we can all belong to it and should.
Witness comes by life and by word. A lot of average and self-righteous people think they are "witnessing" every day, but there is not enough difference between them and the rest of the world for it to make any real difference. It is when a spiritual experience has begun--one that changes us deeply on the inside--that it begins to show on the outside. This intrigues people. They wonder what has happened to us. They begin asking questions. And then is the time to open up and witness by words. We do not preach to others, we do not talk down to them, we do not point to ourselves as the answer: but we share those beginnings of victory that we know. Every real believer must engage in Twelfth Step work if he is to keep spiritually alive.
The parallels between these four points and AA's Twelve Steps must be obvious to anybody. To me AA is one of the great signs of spiritual awakening in our time. It is experimental and experiential in nature, not dogmatic; but none can doubt that God is what has made AA and today inspires and keeps it growing. I am thankful that the Church has so widely associated itself with AA, because I think the church needs AA as a continuous spur to greater aliveness and expectation and power. They are meant to complement and supplement each other.
I believe that AA will go on serving men and women as long as it may be needed, if it keeps open to God for inspiration, and open to people for service. I believe that AA has been wise to confine its organized activity to alcoholics. But I hope and I think we may see an effect of AA on medicine, on psychiatry, on correction, on the ever-present problem of human nature itself and what we can do about it, and--not least--on the Church. AA derived indirectly a great deal of its inspiration from the Church. Now perhaps the time has come for the Church--all the churches--to let themselves be re-awakened and vitalized by the insights and practices which are found in AA.
God bless AA forever!
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker
Penna.
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Volume 12 Issue 5October 1955
IT was clear to Bill from the first, I take it, that Dr. Jung's simple declaration that science knew no answer, and Dr. Silk worth's incalculable help from the medical angle, and William James' great wisdom in "Varieties of Religious Experience" still left the great need for a spiritual factor which would create a synthesis and offer a dynamic motive to sobriety. The problem was how to translate the spiritual experience into universal terms without letting it evaporate into mere ideals and generalities.
And so, immediately after Step One, which concerned the unmanageableness of life as some of us had been living it, came Step Two: we "came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." The basis of this belief was not theoretical, it was evidential. Before us were people in whose lives the beginnings of a transformation had taken place. You could question the interpretation of the experience, but you could not question the transformation itself. In Acts 3 and 4 is the story of the healing of a lame man by Peter and John. A lot of the ecclesiastics wanted to know how it came about. The apostles told them it was through the name of Christ that the man was healed. And it says, "And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it." You can fight a theory about an experience, but you have to acknowledge the experience itself.
AA has been supremely wise to emphasize the reality of the experience, and to acknowledge that it came from a Higher Power than human, and then leave it at that.
It would have been easy, and must have been something of a temptation, to go into the theological business. Here the evidence was. It was evidence of a Power. All right: then let's define the Power! But this would have struck against several possible difficulties. If they had said more, some people would have wanted them to say much more, and define God in the way most acceptable to them. It would only have taken two or three groups like this, dissenting from one another, to wreck the whole thing.
Moreover, there were people with an unhappy association with religion--a dead church or parson, some church-going people whose weekday lives did not support their Sunday professions; and this would have added a factor to be overcome in addition to those already present. Also there are the agnostics and atheists, who say they either do not know anything at all about ultimate realities in the universe; or else definitely disbelieve in any definable or reachable god. There are a good many people who disbelieve in God for emotional reasons. As Unamuno says, "those who deny God deny Him because of their despair at not finding Him."
For an outfit like AA to become dogmatic would have been fatal. So the founders stuck to the inescapable experience, and told people to "turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." That left the theory and the theology--very important as they are--to the churches to which people belonged. And if they belonged to no church, and could as yet hold no theory, then they must give themselves to the God they saw in other people. This is not a bad way to set in motion a spiritual experiment and the beginnings of a spiritual experience. Maybe it is what we all do when we let religion change over from a mere tradition to a living power.
I want to emphasize the psychological soundness of all this. Do not think it applies to alcoholics alone; it applies to everyone who is seeking genuine spiritual faith and experience. When one has done the best he can with the intellectual reasoning, there yet comes a time for decision and action. It may be a relatively simple decision: really to enter wholly into the experiment. The approach is more like science than like philosophy. We do not so much try to reason it out in abstract logic: we choose a hypothesis, act as if it were true, and see whether it is. If it's not, we can discard it. If it is, we are free to call the experiment a success.
You can sit about in a vacuum--whether this be the privacy of your room, or an academic classroom, or a pulpit--and discuss the truth of a theory forever, and it may do you no good. It is when you let truth go into action, and hurl your life after your held conception of truth, that things start to happen. If it is genuine truth, it will accomplish things on the plane of actual living. If God is what Christ said He is, then He is more eager to help us than we are to be helped. He does not trespass on man's freedom, and we can reject Him and deny Him and ignore Him as long as we like.
But when we open the door on a spiritual search, with our whole lives thrown into it, we shall find Him always there, ready to receive our feeblest approaches, our most selfish and childish prayers, our always entirely unworthy selves, and get down to business with us.
The experimental approach seems to me to be of the essence of our finding the help of the Higher Power. We first lean on another human being who seems to be finding the answer. Then we come to lean on the Higher Power who stands behind him. William James, in the famous passage from "Varieties of Religious Experience," says "The crisis (of self-surrender) is the throwing of our conscious selves on the mercy of powers which, whatever they may be, are more ideal than we are actually, and make for our redemption. . . . Self-surrender has been and always must be regarded as the vital turning point of the religious life. . . . One may say that the whole development of Christianity in inwardness has consisted in little more than greater and greater emphasis attached to this crisis of self-surrender."
This, of course, becomes the heart of all religion. Most of us come to God in the first instance from a need. If you want to say so, we come selfishly; but I would point out that, before we can be of any use to anybody else, we must find the beginnings of the answer for ourselves, so that this may represent a necessary step in progress.
There is a great hue and cry today about people seeking benefits from God. I'd like to know where, in Heaven's name, a bewildered and defeated person is to go for the help he desperately needs, if he doesn't go to God! Of course he is concerned about himself--he ought to be--he must be, if he is ever to be made useful to others. But later on he must also grow-up, stop just using God, and ask God to use him.
One begins a mature religion at the point where he stops trying to get God to do what he wants, and begins asking God to show him what He wants.
Many people will tell you they have given up faith: they prayed for something they wanted, and it did not come--so either there is no God, or else He is not interested in them.
What childish nonsense! How can you expect God to listen to every selfish half-baked prayer we send up to Him; He'd have the world in worse chaos than it is, in five minutes! Prayer is not telling God what we want, it is putting ourselves at His disposal so that He can tell us what He wants. Prayer is not meant to try to change the will of God, it is meant to find the will of God, to align or realign ourselves with His purposes for His world and for us. That is why it is at least as important for us to listen as to speak in prayer.
Oftentimes we come to Him feverishly and wilfully, and we just have to quiet down before He can do anything for us. When our voices are clamorous and demanding, there is no place for His voice. When we let the wilfulness cool out of us, He can begin to get His will across to us. And, as Dante said, "In His will is our peace."
There are many people who do not like the implication of weakness in the word "surrender." They like to think they are strong characters who can take care of their own destinies. This is fictitious thinking. Everyone in this world is some kind of a weakling; and if he thinks he is not, then pride is his weakness, and it is the greatest weakness of all. People may think they avoid the overtly disreputable sins; none of us avoids the folly of selfishness, of self-centeredness, or pride. That man is fortunate whose problems are of such a kind that they get him into trouble, and he has to do something about them. Would that temper and pride and laziness and scornfulness and irritability and greed brought people to the same state of conscious need as alcoholism does! No one is strong, and the people who think they are only self-deceived. We act as if character and reasonably good behavior were the end and aim of existence.
The real questions in life, which underlie matters of behavior, are definitely of a religious nature and can have only a religious answer, an answer that comes from God, Whence came I? What am I meant to be doing here? Whither am I going? These are the questions that, unanswered, leave us without direction or moorings. But science has no answer to them, and philosophy only the answers of a human guess. Religious faith is the one candle in the darkness of life's mystery. If Christ came down from God to represent Him and speak for Him, then we have an answer. The lesser revelations to prophets and seers are of the same nature, but not of the same authority, judged (if you will) simply by the size of their effects in human history. All these truly wise men seem to begin with the acknowledgment of their finiteness, their darkness and their need. When we get through to God, by whatever name we call Him, or rather when we let Him get through to us, then we begin finding light and the answer.
The great need of our world and of our time is for a vast, world-wide spiritual awakening. There are many signs that it is upon us. Western man is gradually getting it through his head that he owes the greatest of all human blessings--the blessing of liberty--to God and religion.
There are four factors, it seems to me, in all genuine spiritual awakening: conversion, prayer, fellowship and witness.
By conversion I mean the place where one turns towards God, where one begins to want to be honest about oneself in the light of one's religion. I do not mean perfection, I mean the search for it and the start towards it. It is within the reach of all, and it is the beginning. A lot of religious people are like a crowd sitting in a railway station, thinking they are travelling. They hear the names of trains and stations, there is the smell of luggage and the stir of travel. But they have never gotten on the train. Conversion is where you get on the train. You leave St. Louis for Chicago, and you are not in Chicago right away; but you are soon out of St. Louis for Chicago, and you are really on the train. Conversion is getting on the train and beginning to move away from where you were.
Prayer--private, group or public--is the place where we get in touch anew with God and His power. God's power is always there, as there is always potential electricity in a wire plugged into a socket that is in touch with a dynamo. But you do not get the power till you close the circuit by turning the switch. Prayer, in ways unfathomable to us theoretically, but always open to us actually, turns on the switch, opens up the power by closing the circuit. We do not so much "get what we want" as find out what we should do. Awakening, in the individual, or in companies, or in nations always includes discovering the power that is in prayer.
But somehow we never can do this alone. From the first, Christ drew about Him a company. To join Him, you had also to join that company. The church has always been a scratch company of sinners. It is not the best people in the community gathered together for self-congratulation; it is the people who know they have a great need gathered to find its answer in worship towards God and fellowship with one another. The church is not a museum, it is a hospital. That's why we can all belong to it and should.
Witness comes by life and by word. A lot of average and self-righteous people think they are "witnessing" every day, but there is not enough difference between them and the rest of the world for it to make any real difference. It is when a spiritual experience has begun--one that changes us deeply on the inside--that it begins to show on the outside. This intrigues people. They wonder what has happened to us. They begin asking questions. And then is the time to open up and witness by words. We do not preach to others, we do not talk down to them, we do not point to ourselves as the answer: but we share those beginnings of victory that we know. Every real believer must engage in Twelfth Step work if he is to keep spiritually alive.
The parallels between these four points and AA's Twelve Steps must be obvious to anybody. To me AA is one of the great signs of spiritual awakening in our time. It is experimental and experiential in nature, not dogmatic; but none can doubt that God is what has made AA and today inspires and keeps it growing. I am thankful that the Church has so widely associated itself with AA, because I think the church needs AA as a continuous spur to greater aliveness and expectation and power. They are meant to complement and supplement each other.
I believe that AA will go on serving men and women as long as it may be needed, if it keeps open to God for inspiration, and open to people for service. I believe that AA has been wise to confine its organized activity to alcoholics. But I hope and I think we may see an effect of AA on medicine, on psychiatry, on correction, on the ever-present problem of human nature itself and what we can do about it, and--not least--on the Church. AA derived indirectly a great deal of its inspiration from the Church. Now perhaps the time has come for the Church--all the churches--to let themselves be re-awakened and vitalized by the insights and practices which are found in AA.
God bless AA forever!
Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker
Penna.
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The Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins
Identifying, Confronting, and
Growing in Holiness
By Dr. Ross Porter
Pride, anger, envy, sloth, greed, lust and gluttony: there are no forces more destructive, degrading or deceptive. The prophets and authors of the Old Testament, Jesus and His Apostles, and theologians throughout the history of the Church have warned about the causes and effects of these seven deadly sins (also known as the seven capital sins because they are the sources of all other sins). Even now, these sins wait “crouching at the door” (Gen 4:7).
In order to confront effectively the seven deadly sins, we must be able to identify them and to implement a plan of action that includes “virtues therapy,” where one practices the virtue directly opposing the given vice. Holiness is ultimately the goal for all Christians, but possible only as we cooperate with God’s grace.
One needs to look no further than the First Commandment to understand the essence of why the seven deadly sins are so lethal: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex 20:3). We dethrone God with each of the deadly sins, and give ourselves to something much less than Him. God will never abandon us, but He does honor our freedom to choose evil. C.S. Lewis wrote, “In the end there will only be two kinds of people, those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’”
Pride can be defined as inordinate esteem of oneself and is distinct from healthy self-esteem, which is based on the knowledge of being a child of God saved by grace. Pride destroys the virtue of humility, and crowns one’s ego as a false god. In the process, one will “turn one’s heart away from one’s Maker” (Sir 10:12). Pride also distances us from others. Confront pride by practicing humility, as one cannot be prideful and humble simultaneously. Living the Sacraments and addressing control issues in one’s life are critical as well.
Anger becomes a deadly sin when vengeance is enthroned as a false god. Instead of being used constructively as demonstrated by Jesus in the cleansing of the temple (Jn 2:15-16), sinful anger is used to punish or injure another. Meekness is the virtue destroyed by sinful anger. A person controlled by anger is unpredictable and has given the Devil a foothold (Eph 4:27). Confront anger by practicing meekness, gentle strength, with self and others while giving yourself periods of reflection and rest.
Envy is defined as “sorrow at another’s good;” one enthrones one’s sense of deprivation as a false god. Envy destroys the virtue of charity with a deadly combination of
pride (we’re better than others) and inferiority (we’re lacking in comparison to others). People who struggle with envy confuse equal and identical. We are all equal in dignity as children of God, but our lives are not identical. We are not all given the same gifts or burdens. Proverbs tells us that “envy rots the bones” (14:30). Root out envy by practicing charity, and by mourning the losses you have experienced in life (there is a connection between mourning and being free to love more).
Sloth is spiritual laziness. The slothful combine a lack of care for duties to God with a melancholy dissatisfact- ion, and enthrone their given escapist activity as their false god (e.g. sleep, television, work). Sloth destroys the virtue of zeal, and is arguably the sin that best defines the age we live in. Jesus had another name for the slothful: lukewarm (Rev 3:16). Look for opportunities to serve God, and in doing so you will burn off sloth. Life-giving recreational activities will also aid you in avoiding sloth.
Greed is essentially about grabbing and holding, as one crowns “things” god. You can be poor and still be greedy, since this deadly sin is about much more than quantity. Greed destroys the virtue of generosity, and inevitably makes you stingy with your emotions as well as your possessions. “What good is it for one to gain the whole world yet lose one’s soul” (Mk 8:36)? Greed can be defeated by practicing generosity (with your time, your emotions and your finances), as well as by considering your own mortality. How do you want to be remembered?
Lust is out of control sexual desire, as sex becomes one’s false god. Lust destroys the virtue of chastity and short-circuits intimacy (both sexual and non-sexual). People become objects for use, mentally and physically. Lust is often confused with love, but lust is love what saltwater is to a person dying of thirst. “Do not lust in your heart…for can one scoop burning coals into one’s lap without being burned” (Prv 6:25-27)? Practice chastity, respect your body with enough rest, and invest in mutual, God-honoring relationships. In so doing, you will address lust constructively.
Gluttony is the abuse of substances, and can include food, alcohol, and / or drugs. Gluttons crown their given substances as a false god, and destroy the virtue of moderation. Gluttony encourages hiding behavior; avoiding authentic relating and communicating. Like all the deadly sins, gluttony takes something that is good, and abuses it. “Do not join those who drink too much wine, or gorge themselves on meat…for gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags” (Prv 23:20-21). Practice the virtue of moderation, and avoid extremes especially with substances, and explore your spiritual hunger.
Remember there is victory in Christ, if we persevere. Trust the love of God and strive for sanctity, for as St. John Chrysostom wrote, “If but ten among us lead a holy life, we shall kindle a fire which shall light up the entire city.”
http://www.drrossporter.com/
Identifying, Confronting, and
Growing in Holiness
By Dr. Ross Porter
Pride, anger, envy, sloth, greed, lust and gluttony: there are no forces more destructive, degrading or deceptive. The prophets and authors of the Old Testament, Jesus and His Apostles, and theologians throughout the history of the Church have warned about the causes and effects of these seven deadly sins (also known as the seven capital sins because they are the sources of all other sins). Even now, these sins wait “crouching at the door” (Gen 4:7).
In order to confront effectively the seven deadly sins, we must be able to identify them and to implement a plan of action that includes “virtues therapy,” where one practices the virtue directly opposing the given vice. Holiness is ultimately the goal for all Christians, but possible only as we cooperate with God’s grace.
One needs to look no further than the First Commandment to understand the essence of why the seven deadly sins are so lethal: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex 20:3). We dethrone God with each of the deadly sins, and give ourselves to something much less than Him. God will never abandon us, but He does honor our freedom to choose evil. C.S. Lewis wrote, “In the end there will only be two kinds of people, those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’”
Pride can be defined as inordinate esteem of oneself and is distinct from healthy self-esteem, which is based on the knowledge of being a child of God saved by grace. Pride destroys the virtue of humility, and crowns one’s ego as a false god. In the process, one will “turn one’s heart away from one’s Maker” (Sir 10:12). Pride also distances us from others. Confront pride by practicing humility, as one cannot be prideful and humble simultaneously. Living the Sacraments and addressing control issues in one’s life are critical as well.
Anger becomes a deadly sin when vengeance is enthroned as a false god. Instead of being used constructively as demonstrated by Jesus in the cleansing of the temple (Jn 2:15-16), sinful anger is used to punish or injure another. Meekness is the virtue destroyed by sinful anger. A person controlled by anger is unpredictable and has given the Devil a foothold (Eph 4:27). Confront anger by practicing meekness, gentle strength, with self and others while giving yourself periods of reflection and rest.
Envy is defined as “sorrow at another’s good;” one enthrones one’s sense of deprivation as a false god. Envy destroys the virtue of charity with a deadly combination of
pride (we’re better than others) and inferiority (we’re lacking in comparison to others). People who struggle with envy confuse equal and identical. We are all equal in dignity as children of God, but our lives are not identical. We are not all given the same gifts or burdens. Proverbs tells us that “envy rots the bones” (14:30). Root out envy by practicing charity, and by mourning the losses you have experienced in life (there is a connection between mourning and being free to love more).
Sloth is spiritual laziness. The slothful combine a lack of care for duties to God with a melancholy dissatisfact- ion, and enthrone their given escapist activity as their false god (e.g. sleep, television, work). Sloth destroys the virtue of zeal, and is arguably the sin that best defines the age we live in. Jesus had another name for the slothful: lukewarm (Rev 3:16). Look for opportunities to serve God, and in doing so you will burn off sloth. Life-giving recreational activities will also aid you in avoiding sloth.
Greed is essentially about grabbing and holding, as one crowns “things” god. You can be poor and still be greedy, since this deadly sin is about much more than quantity. Greed destroys the virtue of generosity, and inevitably makes you stingy with your emotions as well as your possessions. “What good is it for one to gain the whole world yet lose one’s soul” (Mk 8:36)? Greed can be defeated by practicing generosity (with your time, your emotions and your finances), as well as by considering your own mortality. How do you want to be remembered?
Lust is out of control sexual desire, as sex becomes one’s false god. Lust destroys the virtue of chastity and short-circuits intimacy (both sexual and non-sexual). People become objects for use, mentally and physically. Lust is often confused with love, but lust is love what saltwater is to a person dying of thirst. “Do not lust in your heart…for can one scoop burning coals into one’s lap without being burned” (Prv 6:25-27)? Practice chastity, respect your body with enough rest, and invest in mutual, God-honoring relationships. In so doing, you will address lust constructively.
Gluttony is the abuse of substances, and can include food, alcohol, and / or drugs. Gluttons crown their given substances as a false god, and destroy the virtue of moderation. Gluttony encourages hiding behavior; avoiding authentic relating and communicating. Like all the deadly sins, gluttony takes something that is good, and abuses it. “Do not join those who drink too much wine, or gorge themselves on meat…for gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags” (Prv 23:20-21). Practice the virtue of moderation, and avoid extremes especially with substances, and explore your spiritual hunger.
Remember there is victory in Christ, if we persevere. Trust the love of God and strive for sanctity, for as St. John Chrysostom wrote, “If but ten among us lead a holy life, we shall kindle a fire which shall light up the entire city.”
http://www.drrossporter.com/
Titles by A.A.'s Rev. Samuel Shoemaker
The Reverend Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr., D.D., S.T.D.
His Writings and Influence on Alcoholics Anonymous
Dick B. Copyright 2004
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; dickb@dickb.com; http://www.dickb.com/
________________________________________________________________________
The Dick B. Shoemaker/A.A. Collection
[All items listed herein are presently catalogued, are packed and stored in three “banker” size boxes, and are in author Dick B.’s possession at his office in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii]
New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed. by Dick B.
This title is a voluminous and comprehensive work on Shoemaker, his writings, and his relationship with Bill Wilson and Alcoholics Anonymous. It has several appendices and an extensive bibliography.
2. Other Titles by Dick B. pertaining to Rev. Shoemaker and A.A.
Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd ed.
Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939
The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth, 7th ed.
Good Morning: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation and Early A.A.
The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous
The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous
Making Known the Biblical History and Roots of A.A.
3 Titles written by Sam Shoemaker with date published, and with specific bibliography set forth in New Light on Alcoholism:
A Young Man’s View of the Ministry, 1923
Beginning Your Ministry, 1963 (with jacket)
By the Power of God, 1954 (inscribed by SHS, with jacket)
Calvary Church Yesterday and Today, 1936
Children of the Second Birth, 1927
Christ and This Crisis, 1943
Christ’s Words from the Cross, 1933
Confident Faith, 1932
Extraordinary Living for Ordinary Men, 1965 (with jacket)
Freedom and Faith, 1949
God’s Control, 1939 (with jacket)
How to Become a Christian, 1953 (with jacket)
How You Can Find Happiness, 1947 (with jacket)
How You Can Help Other People, 1946 (with jacket)
If I Be Lifted Up, 1931 (with jacket)
Living Your Life Today, 1947 (with jacket)
National Awakening, 1936 (with jacket)
One Boy’s Influence, 1925
Realizing Religion, 1921
Religion That Works, 1928
Revive Thy Church, 1948 (inscribed by SHS)
Sam Shoemaker at His Best, 1964
Steps of a Modern Disciple, 1972
The Church Alive, 1950 (with jacket)
The Church Can Save the World, 1938
The Conversion of the Church, 1932 (inscribed by SHS)
The Experiment of Faith, 1957 (with jacket)
The Gospel According to You, 1934
They’re on the Way, 1951 (with jacket)
Twice-Born Ministers, 1929
Under New Management, 1966
With the Holy Spirit and with Fire, 1960 (with jacket)
4. Landmark articles and pamphlets by Shoemaker:
Act As If, October, 1954
A First Century Christian Fellowship: A Defense of So-called
Buchmanism by One of Its Leaders, 1928
God and America, Gramercy Park, n.d.
How to Find God, 1957
Lord, Teach Us to Pray, 1977
Morning Radio Talk No. 1, 1945
My Life Work and My Will, circa 1930
Power to Become, 1944
The Breadth and Narrowness of the Gospel, 1929 (fragment)
The Way to Find God, 1935
Creative Relationships, 1946
Calvary Mission, n.d.
What the Church Has to Learn From Alcoholics Anonymous, 1956
5. Symposia edited by, and with chapters or material by Shoemaker
Faith at Work. NY: Hawthorne Books, 1958
Together. NY: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1956
The Centennial History of Calvary Episcopal Church Pittsburgh. 1955
The Guideposts Trilogy. NY: Guideposts Associates, 1962
Steps to a New Beginning. TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993
Get Going Through Small Groups. NY: Guideposts, n.d.
Marriage is for Living. MI: Zondervan, 1968
6. Shoemaker articles on the A.A. Program
And so from my heart I say, Sept. 1948
The Spiritual Angle, October, 1955
The Spiritual Path of A.A., n.d.
The Twelve Steps of A.A., 1953
Those Twelve Steps as I Understand Them, 1986
12 Steps to Power, 1983
7. Sam Shoemaker Papers specifically collected and copied by Dick B.
(a) Selected pages from the personal diary of Rev. Shoemaker for 1931, which discuss the Firestone/Oxford Group/A.A. events – 18 pages
(b) Selected pages from the personal diary of Rev. Shoemaker for 1935, which specifically mention Bill Wilson and other Calvary Church and Oxford Group leaders of the period. – 16 pages
(c) Morning Radio Talk by the Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker (Transcript): “Gems for Thought,” a presentation of the American Broadcasting Company on Thursday, October 4, 1945 from 8:55 to 9:00 A.M., Eastern Standard Time.
Located by Dick B. in the Princeton University Alumni Archives and copied with permission
(d) A list of books and pamphlets by Oxford Group writers and by Rev. Sam Shoemaker that were advertised in Oxford Group
Books and in the Calvary Evangel
8. Biographies of, and Biographical Titles about, Sam Shoemaker
I Stand By the Door, by Helen Smith Shoemaker, Wordbooks, 1967
The Breeze of the Spirit, by W. Irving Harris, Seabury Press, 1978
And Thy Neighbor. . . , by Cecile Cox Offill, Wordbooks, 1967
Calvary Church in Action, by John Potter Cuyler, Jr. Fleming Revell, 1934
Kairos: Moments Remembered, by Griffin C. Callahan, WV: 1999
Taking the Gospel to the Point: Evangelicals in Pittsburgh and the
Origins of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, by Michael J. Sider, n.d.
Sam Shoemaker’s Theological Influence, Ph.D. dissertation by Charles Knippel
No Outside Enterprises. Ph.D. dissertation by Randolph G. Aitkins
9. Titles by Helen Smith Shoemaker (wife of Rev. Sam Shoemaker)
The Secret of Effective Prayer
Prayer and Evangelism
Power Through Prayer Groups
Prayer and You
10. Bankers Box containing relevant magazines, news articles,
correspondence, interview notes, personal journal copies, and
manuscripts pertaining to Sam Shoemaker and A.A.
(1) Shoemaker’s grandson, Ben Rea – 2 pages
(2) Shoemaker’s older daughter, Sally Robinson – 1 page
(3) Shoemaker’s wife, Helen Smith Shoemaker – 3 pages
(4) Mrs. W. Irving (Julia) Harris, who lived in Calvary House, helped her husband, Shoemaker, and Bill Wilson – resource – 19 pages
(5) Episcopal Church Archives in Austin, Texas: 230 items selected from 52 boxes of Shoemaker correspondence, booklets, materials examined and copied with approval
(6) Calvary Evangel – recommended books and articles - 8 pages
(7) Pittsburgh Experiment literature and news articles – 20 pages
(8) Calvary Mission, first anniversary pamphlet – 8 pages
(9) Calvary Evangel Articles by Rev. W. Irving Harris – 5 issues
(10) Writings of Rev. W. Irving Harris, Shoemaker’s assistant minister, Evangel editor, and resident of Calvary House during the 1930’s. Wrote Shoemaker biography – 53 pages
(11) Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation literature and news
(12) Calvary Evangel articles by Shoemaker – 8 issues, plus 16 page article on Calvary Mission
(13) “Act as If” article by Shoemaker
(14) Four often-reprinted sermons delivered by Shoemaker at Calvary Church, Pittsburgh – 15 pages
(15) Princeton University Alumni Archives on Shoemaker
(16) Article – “What the Church has to Learn from Alcoholics Anonymous” by Shoemaker.
(17) Six very important articles and papers by Shoemaker: (a) “The Way to Find God;” (b) “Calvary Mission;” (c) Transcript of Bill Wilson’s talk at A.A.’s 20th Anniversary dinner as transcribed by Shoemaker; (d) “A First Century Christian Fellowship;” (e) “My Life’s Work and Will;” (f) “Lord, Teach us to Pray.” - 60 pages in all.
(18) Transcript of Sam Shoemaker’s address to A.A.’s International Convention at Long Beach, California – original and edited -12 pages in all.
(19) Shoemaker’s 6 articles on Alcoholics Anonymous and its Twelve Steps: (a) “Twelve Steps to Power;” (b) “Those Twelve Steps as I understand them;” (c) “And so from my heart I say;” (d) “The Twelve Steps of A.A.;” (e) “Power to Become;” (f) “The Spiritual Angle.” – 19 pages in all
(20) Several special Oxford Group materials from Episcopal Church Archives, copied with permission – (a) Loudon Hamilton’s article on Some Basic Principles of Christian Work; (b) Wilfrid Holmes-Walker’s article on “The New Enlistment;” (c) Bishop Carey’s article on “The Group System and the Catholic Church;” (d) Henry B. Wright’s article on “Secret Prayer;” (e) Loudon Hamilton’s description of A First Century Christian Fellowship – the Oxford Group; (f) Victor C. Kitchen’s Evangel article, “Points West.” – 37 pages in all.
(21) Personal Notes of Dick B. from his interviews at Ft. Myers Beach, Florida with James D. Newton and also with Newton and Shoemaker’s younger daughter Nickie Haggart specifically reviewing parallel diary entries in Newton’s and in Shoemaker’s diaries of Shoemaker/Firestone events of 1931 and of the Akron/Firestone/Oxford Group events of 1933 – 6 pages.
(22) The History of Faith at Work, by Karl A. Olsson, M.D.
A five part historical series detailing the various aspects of
Shoemaker’s work and accomplishments: (1) “Rooted in the 19th Century, FAW Grew From a Series of Births and Rebirths;” (2) “Frank Buchman, the Oxford Group and the Four Absolutes: Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness and Love;” (3) “Sam Shoemaker and Faith at Work;” (4) “An Organization Emerges;” (5) “The Later Years – Changes to Challenges.” 11 pages in all.
(23) Sam Shoemaker’a letter to Bill Wilson, dated January 22, 1935 little more than a month after Bill got sober in Towns Hospital, congratulating and thanking Bill for helping the Chemistry Professor (Breithut) and having been guide to help Oxford Group worker Jim Williams. Signed by Sam, located by Dick B. in his first research trip to Stepping Stones, and copied with approval.
(24) Printed letter, dated November 1, 1941, signed by Sam Shoemaker and his Associate Rector J. Herbert Smith, explaining to the Parishioners of Calvary Church the termination of the use of Calvary House as “national headquarters for Moral Re-Armament. Located by Dick B. at Hartford Seminary Archives and copied with permission.
(25) Typed letter from Calvary Rectory, dated November 4, 1941, signed by Sam Shoemaker, addressed “Dear Friends,” confirming belief “as firmly as ever in the principles of the Oxford Group,” and reminding them that they and any of their friends “are always welcome at Calvary Church and Calvary House.” Located by Dick B. at the Calvary Church Archives in New York and copied with permission.
His Writings and Influence on Alcoholics Anonymous
Dick B. Copyright 2004
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837; dickb@dickb.com; http://www.dickb.com/
________________________________________________________________________
The Dick B. Shoemaker/A.A. Collection
[All items listed herein are presently catalogued, are packed and stored in three “banker” size boxes, and are in author Dick B.’s possession at his office in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii]
New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed. by Dick B.
This title is a voluminous and comprehensive work on Shoemaker, his writings, and his relationship with Bill Wilson and Alcoholics Anonymous. It has several appendices and an extensive bibliography.
2. Other Titles by Dick B. pertaining to Rev. Shoemaker and A.A.
Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd ed.
Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939
The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth, 7th ed.
Good Morning: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation and Early A.A.
The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Anonymous
The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous
Making Known the Biblical History and Roots of A.A.
3 Titles written by Sam Shoemaker with date published, and with specific bibliography set forth in New Light on Alcoholism:
A Young Man’s View of the Ministry, 1923
Beginning Your Ministry, 1963 (with jacket)
By the Power of God, 1954 (inscribed by SHS, with jacket)
Calvary Church Yesterday and Today, 1936
Children of the Second Birth, 1927
Christ and This Crisis, 1943
Christ’s Words from the Cross, 1933
Confident Faith, 1932
Extraordinary Living for Ordinary Men, 1965 (with jacket)
Freedom and Faith, 1949
God’s Control, 1939 (with jacket)
How to Become a Christian, 1953 (with jacket)
How You Can Find Happiness, 1947 (with jacket)
How You Can Help Other People, 1946 (with jacket)
If I Be Lifted Up, 1931 (with jacket)
Living Your Life Today, 1947 (with jacket)
National Awakening, 1936 (with jacket)
One Boy’s Influence, 1925
Realizing Religion, 1921
Religion That Works, 1928
Revive Thy Church, 1948 (inscribed by SHS)
Sam Shoemaker at His Best, 1964
Steps of a Modern Disciple, 1972
The Church Alive, 1950 (with jacket)
The Church Can Save the World, 1938
The Conversion of the Church, 1932 (inscribed by SHS)
The Experiment of Faith, 1957 (with jacket)
The Gospel According to You, 1934
They’re on the Way, 1951 (with jacket)
Twice-Born Ministers, 1929
Under New Management, 1966
With the Holy Spirit and with Fire, 1960 (with jacket)
4. Landmark articles and pamphlets by Shoemaker:
Act As If, October, 1954
A First Century Christian Fellowship: A Defense of So-called
Buchmanism by One of Its Leaders, 1928
God and America, Gramercy Park, n.d.
How to Find God, 1957
Lord, Teach Us to Pray, 1977
Morning Radio Talk No. 1, 1945
My Life Work and My Will, circa 1930
Power to Become, 1944
The Breadth and Narrowness of the Gospel, 1929 (fragment)
The Way to Find God, 1935
Creative Relationships, 1946
Calvary Mission, n.d.
What the Church Has to Learn From Alcoholics Anonymous, 1956
5. Symposia edited by, and with chapters or material by Shoemaker
Faith at Work. NY: Hawthorne Books, 1958
Together. NY: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1956
The Centennial History of Calvary Episcopal Church Pittsburgh. 1955
The Guideposts Trilogy. NY: Guideposts Associates, 1962
Steps to a New Beginning. TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993
Get Going Through Small Groups. NY: Guideposts, n.d.
Marriage is for Living. MI: Zondervan, 1968
6. Shoemaker articles on the A.A. Program
And so from my heart I say, Sept. 1948
The Spiritual Angle, October, 1955
The Spiritual Path of A.A., n.d.
The Twelve Steps of A.A., 1953
Those Twelve Steps as I Understand Them, 1986
12 Steps to Power, 1983
7. Sam Shoemaker Papers specifically collected and copied by Dick B.
(a) Selected pages from the personal diary of Rev. Shoemaker for 1931, which discuss the Firestone/Oxford Group/A.A. events – 18 pages
(b) Selected pages from the personal diary of Rev. Shoemaker for 1935, which specifically mention Bill Wilson and other Calvary Church and Oxford Group leaders of the period. – 16 pages
(c) Morning Radio Talk by the Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker (Transcript): “Gems for Thought,” a presentation of the American Broadcasting Company on Thursday, October 4, 1945 from 8:55 to 9:00 A.M., Eastern Standard Time.
Located by Dick B. in the Princeton University Alumni Archives and copied with permission
(d) A list of books and pamphlets by Oxford Group writers and by Rev. Sam Shoemaker that were advertised in Oxford Group
Books and in the Calvary Evangel
8. Biographies of, and Biographical Titles about, Sam Shoemaker
I Stand By the Door, by Helen Smith Shoemaker, Wordbooks, 1967
The Breeze of the Spirit, by W. Irving Harris, Seabury Press, 1978
And Thy Neighbor. . . , by Cecile Cox Offill, Wordbooks, 1967
Calvary Church in Action, by John Potter Cuyler, Jr. Fleming Revell, 1934
Kairos: Moments Remembered, by Griffin C. Callahan, WV: 1999
Taking the Gospel to the Point: Evangelicals in Pittsburgh and the
Origins of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, by Michael J. Sider, n.d.
Sam Shoemaker’s Theological Influence, Ph.D. dissertation by Charles Knippel
No Outside Enterprises. Ph.D. dissertation by Randolph G. Aitkins
9. Titles by Helen Smith Shoemaker (wife of Rev. Sam Shoemaker)
The Secret of Effective Prayer
Prayer and Evangelism
Power Through Prayer Groups
Prayer and You
10. Bankers Box containing relevant magazines, news articles,
correspondence, interview notes, personal journal copies, and
manuscripts pertaining to Sam Shoemaker and A.A.
(1) Shoemaker’s grandson, Ben Rea – 2 pages
(2) Shoemaker’s older daughter, Sally Robinson – 1 page
(3) Shoemaker’s wife, Helen Smith Shoemaker – 3 pages
(4) Mrs. W. Irving (Julia) Harris, who lived in Calvary House, helped her husband, Shoemaker, and Bill Wilson – resource – 19 pages
(5) Episcopal Church Archives in Austin, Texas: 230 items selected from 52 boxes of Shoemaker correspondence, booklets, materials examined and copied with approval
(6) Calvary Evangel – recommended books and articles - 8 pages
(7) Pittsburgh Experiment literature and news articles – 20 pages
(8) Calvary Mission, first anniversary pamphlet – 8 pages
(9) Calvary Evangel Articles by Rev. W. Irving Harris – 5 issues
(10) Writings of Rev. W. Irving Harris, Shoemaker’s assistant minister, Evangel editor, and resident of Calvary House during the 1930’s. Wrote Shoemaker biography – 53 pages
(11) Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation literature and news
(12) Calvary Evangel articles by Shoemaker – 8 issues, plus 16 page article on Calvary Mission
(13) “Act as If” article by Shoemaker
(14) Four often-reprinted sermons delivered by Shoemaker at Calvary Church, Pittsburgh – 15 pages
(15) Princeton University Alumni Archives on Shoemaker
(16) Article – “What the Church has to Learn from Alcoholics Anonymous” by Shoemaker.
(17) Six very important articles and papers by Shoemaker: (a) “The Way to Find God;” (b) “Calvary Mission;” (c) Transcript of Bill Wilson’s talk at A.A.’s 20th Anniversary dinner as transcribed by Shoemaker; (d) “A First Century Christian Fellowship;” (e) “My Life’s Work and Will;” (f) “Lord, Teach us to Pray.” - 60 pages in all.
(18) Transcript of Sam Shoemaker’s address to A.A.’s International Convention at Long Beach, California – original and edited -12 pages in all.
(19) Shoemaker’s 6 articles on Alcoholics Anonymous and its Twelve Steps: (a) “Twelve Steps to Power;” (b) “Those Twelve Steps as I understand them;” (c) “And so from my heart I say;” (d) “The Twelve Steps of A.A.;” (e) “Power to Become;” (f) “The Spiritual Angle.” – 19 pages in all
(20) Several special Oxford Group materials from Episcopal Church Archives, copied with permission – (a) Loudon Hamilton’s article on Some Basic Principles of Christian Work; (b) Wilfrid Holmes-Walker’s article on “The New Enlistment;” (c) Bishop Carey’s article on “The Group System and the Catholic Church;” (d) Henry B. Wright’s article on “Secret Prayer;” (e) Loudon Hamilton’s description of A First Century Christian Fellowship – the Oxford Group; (f) Victor C. Kitchen’s Evangel article, “Points West.” – 37 pages in all.
(21) Personal Notes of Dick B. from his interviews at Ft. Myers Beach, Florida with James D. Newton and also with Newton and Shoemaker’s younger daughter Nickie Haggart specifically reviewing parallel diary entries in Newton’s and in Shoemaker’s diaries of Shoemaker/Firestone events of 1931 and of the Akron/Firestone/Oxford Group events of 1933 – 6 pages.
(22) The History of Faith at Work, by Karl A. Olsson, M.D.
A five part historical series detailing the various aspects of
Shoemaker’s work and accomplishments: (1) “Rooted in the 19th Century, FAW Grew From a Series of Births and Rebirths;” (2) “Frank Buchman, the Oxford Group and the Four Absolutes: Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness and Love;” (3) “Sam Shoemaker and Faith at Work;” (4) “An Organization Emerges;” (5) “The Later Years – Changes to Challenges.” 11 pages in all.
(23) Sam Shoemaker’a letter to Bill Wilson, dated January 22, 1935 little more than a month after Bill got sober in Towns Hospital, congratulating and thanking Bill for helping the Chemistry Professor (Breithut) and having been guide to help Oxford Group worker Jim Williams. Signed by Sam, located by Dick B. in his first research trip to Stepping Stones, and copied with approval.
(24) Printed letter, dated November 1, 1941, signed by Sam Shoemaker and his Associate Rector J. Herbert Smith, explaining to the Parishioners of Calvary Church the termination of the use of Calvary House as “national headquarters for Moral Re-Armament. Located by Dick B. at Hartford Seminary Archives and copied with permission.
(25) Typed letter from Calvary Rectory, dated November 4, 1941, signed by Sam Shoemaker, addressed “Dear Friends,” confirming belief “as firmly as ever in the principles of the Oxford Group,” and reminding them that they and any of their friends “are always welcome at Calvary Church and Calvary House.” Located by Dick B. at the Calvary Church Archives in New York and copied with permission.
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