"Gradually, as we become more God-centered than self-centered, our despair turns to hope."
Basic Text p. 92
As using addicts, despair was a relentless companion. It colored our every waking moment. Despair was born of our experience in active addition: No mater what measures we tried to make our lives netter, we slid ever deeper into misery. Attempts we made to control our lives frequently met with failure. In a sense, our first step admission of powerlessness was an acknowledgement of despair.
Steps two and three lead us gradually out of that despair and into new hope, the companion to the recovering addict. Having accepted that so many of our efforts to change have failed, we come to believe that there is a Power greater than ourselves. We believe this Power can-and will-help us. We practice the second and third steps as an affirmation of out hope for a better life, turning to this higher Power for guidance. As we come to rely more and more on a Higher Power for the management of our day-to-day life, the despair arising from our long experiment with self-sufficiency disappears.
Just for today:I will reaffirm my Third Step decision. I know that, with a Higher Power in my life, there is hope.
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Yes, I bought a ticket on the crazy train.....Good thing it was a return ticket.
I also find it quite interesting that part of what happens with addictive behavior has as a side effect disconnecting us from the source of hope. The consequence of our choices, stuffing matters, etc., cuts us off from the very thing we are seeking. As that stuff gets cleaned out, as we work the steps, the connection to the source of hope comes back to life and then, as if it is unexplainable, our hope comes back to life.
Sometimes I find myself just dumbfounded in regards to how simple and just basic common sense there is in recovery.
You want hope. Then STOP doing what disconnects your from its source and START doing when connects you to hope.
as always you find the very thing i am looking for i have been having issues with my HP but i
know now i am having issures with me my way of thinking getting in the way of the right way to thinki say give it to god then try to force the outcome to ,my way of thinking funny how that happens huh?i keep on keeping on
god bless bret
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some of us win some of us lose with god and this program i will be a winner
There is an "Old School" recovery philosophy that says that each step and tradition share a common Spiritual Principle. Step One and Tradition One share the principle of Hope. Through the admission of powerlessness and unmanageability, and through the Unity of our common welfare, we find Hope that we too, can recover. Hope was what kept me coming to meetings when I couldn't seem to stay clean. Hope kept me coming until I could find that place of Surrender, and Surrender led me to Acceptance of my powerlessness and unmanageability. Unity provided the meetings which were the safe place I needed in which to come to terns with my disease. Thanks, everyone for sharing.
-- Edited by dan h at 17:04, 2008-09-28
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"With a sweet tongue of kindness, you can drag an elephant by a hair." ~Persian Proverb
