When I called AA for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. I guessed that AA members were there to help you control your drinking—to control it or modify it. All I had was the faith that my secretary might have a solution to regain my family and my life that was in shambles.
Per Francis Bacon: "They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."
This was the position I was in.
As we read in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous:
"We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn’t control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn’t make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn’t seem to be of real help to other people—was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we should see newsreels of lunar flight?" — Big Book, p. 52 ("The Bedevilments")
Then we were told:
"Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path." — Big Book, p. 58
This gave me hope. I "found a new freedom and a new happiness. I no longer regretted the past nor wished to shut the door on it."
Faith became my journey to sobriety and recovery.
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." — Martin Luther King Jr.
"Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them." — Elisabeth Elliot
"You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope." — Thomas Merton
Through AA, I found a faith sufficient to move my mountains of fear and adversity and place my life on a path of recovery. The only requirement was to pass that faith on by helping others.
"By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." — Romans 5:2-5
"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." — 2 Nephi 31:20
May your day be full of faith, hope, and charity.
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