AA Thought for the Day
(courtesy AA-Alive.net)

August 25, 2024
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A Spiritual Awakening
When a man or a woman has a spiritual awakening, the most important
meaning of it is that he has now become able to do, feel, and believe that
which he could not do before on his unaided strength and resources alone.
He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and
being. He has been set on a path which tells him he is really going somewhere,
that life is not a dead end, not something to be endured or mastered.
- Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, (Step Twelve) pp. 106 - 107
 

Thought to Ponder
The greatest gift that can come to anyone is a spiritual awakening.
 

AA-related 'Alconym'
A A  =  Amazing Awakening.
 

A Member Shares:
Good morning, my name is Dale and I am an alcoholic. That description of a spiritual awakening as being a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being is an apt description of the transformation that I felt. For several years I rolled along on not drinking, working with others, trying to apply a new set of principles when I could, but there was still something missing. In my heart, in my soul, there was an uneasiness, an unsettled something. When I attended meetings I could see in others something that I did not have. The words of my sponsor, Bill H, rang in my head, "Fake It Till You Make It." I did just that, and I continued to search for something different, something that I could not define. In desperation, and in the right set of circumstances, I found myself attending 3 very special meetings every week, over a period of several months. On Monday we studied the 3rd step. On Wednesday we studied the 7th step. And On Fridays we meditated for the first half hour, followed by the 11th step. I guess I must have needed that focus because after one of those meetings I literally had that moment of clarity, that gift of a new consciousness and being. Physically there wasn't any change in my life, but spiritually I walked as if I were a new man. And I truly was relieved of the worldly problems that I carried with me. I had turned my Will and My Life over to the care of God, as I understood Him. I found that "something" that I had seen in so many people, and now it was mine as well. That was almost 25 years ago. To this day I can only describe that as "a newness", a sense of living in faith that no matter what, if I trust God and spend less time trying to be the director then everything will be good. Literally everything, even the very worst days I might have imagined for myself were little more that an exercise of faith, and those days were good - not the terror I imagined. I owe my recovery, and my newfound self, to the 12 Steps of A.A. and I've discovered that holds true for anyone who is willing to make the effort. And for that I am grateful. Thank you.

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(All shares are reproduced with the kind permission of the person sharing)