21 September 2007

The Gift of Freedom

Today's Daily Reflection:

The Last Promise

We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 84

The last Promise in the Big Book came true for me on the very first day of sobriety. God kept me sober that day, and on every other day I allowed Him to operate in my life. He gives me the strength, courage and guidance to meet my responsibilities in life so that I am then able to reach out and help others stay sober and grow. He manifests within me, making me a channel of His word, thought and deed. He works with my inner self, while I produce in the outer world, for He will not do for me what I can do for myself. I must be willing to do His work, so that He can function through me successfully.

This is closely aligned with my conception of God. The Higher Power manifests within me. If I am living right and cooperating with his/her design for living, then I become a channel. This is the means—the only means—God has of communciating with us directly: through other human beings. God lives, if you will, on the spiritual plane of existence, and while we live in this world, our consciousness remains on a material, physical plane and we are only vaguely aware of the spiritual one. Thus God's communication with those around us depends upon our freely chosen willingness to do his/her will.

As God said in response to Ernie Chambers's lawsuit against him/her: "I created man and woman with free will and next to the promise of immortal life, free will is my greatest gift to you." May I use this gift wisely!

2 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Sorry it took me so long to get over here. I spend less and less time on the computer these days. Even less blogging, as I now Twitter away. 140 characters or less is very refreshing for my tired brain.

Very clever to use aliases for the cast of characters to protect the innocent. Very clever indeed.