Big Book Study

[bluidkiti]

Big Book Study - Post #29

Good Morning and Happy 75th birthday to our fellowship!

Page 85, Paragraph 1 - While we have recovered from alcoholism:

"We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily
reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition.
Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into
all our activities. 'How can I best serve Thee--Thy will (not mine)
be done.' These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We
can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the
proper use of the will."

Although we have made a decision to turn our will over to the care
of God as we understand Him (in Step 3) we are told here how to use
our will to fulfill that same decision. Our will isn't taken from
us; instead, we are taught the proper use of our will. The proper
use of our will is to try to align our self-will with God's will.

Step 10 is our principal means of growth after we have completed the
process of the first 9 steps. It is not a step that can be
incorporated into our lives by itself, however. To be vital it must
be paired up with Step 11. In the "12 Steps and 12 Traditions", in
the discussion of Step 11, Bill refers to the "unshakeable
foundation for life." That foundation is the logical interweaving
of the process of self-examination (Step 10) and conscious contact
with a Power greater than ourselves (Step 11). If the channel
between us and God is filled with unattended 10th Step stuff --
fear, resentment, anger, guilt and the like -- we will not have the
open channel we need to God and His Grace. The sunlight of the
Spirit can't come into our lives. Conversely, when our conscious
contact with God isn't there our ability to "identify the worst
items in stock" can disappear as well.

Step 11 begins at the bottom of Page 85. Let's read through to page
86 - paragraph 1:

"When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we
resentful, selfish, dishonest, or afraid? (Step 4? Sounds like it.)
Do we owe an apology? (similar to Step 9 perhaps?) Have we kept
something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person
at once? (Step 5) Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we
have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time?
(More inventory) ... After making our review we ask God's
forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken."

So, at the end of the day we review and, through meditation and
prayer, we "inquire what corrective measures should be taken."
Sounds like Steps 10 and 11 go hand-in-hand. We are asking God for
direction in prayer. Some of the folks I got sober with used to say
that prayer was talking to God and meditation was listening.

As we go through Step 11 here in the book we will see that Bill's
knowledge of meditation and prayer was somewhat limited and he was
forced to keep it simple. (This is what he is referring to when he
says "we only know a little" on Page 164, by the way). Because
prayer and meditation takes innumerable forms it was probably for
the best.

With our next post we will continue with our discussion of Step 11
on page 86 at paragraph 2.

Have a wonderful day!

Jim