A New Beginning

God takes care of all my needs abundantly!!I've had a good afternoon adding to my profile on this site.Its almost 3pm my workout time.See ya later guys!!

I'm clean and loving it!!Iwas an addict for 30 years and was in the depths of despair.That was until I truly submitted to my higher(JESUS CHRIST) power.
Now I live abundantly andprosper,for I abidein His love.
1 John 2:3-6 says it all!!

sober1, incidentally, I had a similar experience, except I was in detox when I asked for help, and I had an overwhelming sense of relief and peace come over me. I was simply too ashamed and too rebellious to humbly ask a Higher Power for help. I was lucky enough to have someone who worked there take me through the process, I am eternally grateful to that person for helping me to ask for help so early in my recovery.

Jnevin- "I see it as letting things pan out the way they will and knowing I'll never be able to have complete control over things that will happen in my life".
Exactly. You can work your butt off to try and influence things, which is fine for me in areas like work, fitness, cleanliness, paying attention to household duties etc. But I have to let go of that control when it comes to anxiety about how I am perceived, fears over the future, anger over old resentments etc.
Kind of exactly like the Serenity Prayer:
God (or whatever you feel is bigger than you- the Earth, Love, Your Highly Intelligent Brain, Shiva, The Great Gazoo- ), grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
I guess it's the wisdom part that comes with time for me...lol
I think one could be atheist and still believe in a Higher Power. It doesn't have to be spiritual, I don't think. It could be the AA group you work with. It could be your daughter, for that matter. I have a friend who had her (deceased) sister as her Higher Power, and that worked out well for her. As long as whatever it is is bigger than your immediate wants and needs.
I don't think you have to believe a "God" is listening to your prayers, but how about the idea that your human consciousness is much more clever and capable than anyone could imagine? I often feel that I get in my own way quite a bit, and if I could just let my Higher Consciousness, which is a part of my Higher Power, run the show, I would be so much better off. Have you ever just known what the right thing to do is? I think that is that higher consciousness working. Whether it be "spiritual" or just fine brain power, in the end, it is still larger than my conscious mind and physical body, which is so often influenced by emotions, happenings, and other people.

Trex, yes, yes, and yes. Excellent writing. I felt that way too, thenhad the experience of total loss of control and was going to use if "something" didn't intervien. But, He did. it took me being at that point, it was obvious that I couldn't make a "last stand" against the addiction, and I turned it over with every once of being on my body. I just had the "moment of clarity" that they talked about, and simply said what my sponsor had been trying to get me to remember, "God, help me." That's all I could muster. at that moment, with a snap of your fingers, like a flash on a camera, I stopped hurting. Yes, just like that, in an instant. I got up to my knees and even in the stupor that i was in, I KNEW that God had just saved me, he gave me enough strength to get up off the floor, and i knew the it could come back but I had the presence of mind to know that I couldn't be by myself. I showered for the first time ion days, washed the puck and worse off me and drove to a meeting. i sat there, and finally got the chance to tell what had just happened. Some believed me, others... ummm, not so much. But the most important thing was... I KNEW. My sponsor just smiled, he could see the relief on my face after so many months of pain. It was MY communication to Him, not the other way around.

See, trex I can grasp that concept, but I see it as letting things pan out the way they will and knowing I'll never be able to have complete control over things that will happen in my life. I can understand the concept of prayer, meditation, etc, but I don't think any higher power is listening, I just think it's a way of keeping what's important to us or what we're trying to accomplish in our minds. Feng shui won't alter the energy in your home, but knowing why everything in your house is set up the way it is will help you be more aware of things in your life and can help you.

Well, I had a really difficult time with the higher power thing...I remember it well. I too wanted to hear God's voice in my ear telling me I was on the right path. It took some time before i realized that "conscious contact" with my Higher Power was ME talking to IT, not the other way around. Prayer, meditation, and actively turning my worries over were that conscious contact. It is ME reaching out, not the other way around. Everytime I say the Serenity prayer, everytime I say "this is too much for me to handle, I'm going to leave this up to you, HP...", those are the times where I heal, and feel that conscious contact. It's when I try to keep up the balancing act, trying to keep control of my life, that's when things seem much more difficult.

Checking in....doing outpatient...it's slow going...I'm in one of my "shut down" phases where not much is cracking through the walls, but I'm still showing up, still going to church...

Yep. Well said. Don't let "people" take away what beliefs and progress you make. Addicts as a group are THE most self-centered, self-absorbed, selfish people on the planet. Believing in something greater and more powerful than yourself is a critical step. Now, you Do hear the 'fake it till you make it" saying. I've said it, most anyone who has been in the program has, BUT, what that meeans to me, or what I had hoped to get across, was, don't try and understand too much, just don't drink, keep coming to meetings, in the beginning it's hard enough just to keep the bottle/pipe/straw out of our mouths/nose. What I maent was just keep trying, soon enough they would het to a point of understanding some of what it was going to take to keep sober/clean.
I'll say this, and I'll continue to say it, the BB says that everyone will experience a "spiritual awakening", I believe that is an absolute statement that is true.
I'll be back, it just got really busy at the office...

It's really not about believing in God.
what it is about is believing in "something outside ourselves. Something greater then us."
We addicts are pretty self absorped and self centred.
This is about getting away from that and trusting in something else.
Don't sweat the God thing. It will come.
What's more important is not to let your anger about it drive you back to drinking.