Endigar 391 ~ AA is not a Cure-All
From Today’s Daily Reflections;
It would be a product of false pride to claim that A.A. is a cure-all, even for alcoholism. (As Bill Sees It, page 285)
In my early years of sobriety I was full of pride, thinking that A.A. was the only source of treatment for a good and happy life. It certainly was the basic ingredient for my sobriety and even today, with over twelve years in the program, I am very involved in meetings, sponsorship and service. During the first four years of my recovery, I found it necessary to seek professional help, since my emotional health was extremely poor. There are those folks too, who have found sobriety and happiness in other organizations. A.A. taught me that I had a choice: to go to any lengths to enhance my sobriety. A.A. may not be a cure-all for everything, but it is the center of my sober living.
END OF QUOTE
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At a multi-service military training post, I remember passing by the Marine barracks. The had a pull-up bar out front with a sign over head that read “Pain is Temporary, Pride is Forever.” I really liked the energy behind the words, but it ran contrary to some of my early study of the scriptures, which I valued as a source of authority at the time. “God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” I asked myself then, does God resist these Marines who live so very willing to sacrifice themselves in the defense of others? of our country?
My resolution was that pride is a word among many in the English language that can be spoken and mean very different things. I think the Pride of the Marines is a confidence, an absolute trust in their training process and the power of their surrender to it. The Pride that is mutually exclusive to humility and warrants God’s resistance is the wall one builds around oneself to hide weakness and focus attention on what we perceive to be our strength. There is an inherit self delusion that is required in defending such a wall to maintain this fortress that filters out accountability. Such a fortress quickly becomes a self-made prison. The loving Gomu (God of my understanding) wants me to come out into the open and manifest my highest self. That cannot be achieved when I protect a lower version of me.
I do have confidence in the 12 step process in my own life and will continue supporting it in my own spiritual journey. If I need other processes to grow, I will not build a pride-prison that will make AA the only way and cut me off from those important developments in my life.
Daily Reprieve 
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