Be Still And Listen: "The Tune Will Come to You at Last"

This blog is sort of a sequel to the book I wrote, Corking the Bottle: A Day-by Day Guide to a Sober Life (https://covenantbooks.com/books/?book=corking-the-bottle), published last summer. The book started as a series of daily blog posts I wrote during the first few years of my sobriety. The purpose is to lead, I hope, someone -- anyone -- to a new and improved life.

Here is a sample, written on Day 19 of my sobriety:

"I grew up as part of a family active in church. There, people told me what to believe. And I did believe. But later, in my adult life, I became disillusioned with formal religion as it was taught to me. In my community relations job, I became painfully aware of basic needs being unmet. It seemed churches didn’t know or else didn’t care about the people living all around them who were struggling to be healthy families. I no longer felt religious, but I still believed in God. What’s up with that?

"It wasn’t until I got into AA that I learned religion and spirituality are different. I can be spiritual: love God, pray, seek to do God’s will, and don’t judge others’ spirituality. I believe there is one God, but how I perceive him is up to me. We choose our own higher power. I had never seen spirituality from this perspective.

"Where you find your higher power doesn’t matter. Just find it!

"One of my favorite books is Awakening in Time by Jacquelyn Small. She writes, 'When we honor the higher power’s principles of love -- of truth, goodness, and beauty -- we are using our energy as a creative positive force, and we feel serene. When we violate its laws of love and wisdom which are in fact our nature, we feel isolated, heavy, uninspired, and out of sorts.... In order to connect with our higher power, we simply need to be still and listen. Our intuition already knows the sound of its voice.'”

 How the Crud On the Bottom Can Rise to the Top

Thank God for alcoholism! It has made me a better person.

I'm only sort-of kidding. Abraham J. Twerski explains it perfectly in The Spiritual Self:

"Ironically, alcoholics or drug addicts may actually be fortunate in that their condition results in a crisis that forces them to confront the role or absence of spirituality in their lives. Lacking such a crisis, many people may live their entire lives without coming to a fulfillment of the spiritual component in their lives and, hence, never realize their full potential. I believe that there are few if any differences in the emotional needs of the alcoholic versus the nonalcoholic. It is only that in the alcoholic or addict these needs are much more prominent and better defined and, therefore, can more easily be addressed."

Is that the way it is in your life? I prayed and thought I was a good guy, both before and after I turned to alcoholism. But without the crises of blackouts, car wrecks, drunk-driving arrests, family stress, etc., I never would have been able to experience a life truly in tune with God's will for me. I owe it all to you, Jim Beam.