Eric, I think you're missing her point. She's (Laurie) suggesting that there's more to alcoholism than just the drinking issue and while it's entirely likely and possible to have, as the book describes, our drinking problem removed yet still run into old behaviors - behaviors that if left unchecked can and will lead to that next first drink.
ie - NObody is 100% resentment free....nobody. Would not each "new" resentment be considered like a new "test?" I sure see it that way.... another chance for me to choose recovery or choose relapse...and relapse doesn't necessarily JUST involve picking up a drink again. Any one of us can engage in thoughts and behaviors that are 100% in line with our old insanity without ever getting drunk or getting high.
Drinking was just part of the deal......and while my never-ending and unstoppable compulsion to drink has been removed just as it has for many/most of us, I'm don't believe for a minute that anyone's completely free of defects, fear, selfishness, self-centered thinking, never has issues with any of the seven deadly sins, can adhere to the 4 absolutes - absolutely.......so on and so forth. It's safe to say we all have experience not being perfect and while we aim for / shoot for perfection, we'll not attain it.
Given the lack of wiggle room with my alcoholism, I can't afford to be less than perfect.......unless I'm able to enlist and apply additional power that comes from God. So am I "tempted?" sure am.....and so is everybody. Maybe not to go get loaded but, as I'm using the term, we're all tempted, or seduced if you like that term better, to rest on laurels, to break rules, to leave the spiritual path from time to time..... Hell, if we weren't there would be NO NEED FOR GOD in the first place. If I was able to be fully self sufficient, never screw up and never need His power, then I, obviously, wouldn't NEED God. Reality is we all need God because we're all tempted at one time or another and we all fall short of our ideal from time to time.
I'm recovered.......no question about it.....but that doesn't mean I'm perfect....and I'm no longer victim of the delusion that I need to be perfect to be recovered.