My wife was flipping through the channels over the weekend and I ended up watching an interview with Sue Monk Kidd (<i>The Secret Life of Bee's</i>) on the Oprah channel "Super Soul Sunday." That was followed by an interview with Pastor Joel Osteen.
Watching the Joel Osteen segment, and hearing him respond to various callers looking for answers to their spiritual questions, I noticed how it was hard for him to do more than barely scratch the surface of their questions.
It was a good time to reflect again on what I have found in Al-Anon that I'd never had before: a program. For me, that consists of going to meetings to hear other people share their experience, strength and hope; daily readings of Al-Anon and other spiritual literature; and prayer & meditation.
To me, being on a spiritual path involves a lot of learning about myself and about the world and it rarely, if ever, comes in a big gush of wisdom...it almost always comes in a series of tiny steps. Sometimes I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything, but I often look back at where I've been and I can see that things that didn't even seem significant have made it possible for me to progress.
Just speaking for myself, but without a spiritual program, I don't know how I'd make any progress at all!