rowd44

In the Big Book it says “rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path”….”those who do not recovery are people who cannot or will not give themselves completely to the program”. As an Alcoholic here’s what I read “rarely have we seen a person fail”. I am now hooked. This sounds easy, right up my alley. But then I failed, not once but several times. 30-40 days in…back to drinking. 30-40 days in, back to drinking…cycling in this manner for months. I failed because I did not read the entire first sentence. The last part of the sentence says “who has thoroughly followed our path”. Thoroughly followed “our” path. It didn’t say, go to meeting and keep living my old ways and running down my path. No it says…”our path”. The path of people who have recovered. Understanding that path is imperative and then letting go completely and applying my new found understanding in form of action is will help me recover. I have to remember applicable action. Without action, I will remain drunk with my newfound knowledge.

GracieLou

"Faith without works is dead"

I agree. Action is a key part. Getting a sponsor is action, working the steps is action and service work is action.

Saying or thinking the program is one thing, working the program is where we will begin to see the promises.

Kathleen41

One can ride on the positive energy of the meetings and fellowship for a while. But I will run out of gas on the side of the road without practicing the steps and incorporating them into my everyday life. Meetings and coffee won't get me a "Spiritual Awakening!!"

tomsteve

thoroughly have we seen a person fail who has rarely followed our path can ring true,too.

Johno1967

Won't get sober reading a book. Recovery takes effort, get out of it what we put in. If I put in half as much effort as I would to satisfy my compulsion to drink I would not only be sober I would probably enjoy a greater degree of emotional sobriety as well. I would swap a Kingdom to learn true humility and honesty and eliminate all doubt and selfishness. That's what I feel it takes to have a spiritual awakening of the type described in step 12.

Johno1967

A slip in editing with an unintentional effect.

FBL

I can't comment on that book as I've never read it. For me, I had to finally admit that I was done with alcohol and move on with my life. Over four years later I'm happier than I've ever been in my adult life and I don't miss alcohol one bit.

nandm

rowd, very well stated. That is something that I learned early on from going to Big Book study meetings.

I also like the in the chapter "How it works" where it states All too often I hear people state this is a program of suggestions when in fact the program is suggested. There is a difference between the two things. Once says that you can pick and choose which suggestion you want to follow and find sobriety. The other says if you want what we have then we suggest you do what we did which is follow these Steps.

My experience has been that I had to apply the whole program to my life by following the instructions that the founders of AA laid out in the Big Book if I was to find sobriety. Of course there are those who do not need AA and are able to find sobriety through other means but I was not one of those people.

robgt350

when i hear of guarantee success of anything, i think people over rate it. i am sure AA has a high success but in the end i think it is the person who makes the success.

FBL

A little deja vu?