Powerlessness and Surrender – Workshop: Expanding Higher Power Consciousness – Part 1 of 5 – John J.

Good evening, friends. It's good to be with you. I was excited all day to be with you. And I've been saying to somebody that I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep my feet on the ground here because this is just a wonderful opportunity to be with you, and I've really been looking forward to it for some time. Now, first of all, I want to say that I'm a grateful alcoholic, and And I mean that at the deepest piece of my heart, grateful. Grateful because of the gifts that have been given to me in sobriety through my God. I'm a member of the Agape group, a meditation group in Hamilton, which I co-founded, I don't know, eight or nine years ago now. And because meditation is at the center of my recovery. It is. it allows me to be able to be more effective in helping other people. It helps me to see the broader picture, and meditation and prayer is something that I'm into very often. And my name is John. So I was separated from alcohol since December 23rd, 1972, so I'm in my 50th year of sobriety and uh i i just can't believe a how old i am and secondly that i would have been here all that long i've been in these rooms for almost all my adult life and uh i'd never stop coming you know and people have asked me johnny why you're so involved you're just so giving and kind and it's because you know what i belong here i belong there this is my community. You are my people. And I believe so strongly that we have something sacred and beautiful going on, something that changes lives and changes hearts. And i want to be in that conversation. And that conversation has helped so many people, millions of us we can see all over the world that have been touched by the message of Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob. And we could just sit and awe, and witness miracles of transformed lives. So let me just say a few words about our experience on tonight's workshop. One, I want to be very clear about this. I'm a drunk. I just want you to know that I'm drunk. Now it's been sometimes as my last drink, but I am a drunk! I'm not an authority on spiritual matters. I'm a sojourner, a traveler like you, on this spiritual journey, seeing for the first time in my life the expanded landscape, if you like, of what it means to be God-centered. Every day is a day in which I wake up and I go, this is wonderful. This is great. Today, I was at the grocery store. I don't know if you could imagine me. Anna called me a hidden gem. I'm pretty hard to hide. But anyway, I'm in this grocery store here in San Antonio and I am just about skipping. Now, as a 74-year-old man kind of galloping through the store with a big smile on my face, if you can see that I had a mask on, of course. Yet the joy, the joy to be experiencing being in a grocery store and nodding and acknowledging other people, them acknowledging me, it was just a spiritual rush. And I wasn't always this way, by the way. So I want you to know that what I'm presenting tonight in this next seven weeks is not the way to a spiritual journey. It is a way, and I think it's very important to understand that, that each of us can discover for ourselves ways in which we can approach this power. But what I'm going to be sharing with you is my journey, my experience, and you're welcome to use all of it, some of it or throw it all out and go on your own. I'm not here to influence you or change your life or tell you what to believe. It's entirely up to you what you do. But I've been practicing this for 50 years, and I like to think I've been doing it diligently. And as I've grown on my recovery journey, I've come to learn a lot about living life, about having well-being, about caring for others, about appreciating even the most simplest things. And of course, that's not always the case when I come into this room. When I came in this room, self-centered, egocentric, self determined, couldn't be told anything. I was a scared, frightened young boy, that what I was. And because of conversations similar to what we're having tonight, I was able to be pulled out of that by the grace of the people that came before me to say to me, John, there is another way. And we're going to introduce you to that way, which is absolutely remarkable because what they said, you can rely on it. And I did rely on and it came true for me. So as I said, this is just my way of learning and experimenting and practice with some principles which, you know, I really don't have the words to articulate well enough. And what my hope is here that the words that I point to, the questions I ask, the comments that I make will have you look and get into action and experiment these ideas in prayer and meditation. That's what I hope for each and every one of us. Leave this meeting, read this workshop, have an expanded understanding and appreciation for what's possible in a world that's far beyond the limits of what the ego suggests, that we can have access to a power that is miraculous. You know, in wisdom literature, we talk about stories about blind people can see and deaf can hear. The mute can talk and the lame can walk. And you don't have to look too far in Alcoholics Anonymous to witness what it's like to have miracles in today's world. Yeah, I was blind. I was blindfolded to a lot of goodness in my life. I was blindness to a love. I couldn't hear the kinds of conversations that needed me to become a better human being. So I was deaf. I was lame because I didn't know what path to take I didn' t know what to do until finally AA instructed me to pick up my mat and follow a spiritual journey and from that moment I became a better man that's how I hope you're going to interact I don't want you to see me as a teacher I really don't. I mean that in the most sincerest way. What my purpose is, I hope, friends, is to point at something that you can start interacting with your higher power to see if there's value in that for yourself. So I like to think there's 300-and-some-odd people here. The topic is attractive. There's a reason why you came to this workshop. You were moved. You might say, well I was moved to come there. And in fact what happened was the Spirit moved you to come here because you sense a longing and a desire to be connected to your God. See, there's no denying that experience, that longing exists. I'm going to tell you a little story, St. Augustine. He says, we were made for you, God, and my heart is restless until I rest in you. Restless. Does that sound familiar, that word, restless? The doctor's opinion. He observed in alcoholics that we were restless, irritable, and discontent. St. Augustine, in the year 535 A.D., roughly, saw in his own heart, had his ability to say, my heart was restless. And why was I restless? Because I felt and perceived a separation from someone or something that made me. And Alcoholics Anonymous, what happens is every one of us come because we drank. We drank uncontrollably or got us into trouble. None of us came here because of dandruff. Or I don't think very few people would have come here because we want a spiritual journey. What we wanted was to have some freedom around alcohol. Whether it was forced on us or we walked in the room. But what we come to learn when we're here is that there are causes to that obsession. The causes are restless, irritability, and discontent. It is the longing of the heart that I reached out for a counterfeit agent, alcohol, to somehow make me feel better about me. I desired that comfort and ease, that authentically there's only one solution, and that is be connected to this power. But of course, I didn't know it at the time. I used the quicker and softer way, I thought, and it was to reach out and get comfort from alcohol. one thing about it, that longing never disappears. You know, we're an AA. We have a very special group. We're in a community. We are lucky. We re fortunate. But many of us, sober, live a life of quiet desperation. Oh, we may say to people who ask us how we're doing, well, are you?" You must say, oh, I'm okay. I'm fine. Everything's good�peaches and cream. And yet behind that mask is a life of desperation. And that desperation is a signal of the longing of the heart. This is why you're here tonight. You're here because you have a vested interest and expanding that heart. It's the call to your heart. Your deepest part of your body and soul is in the heart. The truest sense, the true self desires to get connected to this power. And of course, when you come to Alcoholics Anonymous, we are filled with so much shame often and guilt. the harm that we've caused the embarrassment in which we lived it's hard to pay attention to the heart because there's so much in between the deepest self and our thoughts and our behaviors it is all of that mess that we created and it's only becoming to Alcoholics Anonymous but we begin to learn about the cleaning up to letting go of some of these things so that we can begin to hear that heartbeat of the soul. See, the first requirement to Alcoholics Anonymous, and which everybody gets very quickly, either you get it or you drink. That is you're powerless over alcohol. It seems like it is a very simple decision in some ways. If somebody says, how do you quit drinking? There's only one way to quit drinking. and that's put the plug in the jug. That's it. There's no other ways of doing it. It's very simple, black and white, concrete, simple. But the second part of that first step, when it talks about unmanageability or another word for powerlessness, that my life is unmanable. I'm powerless over my life. It' complicated. It''s layered. And because I'm self-centered, I was full of self to achieve the things I needed to achieve in my life, and there was no room for God. And the heartbeat of the soul kept beating, longing, crying out, pay attention, pay attention, John. But I was so full of what I thought, who I became, about my past, but all the harm that it caused and the shame that I carried. I had to learn something about powerlessness. I have to learn that in order to win at this game, I had admit I was powerless. Now friends, I'm going to share with you. I've been at this now for 50 years, as I shared with you, and I have tried very hard to learn as much as I possibly can about a lot of things. The big book, the 12 steps, effortful, deliberate, and intentional learning to become a better human being. And I want to tell you that I've achieved some of that just on my own self, through my power. But I come to recognize, fairly quickly, I recognize that that willpower had boundaries. It had limits. And there are things I deeply wanted to achieve, I couldn't achieve because I was incapable. Things like the heart, things like love, compassion and empathy and caring for other people. I tried, but I just didn't seem to have that ability. And it turns out I didn't. It turns out that if I could just admit that I was powerless over the things that I deeply care about, that would give room to a power greater than myself. see i had to empty this preoccupation i have with self i had to stop for a moment and start reflecting that i'm not capable i have access to power by the way it's not about not having power i could have access to power if i only would give up self. So there's real power in being powerless, not from my own doing, not from me and my resources, but from what I come to understand as God. Now, hey, you don't have to believe anything. That's a wonderful part about the program. No one can tell you what to believe. You believe the way in which you want to believe. Bill Wilson, when he started doing the steps, he was very, oh, I don't know, almost genius-like to tell us that you just could select a higher power any way you want to get started on a spiritual journey. So some of us picked the group, some of those picked the tree, some of them picked who knows what to get started on an idea that will revolutionize your own life, that I no longer had to have the burden of thinking I had to do everything. The strength, the discipline, the effort, that there was another way. And oddly enough, the other way, I didn't have to do anything other than surrender. it's a paradox you know i grew up with the idea i had to do some things in order to become better i never heard at least i never understood the way to the spiritual journey it's called the spirit of descent by the way is the word is the phrase the spirit of dissent is in allowing abandoning. Why do I abandon myself? Because I'm powerless. And if you can imagine, if you would, a glass of water filled with water. And that water represents my ego. And God is in the picture, wanting to pour so much into my glass, and there's no room. It's because it's filled with my water, what I know, what i think is right, the way my life looks. I know exactly how I should be, and God's holding this picture�this picture of grace, this picture of wisdom, this picture courage like we talk about and pray about in the serenity prayer, is holding this picture, unable to give it to me because I'm too full of self. So I know, friends, I know everybody knows this. Why is he talking about powerlessness? I said that. But friends, in order to make this workshop useful to you, you have to come from a place of not knowing, as if you're hearing it for the first time, friends. See, what happens when when you get sober and you say, well, I've done the first step. There's no more work to do back there. But I can attest to and I assert, friends, there's always something to give up. There's always Something to surrender. Because it still filters my life today. And I've been going at this for a while. There'S always Something I cling to that I'm burdening myself with, that I am reluctant to give up because I don't trust. So that second part of that first step is really a process. It's not an event. And as I become more clear in my spiritual journey, I begin to see other areas of my life that still hanging on to, that I'm not willing to let go. And it shows up. And that points me to another place and says, John, I have to surrender this. Why am I worried about money? Why am I worrying about health? Why am i worried about things not going my way? Why Am I angry? it's because i don't trust why because i'm relying on self see here's the magic here's the magic if you don't get anything out of tonight other than this you're walking away with a with a real payload it is the connection between self and defects of character that's a connection they're two pearls on a string, they're connected the more I think about self it more gives rise to defects of character when I'm able to die to self which we're going to talk about later on in the sessions when I am able to let go of self and make room because I've surrendered and abandoned myself and I allowed God in my life I'm free i'm free so when you go back to the doctor's opinion and we see they are restless irritable and discontent those three words are is one state of mind that's in those three words and that is self-centeredness in order to be restless i had to be self-centred in order to be irritable why are you doing that to me when I'm discontent because I think it should be some other way than what it is see I never get rid of that they pop up that's why I know this work and that second part is never finished it's never finished Friends, what I'm preparing for in this seven weeks is for us to go on a journey. For us to start in the place in the beginning where we're emptying ourselves and surrendering and allowing God into our life. You may say, well, I believe in God, and you do. make a little more room. Let's make a little more room. Because by making a little more room, we become God-conscious. And if we're God- conscious, the defects of character seem to be distant. So, how do you get the most out of this workshop? realize it's in your listening friends, it's in your listening that makes this workshop quality it's not in me speaking it's in your listening listen as if you've never heard this message before as if you've been renewed in some manner because you're curious and you're a scientist and they're going to experiment with new ideas. Be curious about that. So in the listening, listening with a beginner's mind, be radically open-minded here. Radically open-mindered. Don't get caught in the trap of, I know that. I know I do that. I believe that. Don't be afraid. Don't don't get cut on that trap. You can't because the ego is saying to you there's nothing to learn here. we're going to go on the way we're going on don't allow the ego to infiltrate your life that way because none of us I don't care who you are none of us have experienced the limit of a God-filled life there is no limit and the more we explore that landscape of the spiritual life the better quality our lives are. Make up your mind to practice something as we go through this. I'm not here to inspire you. Allie touched on this. The problem with inspiration is it comes and goes. It's a fleeting moment. Oh, how was that workshop last night? Oh, it was great. John was wonderful. Oh, best thing I've ever heard in a long time. I needed that. No, no, no. That doesn't work that way. If you're going to write some notes, write what you're planning to do, not what you'RE planning to remember. What are you going to do as a result of this conversation? One action, not 10. Don't fall into that trap, all or nothing. One action can be small. I'm going to tell you a little bit about small. It ripples out. How I do one thing is how I do everything. How I Do One Thing is how I do Everything. So these ideas, even though they might start small, ripples up. I used to say, you know, when making my bed in the mornings, I know a U.S. commander did a talk on this, actually, and I didn't hear it from him the first time, but I heard it from somewhere else. How I make my bed in the morning will determine how the rest of my day will go. And what I mean by that is, am I going to cut corners? Am I just going to fill the sheets on the pillows? Or am I not going to take care? Folding. Evening out. Freshening up. putting the covers under the mattress making sure that the patterns are in line because how I do that is how I'm going to make my breakfast, it's how I am going to do my work, it is how I am doing my AA recovery program one, how I do one thing is how I do everything don't compare listen to your own experience don't compare your stuff with about me listen to your beautiful history your rich past and draw from that what work you needed to work on see we're going inside now friends we're not going outside we're going inside we're gonna look for an intuitive thought because we're being nudged. Our curiosity is being raised. There's something inside us that's divine, that keeps pointing to something. And we're too busy talking or listening to the radio or the TV or even reading or going to meetings. Whatever it is you're doing, you might be missing this voice. And my heart is restless until I rest in you, O Lord. Don't compare. Get in touch with your own experience. Don't ask yourself, am I getting this right? There's no right. This is what makes�you know, you look at this room. There's 400-plus people here. If you looked at every square, every person is going to look different. And there's something very special about acknowledging that. We are different. Oh, we have a lot in common. Absolutely, we do. And it's kind of like a paradox where we have exclusion in the sense that we look different, but we have inclusion and unity because we're a community. We're all the same. It is in our uniqueness and our history and our experience that is rich and deep. That's what we share with other people. That's What Makes This Whole Thing Authentic and Real. So celebrate and honor your experience. This is not about doing something right. It's about following your heart. I created an Instagram account, especially for you. It's on my professional site, but it's an Instagram account. Why am I doing that? doing that so that if you want to join, I'm going to give little exercises every day to advance the things that we're talking about. So some of you may not want it. Some of you may not need it. But this is what I know to be true. It is in the regular practice of something that I become masterful at it. So every day I'm going to post maybe two or three small exercises to do that particular day around powerlessness so that you can start examining and looking at your life in areas that you haven't let go of yet. And if you're thinking to yourself, oh, I've done that, I'm done that. I have to tell you, you haven�t. There's room to grow, friends. Always room to draw. all. So Mickey will post that during the meeting. Listening is an action. I talked to you about listening, it's in the listening, but it is an action. It is what you prepare to do as a result of this conversation that's going to make a difference in your life. So some of you will come back next week and not even think about this workshop at all, and that's okay. There's no shame in that. There is no harm in it. But don't expect to be masterful in these ideas if you're doing that because you're looking for inspiration maybe. You're looking to be entertained. You're look to have a good time or a coffee club, and it's okay, friends. It's okay to be that. But don't kid yourself. That's all I'm asking you. If you want to be masterful at these ideas, it requires action and practice. It requires you to be uncomfortable with some new ideas and to try them out, and either keep them or throw them away. But you do it because you tried them, and you tried so you can discern whether that works for you or whether it doesn't. Many people, and I'm not saying anybody in this room, but many people try to sort that out without practicing. Well, I don't think I'd like that. And then meanwhile, they're remaining without action. They're trying to think their way through life. And you can't think your way through Life. You need to be in the experience. one of the i said to a couple people i'm really nervous about tonight and i'll tell you why i'm nervous about today is because it can't be explained it can i can't transfer to you my experience i can words don't work my tone won't work the only thing that's going to be i can transfer to you is if you tried something on so when you leave tonight and you want to say i'm going to try to look at areas of my life that i'm still holding on that i haven't really admitted powerlessness in now you're doing some working you're dealing with this you're feeling some reflecting you're doing some writing You're starting to bring clearer to yourself what you're actually being in this moment. Work, practice, investigate. Don't sit and think about it. That's how you can get the most out of this. So once again, friends, what am I doing? I'm pointing to some things. That's all I'm doing here. I'm pointing. Look. Look through your own eyes and examine your history and your past. See what your God is bringing to the surface so that you can expand this God consciousness. Now you have a partnership here. You're not doing it on your own. See, we in AA got to get over this isolation. We need to partner with this higher power. Partner, ask him. You know I often repeat the third tradition story and the third traditional about the original members didn't want another member to join and they were wondering whether they should let them in or not. And there was arguments going back and forth about letting them in because he�I guess he was disruptive. I don't really know exactly what it was, but he was disruptive and the original members were saying, I don t know, I want this guy around. And eventually someone said, What would the master do? Now here is the magic in that question. The master wasn't present, physically present. And it said immediately everybody knew what to do. Immediately! By them asking themselves that question, what would the master do? The answer came up. Let him in. Now think about that experience. Think about that. So what we want to do, we want take advantage of that wisdom and start asking ourselves with our partner, with our beloved lover, we want be asking ourselves, What would you have me do? Who do you want me to be? What action should I be taking as a result of my workshop tonight? And partner with this power. Make it become a go-to reliance and trust. And you may be amazed at what comes up. Amazed. So let's get room. for some God consciousness. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives have become unmanageable. Who cares to admit complete defeat? Practically no one. And there we are. There's the conflict. Practically No One wants to admit Complete Defeat. Who among us wants to emit they can't manage their own life? Who? none of us friends it's not natural in the world to the sense in the concrete world we would fight against doing that but in the spiritual world rules are different you see we have to imagine that we're walking through our lives in two different places one is in the outer world and the other is in the inner world what the tools that work for us in the outer world will not work for us in the interworld it won't work in the inner world we have to do the contrary action almost absolute opposite of what's expected of us inthe outer world now in the outer world we try to control and manage and understand those are words that we use I'm trying to understand this higher power. Well, guess what? If you understand it, that's not it. You can't understand it. Well, I'm try to know� No, no. No, you can never know the higher power." Wisdom literature of 5,000 years suggests there's a possibility to know God. So am I going to know god? No, I am not. It is in the unknowing. Now, why am I so afraid of unknowingly? Because I'm uncomfortable with it. I try to manage and control and know and to understand. See, that's what I do. And by doing that, I'm leaving God out. I had to recognize when I'm dealing on the inner world, I had to let go of all those ideas now in the outer world we have to learn we have to know we have to you know put our best foot forward effort we need to do those things because we are responsible in our work lives and our family lives there's nothing wrong with this knowing and understanding it just doesn't work in the inner world So we want to make sure when we're picking up our tool, our kit, we're using the right tools. So my question to you, what are you still trying to control? Now, unfortunately, I can't pause long enough because this is being recorded. It's going to sound kind of awkward in the recording. But what is it you're trying to control? What comes to mind? Allow it to come forth. Don't try to hide it or avoid it. Let it come. What don't you want to give up or sacrifice? Whom do you rely on? Is it your thoughts? Is it your feelings? Is it events? Who do you rely on Is what you're hanging on to causing you distress worry or fear Do you feel helpless and hopeless? Here's a great question you may want to consider. How do you know yourself? How exactly do you about yourself? What is it you know about yourself?" You see, in this world of the Spirit, what happens is there's two people, two different people, and the mystics and the sacred writers, they talk about the true self and the false self. The false self is somebody that we created, and most of us know ourselves as the false self, the person that we create it. Now, unfortunately, God created somebody else. He can't see that created person, because I created him. I became God and created John. John to be certain ways and certain attitudes and certain ways of being. But God created me for something else. How do I know my true self? What does God want me to do and to be? What is my purpose and meaning to life? See, this is a great question. It's a great questions because now we're starting to think about not about our ego or our thought life or our feelings or about the events that are happening. We're starting think about the way in which we were created so that we can come back and step two, to be restored to that peace. We can be restored back to that true self. This is what this journey's about�is to reconcile us in being restored. I'm sure you've heard this. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty-Dumpty had a big fall. And all the king's horses and all the kingsmen couldn't put Humpty back together again. Humpty was fragmented, separate, broken. Sound familiar? And nobody could put Humpty Dumpty back together again." That's true for me. You can't put me back together. You don't have the power. I can't be put me back together. I don't have the power. This is why we make room for God, so that we can be restored to wholeness�restored to complete wholenesse. Some like to think of it as holiness. We can be restored to sanity, to wellness. Never let that image be too far away from you. Don't be distracted by looking at the defects of character and looking at the pieces on the floor that you fell from that wall. You can be restored. So we come to believe it. Now we've made room for it, and now the action is start developing a belief system which is at best difficult to do. How do you do that? You do it through language. Language like, I'm grateful, God, for every little bit that happens to me and is happening to me. I'm thankful for everybody that you put in my life. Guess what? Two pieces just got connected. Thank you for the experience of Alcoholics Anonymous and my new friendships in which I have now. But guess what? Another piece just got connected back. Thank you for your love, for your mercy and your forgiveness. Another piece is put back. And we go through this process of being restored to wholeness. Now the easiest way I describe this experience is it's like having a vintage car that has been in a barn for some place for 40 years�rusted, windshield broken, tires flat. You get the picture. But somehow or another with caring and loving hands that car gets restored to its newness, back to the original state in which it left the dealership. See, I'm going to God's dealership to be restored. And the more room I have to do that, the restoration becomes quicker, faster and better. The less room I have to work with it, the slower the process. That's why I got to keep digging, keep allowing, keep giving up, keep letting go. This is what's important. Now, I'm going to say something�I hope nobody minds this�and if anybody takes offense to it, just let me know and I won't do it again. But in the wisdom literature of the Bible, in Genesis, it talks about let, the power of letting. This is a story. I get it. But let there be light, let�the power of let. Let there be life, and there was light. Let there be wholeness, and you'll be whole. This is what's available, friends. This is�this is what we're passing by. Now a lady was on before the meeting started. She says this might be advanced AA, and I'm going to say no it isn't�it's fundamental. may be considered advanced is because of our resistance to look at this idea, our defiance, our unwillingness to let go. It might take time to do that, and that's okay if it does take you time, but it also can be done this way, that quick, if you have the courage and the blind faith to think this is possible. So very quickly I want to do a very fast exercise with you that will change your state immediately. Now, everybody has come in this room at different levels of wellness. They have. Some are preoccupied with some problems that they're having. Maybe they're frustrated. Maybe they're confused. Maybe THEY'RE WORRIED. Maybe They'RE THINKING ABOUT DRINKING. Maybe THEY'RE GOING THROUGH A MARRIAGE BREAKUP OR A FINANCIAL REVERSE. maybe their health isn't good so we come in here with different levels maybe we're worried about our job and the future we come at different levels and I'm going to show you something that I want you to really think about this week that you can immediately turn to God and feel differently immediately so just for the moment I want you to listen to what I'm about to say to you. And I want you to go inside. I want you to look internal and try to reach the center of your being, which is your heart. And I wants you to imagine and notice the presence of God within you. Just notice. There's nothing to learn. There's no effort to be made. Just notice. and as you begin to notice the presence of God you begin to feel power greater than yourself now some of you may be thinking I don't feel no power keep looking don't give up keep looking and as you begin to sense the power moving in you the spirit moving in you you have to acknowledge that this is good. Let that power be with you in this moment and for the rest of this meeting. Now, can I have one person to share? I don't have a lot of time. Have one person to share that experience. Just one person, two or three sentences, no more. Would anybody like to volunteer? If you want to volunteer, please raise your hand electronically. I'll pick the first person. Michelle P., come on up, please. Hi, I'm Michelle and I'll call it. I felt the presence of God by having his hand on my shoulder just at that moment. You asked me to do that. Thank you. now there maybe do one or two more maybe one more okay sure i mean as next i will not come on up please hi arena alcoholic um i felt the i get a surge where i get presence i get an energy that goes through from head through shoulders as soon as i close my eyes and get centered as you were saying those words thank you great so there's evidence i don't know either one of those ladies there's that the power exists by simply noticing their bank accounts haven't changed since they come into this room nothing has changed in their life nothing you can do this if you're two hours sober, or you can do it if you are 50 years sober. And everything in between to notice the presence of God and your state changes. This is mystical. This cannot be denied. See, the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, and the lame walk. is an existence. Now, you and I may not agree on what that looks like, what the images of that look like, but we can't deny that it exists. We can't deny it because it exists�it's a fact. There is no other way that you can explain how any one of us can stay sober when all the time before that, we couldn't. You can't explain it. Well, you may try to explain it. 90 days and 90 meetings. You know, I got a good sponsor. You know the drill. People use that. There's nothing wrong with using it. But that doesn't fully explain how an obsessive person, compulsive in drinking can stop. You see, there's something there. There's some divinity within each person that once we begin to notice, we begin now to see power that exists that we never saw before. And this workshop is getting us into this place more often, more frequently and quicker. And it's not about you being in it all the time. I'm not selling that idea because you're not going to be. But what you can do is get back on this quicker. You can become more aware. Because we're going to keep speaking about next week, we're gonna be speaking about making that decision. We're gonna to be speaking about how do we move forward with this idea that I'm gonna be restored? See, first we empty ourselves. We let, we allow, we abandon, we surrender. We recognize our own resources are limited, and piece by piece we're willing to let go of the things that we're hanging on to, the things that we think are so important, the things that we think are valuable. And I have to share with you, friends, that most of the things that I thought were valuable to me were actually hurting me, because I could see them. I was used to them. I was comfortable with them. I had no idea what it's like to be on the other side of that boundary until I was ready to sacrifice that which I knew. Sacrifice is an interesting word. Sacrifice oftentimes is thought of as giving up something. But it's more than that. It's about giving up so something better can happen. That's sacrifice�so something better can happen." Friends, if you�Mickey, I don't know if you've got that Instagram account. I'll If you want to have the encouragement and touch points and the practice of these ideas in the next seven days, I will be posting them. You can just follow me on it. And all I can tell you is the more touch points you make on this idea, the more likely you're going to do it. It's just the other thing I've learned in Alcoholics Anonymous is you try to do this stuff alone, you're gonna fail. You need partnerships. You need accountability partners. You need somebody to care enough to say, what about that idea? Are you implementing it? So if you're inspired to do that, to join that Instagram, we'll put that in the chat, so you're welcome to join. So Ali, I'll pass it over to you. It's the beginning. I want you to be patient with this workshop. It's going to unfold quicker and better as we go along, but this is a very important piece because we can't have God come into something when we're so full of what we already have. Thank you, my friends. God bless each and every one of you. Thanks for listening.