Giving Thanks and the Promises – Threads of Recovery Workshop – Part 4 of 4 – Bill G.

I'm Debbie. I'm an alcoholic and I'm so grateful you guys are here. We are on to our third speaker and we've got Bill G from Toledo, Ohio, and he is just so much silent service behind the scenes. So I'm looking forward to hearing his message too out loud instead of behind the screens. Thanks, Bill. Hi everybody. My name's Bill and I am an alcoholic from Toleto, Ohio. Through the grace of God and the fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous, my sobriety date is August 1st of 1988. And I share that for two reasons. First, to offer hope to any newcomers that might be on today or anybody who just, for whatever reason, doesn't think this AA thing is working, please don't give up I guarantee if you go to one more meeting work with a sponsor get a home group work the 12 steps with a sponsored to the best of your abilities one day at a time you too can achieve long-term sobriety and the second reason I share my sobriete date is not to boast or brag or blow my own horn, but it's because I'm darn proud of it. I've worked hard for it and I put in the work and I've seen the promises materialize in my life and I want to share that with everyone today. And the passage I picked out as Bill sees it is page 266 and it's titled Give Thanks. though i still find it difficult to accept today's pain and anxiety with great any great degree of serenity as those more advanced in the spiritual life seem to be able to do i can give thanks for present pain nevertheless i find a willingness to do this by contemplating the lessons learned from past suffering. Lessons which have led to the blessings I now enjoy. I can remember how the agonies of alcoholism, the pain of rebellion and thwarted pride have often led me to God's grace and so too a new freedom. And pain has been a motivator for me not only in sobriety with alcohol issues but in issues i've faced in my everyday life i have a physical condition where my legs are getting progressively weaker and a number of years ago my doctor told me we don't know why and it's just going to progress and at some point in time you will lose the ability to walk. And I thought about that driving home from the doctor's office, and it amazed me that I was in a sense of serenity having heard that news, that I wasn't angry, I wasn'T blaming the doctor, that he didn'T do enough. And l learned from that situation that I could look at it as, Okay. He said, I lost the ability to walk and I could go home and sit in my recliner in front of the TV and never move again because the doctor said I lost The Ability to Walk. But that's not what he said. He Said at some point in time, I'll lose The Abilty to Walk that wasn't that day. and I said you know I can do whatever I put my mind to to make every day positive until I lose that ability and I've done amazing things since I've had that doctor's appointment and one of my mottos is I can't equals automatic failure all try opens a window of opportunities and some of the things i've done over the past few years is i was at a men's retreat and one my friends has motorcycle and he said can you get on the back of my motorcycle and i said i don't know but i can try and i was kind of standing back assessing the situation and he was looking at me and he kind of funny he said what are you doing i said well i'm just kind of assessing the situation and I said you know just let me know what I can and can't do he said well you can't tip the bike at all or it'll go over I'm like okay I said well get as close as you can to the picnic table he's like what are you gonna do I said I'm gonna climb on the picnic cable and slide over onto the back of your bike so that's what I did and you know put on a helmet and the necessary motorcycle accessories. And we took a beautiful ride up into the Smoky Mountains. And it was an amazing day, and people helped me off the motorcycle when we got up there at a lookout spot. And that's a memory I'll always have, because I got up and walked when my doctor told me i may lose the ability to walk that same friend has a two-seat airplane and he said do you think you can get in my airplane and i said i can try and i did and we went up for an amazing flight and you know this passage also reminds me where it says let me get back to where it is so to set to a new freedom it ends with and so to a new freedom that references for me personally the promises we're going to new new freedom and new happiness and I do have a new freedom and a new happiness today and every day just by trying to do whatever I want to try. Open that window of opportunity and possibilities. You know, if I say I can't, I automatically fail. But if I stay, I try it. I have an opportunity to do almost anything. And, you know, God's grace. That reminds me of, you Know, Jim in the big book on page 35. He failed to enlarge his spiritual life. Today, I have to enlargen my spiritual life to be able to be led to God's grace on a daily basis. And this story also, you know, learning from pains of the past and current pain and anxiety that I experience. I approach my pain today through the promise our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. You know, what attitude do I want to approach life with today? Do I want it to be negative and say, you know, I hurt, I can't walk, whatever, or do I want to look on life with a different outlook? I may hurt today, but I'm still walking. I can't ride a bike I can do other things but there's other things I can do you know I can go visit my niece and play with her and have a blast and make her laugh I can go to meetings and work with newcomers and share my experience strength and hope and hope that they get it and like Roy said if they do great if they don't it improved my sobriety you know that's the greatest thing about this is it's not about me sharing my experience strength and hope and asking what's in it for me you know, that was one of my old character defects was well if I help you what's on it for me it doesn't matter today what's in it for me i do it because it's what i was taught to do by the people that were here when i came into alcoholics anonymous that's what I do to help my sobriety because I might be in a bad space but getting out of myself helps me and it might help somebody else in return and give thanks you know two simple words give thanks if i do that in the morning to just give thanks to the grace of god for another day of sobriety and at night again just simply give thanks for another sober day one day at a time today is all have I can't change what happened yesterday and I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow but I'm confident with the new freedom I have through the grace of God and Alcoholics Anonymous and God's grace and if I remember to give thanks it'll work and it's worked it's proven You know, like Marky was talking about, you know, St. Thomas Aquinas proved, you know, things and I see God in my life today and it's been proven through the promises have materialized. All of them? No. Some of them, absolutely. Were they all, you Know, quickly even materialized after my first day in Alcoholics Anonymous? Absolutely not. That'd be a flat out lie. And some of them are still materializing slowly and some came more quicker than others, but that's okay. The ones that take time, I've learned mean the most to me. You know, my whole attitude outlook upon life has changed. I do have a new freedom and a new happiness today. Those took time to materialize. And those are just some of the promises that mean the most to me. And being able to share my experience, strength and hope in an AA meeting face-to-face, over the phone, on Zoom, wherever God shows me I'm needed today. I'm honored to be able to do it as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous in good standing today. And with that, I'll pass. wasn't quite a half hour but oh I so appreciate your sharing