Step 10 and Continuous Inventory – Book Study – Big Book Study – Part 4 of 4 – Local AA Speakers

Okay, as we move on into this 10, 11, and 12, as Charlie said, and we can't emphasize too much that this is where the thrill of Alcoholics Anonymous and the great challenge is to continue to grow in our lives for the rest of our lives. And it is easy to stop. And we see all sorts of things around our AA groups, and sometimes it's kind of confusing to the new people. And it's confusing to us, some of us who are around AA, too, is to what, really, what's this program all about? Because we see all kinds of people in that age. We see some people in their fourth dimension every once in a while. We see a few people in the fourth dimension of living. They've got that sparkle in their eye and they're happy all the time and they just radiate this program. I know two or three of them here in the room today. I see them all the times. And they are in the Fourth Dimension. And we see some mediocre people in The Program, some kind of good one day and bad the next, you know. That's where most of us seem to fit, including me. And we see some people so sick you want to buy them a drink in the amen. See a lot of them. I hope I never reach that point. He's usually talking about if you want what I got, who the hell wants what he's got? Okay. Okay, but you know all of us have our own choice. We don't knock that person maybe because we don't know where he came from. We don'T know where He started out. Maybe He's made a lot of progress. But we all have our Own Personal Life and Our Own Personal Desires and we can go where we want to go with this program. It has nothing to do with how long we've been sober. It's just what do we want To work for? And so it begins with this continuous work. It says, this thought brings us to step ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any mistake as we go along. We vigorously commit this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the Spirit. Remember that step five says it was the beginning of the spiritual experience. Step ten says we have entered that world. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness Not to maintain anything, but to grow In understanding and effectiveness This should continue for a lifetime This is not an overnight matter It should continue forever It should for a life time Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty Resentment and fear What step did we use for that in the first place? We used step four, didn't we? Okay. When they crop up, we ask God who wants to remove them. What steps did we use for that? Six and seven, right? Okay. We discussed them with someone immediately. And what step was that? Five, all right. And we'll make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. And what steps did you use? What steps do we use? Eight and nine, okay. Okay, now, if this is true, according to the big book, step 10 is a continuous working of steps 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 each day. You know, it would be totally impossible for anybody in this room to take these steps once, or any of us, and to continue to take them every day and remain the same. you would have to change because the more you took step four and five and talked it over with someone else the more you would learn about yourself and you would see more and more things that you were willing to let go of and so in step six you know as you in step six and seven as you ask God to remove these things your character defects would become less and less and as you hurt other people and made amends quickly, your relationship with people would grow. So there's no way you could work this step 10 as the book said and remain the same. We would be constantly growing. I think that's one of the dangers, and Charlie mentioned a while ago, one of great things that happened in AA some years ago, we got to have it. Somebody said, I don't know where it was, but some guy decided somewhere years ago we decided to put the steps up on the wall, on those plaques. And it's nice to have them up there. I'm not knocking that. We've got the traditions. We put them up on The Wall and the new people come in. We didn't tell them to do that. But the new People started coming in taking the steps off The Wall. You know, they just read up on On The Wall and try to apply that to their lives. And they try to interpret what it means and take the step out of The Wall, off Thewall. You can't take the steps Off The Wall The only place where we've got any instructions that teaches you how to take the steps is the big book. Now, if we took the steps out of the book, we would understand what it means to do. And here it says, you know, step ten is a continuous practicing of all these other steps. Not of one, two, and three. Not of the decision. We don't need to take one and two. We don'T need to see the facts and make a decision anymore. Only thing we have to reapply is the action steps. Four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine were the action steps. So we were real proud of the action steps each day in our lives. Somewhere in taking step ten off the wall we got the idea that the only thing we need to look for is to see if we've harmed anyone. Because that's the way it sounds. Continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admit it. Look to see si we were wron or hurt somebody and then promptly admit that. But we can see in the reading of the book that it's an entirely different thing if you take step 10 out of the Book. Not only do we look to see if we're wrong, we continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. And when these crop up, we ask God to take them away at once. We discuss them with another human being, and then we make amends quickly if we've harmed anyone. And I would defy anybody in this room to work step ten, as the book says, over and over andover and overand over and remain the way you are. You simply cannot do that. Your knowledge about yourself will become more. Your character defects will become less. Your relationship with other people will become better and better andbetter. Somewhere in taking step ten off the wall, we got the idea that you don't do it until you go to bed at night. Now, at my age, I don't get in trouble in bed anymore. My main problem is in the daytime. And it doesn't make any sense for me to get all screwed up at nine o'clock in the morning and wait until I go to sleep. I go back to bed to do something about it. If I do, I've lost another day. I've squandered another day in resentment. I've Squandered Another Day in Fear. And I'm not allowed to have just one thing. If I get mad at you at 9 o'clock in the morning, and I don't do something about it pretty fast, then I'm sure as hell upset with somebody else by 11 o' clock. And by 1 o' clock, I've got three more. And by 9 o´ clock at night, I'm a basket case. It is so easy. I learned this process when I took step four. where it is so easy to stop and say, OK, Charlie, who are you mad at? What did they do? What part of self has been affected? What character defect has come back to the surface? God, you know I don't want to be this way. Please take this away. Check it out with another human being to make sure I'm right and make amends quickly. And in 15 minutes he can be gone and the rest of my day is OK. If I do step ten the way the book says, I can be joyous, happy, and free all the time. But if I don't do it, then other people begin to control me again through resentments, fear, worry, anxiety, and I become an absolute basket case. And it is so much easier to do it as soon as it pops up than it is to wait until I become an absolute basket case. And this is a little formula that I can change for the rest of my life as much as I wish to change. But again, if I accept this in my life, I've got to accept that most awesome responsibility I've ever had. I've gotta learn to be responsible for the way I feel. Now that I know how to do this, now that I know how get rid of that jazz, I can no longer blame it on Barbara. Can't blame it on the boss, can't blame it on the kids. Sure as hell not the neighbor's fault. Anytime I'm screwed up today, it's because I have chosen to be that way. And let's face it, once in a while that's the way I want to be. I just love to get mad sometimes and romp and stomp and raise hell. Sometimes I like fear, because fear will let me rationalize and excuse doing things that ought to be done. It will let me excuse myself for not doing things I should be doing. But any time I do that anymore, I realize fully and completely it is my choice, and I have let myself become that way because that's the way I want to be at that particular moment. Most people will never find this. Most People are going to be the way they are until the day they die, and they'll not be able to do anything about this at all. You and I are the luckiest people in the world. We can change from now on. And we can be happier as time goes by because we have the tools to change. Most people don't have this opportunity. Now, after you've done step 10 for a while, you have a completely new set of promises in the big book. You know, I hear all the time about the promises on page 83 and 84. Very, very seldom do I hear about the promises on page 84 and 85. Let's look at the end of step 10, Joe. Okay. And as Charlie said, we don't notice these, but by the way, there are the same number of promises. We want to count them. There are the sameness of promises and the same amount of promises come after step 10 that come after steps 9. And we will cease fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol. For by this time, sanity will have returned. Remember when we stepped two, we said we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves would restore us to sanity? Now after step ten, sanity has returned. And now we can think. Remember, we couldn't think straight about alcohol. After step ten we can Think Straight About Alcohol. We can see the truth now. And after we seek and see the proof, it says we will seldom be interested in liquor. No, truthfully we shouldn't. If we are tempted, we will recall from it like a hot flame. We will react sanely and normally. We will see that this has happened automatically. We will say that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us with any thought or effort on our part. It just comes. That is the miracle of it. We are neither fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we have been placed in a position of neutrality, safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We need to cock it now or we're afraid. This is our experience. This is how we react so long as we keep in a fit spiritual condition. This is the double-double miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous. us. You remember back on page 45 when it said the main object of this book is to enable us to find a power greater than ourselves which will solve the problem. And we emphasized that it didn't say which will help us solve it, but that will enable usto solve it. It said which will solve it now somewhere between page 45 and page 85. I woke up one morning and I said Charlie there's something strange in your life? And I said, what is it? And they said, you don't want to take a drink today. And I asked, how long has it been since you've wanted to take a drink? And couldn't even remember. Somewhere in the process of working these steps, God reached into my mind and plucked out the desire to drink. Now he never leaves a vacuum. As he plucked out the desire to drink, it was replaced with a desire to stay sober. You see, I am as obsessed today with sobriety as I ever was with drinking. And God did that. I didn't do that. All I did was work the steps. The real miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous is this. The reason we don't drink today is because we don' t want to drink. We don' d need to drink We don't have to drink. This comes from finding the power greater than we are. Now, when you reach this point, you feel so good that again, if we aren't very careful, we'll say, oh, God, it can't get any better. And we tend to want to stop right here. And again, If we do, we're headed for trouble. My book says it's easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We're headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Now there's the word maintenance one day at a time. This building we're in is a fine building. And they can spend money on this thing forever to maintain it. But someday this sucker's going to fall down. We can maintain, keep things one day at a time. But if we don't continue to improve it, it's got to go back one way or the other. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all our activities. How can I best serve thee? Thy will not mine be done. These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our willpower along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will. Isn't that great? Step three, I made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand him. Now that the garbage has been removed and my will has been straightened out and I'm operating on God's will, they now give my will back to me. And the proper use of it is to try to determine God's Will in all our activities. We can exercise our willpower along that line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will. Charlie and I, at this point, always look at the preciseness of the big book. It says it's precise. Now he gives us our will back on page 85, but he gives us our sanity back on 84. You know, it would be dangerous to get it back wholly the same. Now, it says, much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration and direction from him who has now all knowledge and power. Remember they took made Bill took that word out but he put it back in some more directions if we have carefully followed directions not suggestions we have begun to sense the flow of his spirit into us to some extent we have become God conscious but this we have begun to develop this vital sixth sense We must go further, and that means more action. He talks about a sixth sense. We've begun to develop this sixth sense of directions. You know, we humans, basically, we were mostly based on our own self-will. We have operated off of five senses. You know? We have five senses of direction in the human life. We can see. We can hear. We can smell. Well, we can taste and we can touch. These are our five senses of gathering some data from the outside world in order to run our lives. What he's saying here, we have another sense of directions. We'll begin to develop a sixth sense. And down inside, we humans do have a sixth sensed sense of direction. I realize all my life I operated off these five senses. Today, I begin to realize later in life how inadequate they are. I realize that what I see a lot of times ain't what really is true. And I know what I hear ain't. I don't depend on that. Some of these things are, you know, I began to see that there, you know,I need something more truer. And down inside of each one of us, there is a vital sixth sense of directions. And now is how to perfect that through Step 11. Step 11 is through prayer and meditation we can receive God's directions, that sixth sense of directions in our lives. And so as we come to Step 11, which is really one of the pillars of our steps, you know, when we look at the steps, we can see actually as they're laid out, Step 3 is through 1 and two, we get to three. And three is one of the pillars. And in three, we make a decision to turn over our will. And once we turn over our will, then we have to go to work to clear the things that block us from God. And so we do four, five, six, seven, eight and nine, and even ten, some more, to refine that process. And we finally remove the things that block us from God. And once we remove the things that block uns from God, then we can receive God's will in step 11. So we looked at the two pillars that would be the turning over of our will and the receiving of God's will. The changing of directions in the human life is what the basic process of the steps are. So step three is the other pillar. The receiving of God's directions in our lives. if it's true that God dwells within all human beings, and I believe he does, and if it is true that he has all knowledge and all power, then it stands to reason that it is also true that deep inside ourselves we have all the knowledge and power that we will ever need to solve any problem we might have in the future. Remember the spiritual experience according to the appendix? It's when we become aware of the fact that we have tapped an unsuspected inner resource of strength that we presently identify as a higher power where God is way understanding. Everything I've ever learned all my life was through those five senses Joe talked about and operated my life off of those five sense. But every once in a while, that sixth sense would try to come to the surface. Every once in awhile it'd say, Charlie, you really oughtn't to be doing this. Every once and a while it would say, I told you not to do it. I've always known the difference between what I ought to do and what I shouldn't do. I have never been able to follow that sixth Sense because it did not match my search for money, power, prestige, and sex. So I suppressed it and never listened to it, period. Now that the garbage has been disappeared, it may be that that knowledge that's always been there at that subconscious level, just maybe, it can start coming to the surface now if I can tap into it. And we tap into het through prayer and meditation. And most of we alcoholics, especially those like me, Even though we might have been raised in church, seemed to know very, very little about prayer and meditation. And I had two set prayers I've always used. One was, now lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before awake, I'll pray the lord my soul to take. Well, now that deals with death. And I'm not too interested in that anymore. The other prayer that I always use, and I'm sure some of you used it too, was, God, if you'll get me out of this damn mess, I swear I'll never do it again. That was the extent of my prayer life. Now they come to, I come to them and they say, Charlie, you're going to have to learn to pray and meditate. I said, well, it's impossible. I can't do that. How do you do it? And they said, let's go to the back of the book here and we'll find some simple little suggestions, that if we follow them, we can develop our own life of prayer and meditation and receive information from that sixth sense of direction. Joe? Step 11 suggests prayer and mediation. Okay, Charlie made a decision. He's going to take some action. We'll check the results when he gets back. We shouldn't be shy of this matter of prayer. Better men are using it constantly. It works if we really have the proper attitude and work at it. It would be easy to be vague about this matter, and I was talking to some people about this. This is one of my famous parts of the book. and I just look at the background of it. I think we have to look at the background to appreciate and to visualize Bill and what he was doing and how he did this and what a magnificent maneuver this was to do this and what an amazing and what challenge it was for him. Now, I would have to remember when Bill wrote this, you know, at this time he was not a spiritual giant. You know, he began early as Charlie. We talked earlier His early spiritual teaching came from Anne, and Henrietta used to read to him out of the Bible. And here he was, faced with a task of writing something on prayer and meditation, a man who knew nothing about it very much at this time in his life of sobriety and recovery. Not only was he faced with the awesome task of riding on prayer meditation, he was trying to give us some instructions to a group of people on prayer and meditation who were going to be spiritually bankrupt we alcoholics and he knew nothing about it when you think about prayer and mediation those two subjects just think about in the history of the world in the story of mankind how many books have been written on prayer how many great minds theologians Experts in the field have written many volumes of books on prayer. How many books have been written on meditation? How many great minds have dealt with that subject itself? And here was a man who had no knowledge of either subject, trying to write something to people who know nothing about it either. And what reason to me, the reason I'm so impressed with this, and the reason why I'm overwhelmed each time I read it, God directed this man to put down in this book some instructions for people that were spiritually bankrupt to teach us a prayer and meditation. And he did it on two pages, two pages. Not volumes or books, but two pages." The way he did he was very skillful. He said, I wish I could be vague about this matter. What is he saying? Hey, I wish I didn't have to do this. I wish i could avoid this. I don't know anything about it. And then he did it. He had made a magnificent maneuver. He did not try to teach us this because he didn't know anything about him. But he said, I'm going to give you some definite and valuable suggestions. And what he did, he lays out a little plan for us to use each day. And he said if you apply these little suggestions each day. You will teach yourself prayer and meditation on an individual basis, and it's so skillfully done that anybody who would take these suggestions and apply them to their life in a short period of time, he can develop a healthy life of prayer and meditation. Now what he does on this sheet is we can see the outline he uses. The first thing he will tell us is what to do at night. It's real simple. And then after he does that, he tells us what to doing in the morning. In the bottom paragraph he tells us what we do when we have indecisions. Along page 87 he will tell us how to pray and then he gives us some of the many suggestions. Now if we will use these on a daily basis regardless of where we are we could develop a healthy life of prayer and meditation. And it begins with the night. He said, when we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest to our friend? Do we owe an apology? You know, we can see some of the steps in there. Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? That looks like five. Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time, or were we thinking what we could do for others, or what we would pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse, or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review, we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken. This is very easy to do each night. We've got up here on the wall behind us and in your handout sheet a simple little thing that we might want to use as a daily inventory. But again, it's nothing new. On the left-hand side, we have the personality characteristics of a self-willed person. And we took those same defects of character that Bill talked about in the book, selfish and self-seeking, dishonesty, frightened, inconsiderate. And then we went to the 12 and 12 that he wrote some 13 years later and picked up the character defects he talks about there, such as pride, greed, lust, anger, envy, sloth, gluttony, and et cetera. and they're all really offshoots of those first four. And as selfish, self-centered people, that was the old personality that we had. And all we've been trying to do all the way through is get from the left-hand sheet to the right-hand side of the sheet personality characteristics of a God-will person. And if we can start getting rid of dishonesty, we can operate on honesty. If we start getting rid of being frightened, we can operate with courage and et cetera and et cetera. Now all successful people in the world today will tell us that one of the reasons for their success is the ability to stop and inventory themselves from time to time to see where they are. They say if we don't do this, we probably forget where we came from. and if we forget where we came from we probably will not know where we're trying to go and if we can do this on a daily basis again it shows us what we need to continue to work on and it's hard to do this inventory on a daily basis and stay the way you are because invariably as I check this out I find that sometimes I'm on the left-hand side more than the right, other times on the right more than the left, but invariably it's a mixture of the two. And if I spot those things I need to work on further and ask God to take them away and to give me the power to become the opposite, then slowly, slowly I can continue the personality change for the rest of my life. It only takes about two minutes to do this, and I find it is so much easier to spot them and get rid of them as they appear than it is to wait 30 days and wait until I'm buried clear down under that dung heap again, and then have to dig myself back out of it. It takes a lot less work to do it on a daily basis than it does if I wait until I'm in serious trouble. And if I don't do it On a Daily Basis, eventually I start sliding back until I get into all that junk again. And then it's hard to get out of it, Joe. A very valuable and definite suggestion. Now what do we do in the morning? And I, in my book, I'm a simple guy. I had to label these things, so I put PM on the top and AM on the bottom. On awakening, let us think about the 24 hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day before we begin. We ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that he be divorced from self-pity, dishonest, and self-seeking motives. Under these conditions, we can employ our mental facilities with assurance. If I ask God, God gave us brains to use. Our thought life will be on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared as wrong motives. And we get up in the morning, And this is a very important part of each day. And I think some of us may employ this, but I really ask you all to try, if you will, just begin to employ all these valuable ideas in one day. You know, we have our quiet times. I know I talk to a lot of alcoholics and I know many of them do this. And my sponsor got me into this early in the game. I remember I had to meet him every morning at 7 o'clock. And boy, I'd be in bad shape some morning. and one morning he just grabbed me and told me he said why don't you get your head together in the morning and he said you get up just like a damn goose and I said what do you mean he said you getup and squat and crap and say here I come mean old world and you just run out there and get knocked around he said you know get your life together and this is true you know and I wonder about we as humans you know we get up in the mornin' and uh you know we brush our teeth that's important you know And we, y'all comb your hair. I don't do that, though. You do that. We get all of it. We take a shower. We put on the right deodorant. We do all those things. Then we get to them clothes, and they got to match. If I have trouble with that, because I can't, you know, me and I would have trouble with them colors. But we got to mash the paints with the shirt and the shoes. Everything got to mesh. Okay. We take care of the clothes. we go out and check the car we check all the areas in the tire and see if the car is alright we make sure the house is locked and we take off to work everything we check except the main thing what about our minds that's going to run the whole show and we never check it You know, and that's the first thing. Get our minds together. Ask God to direct our thinking, and then take care of these other things. See, I thought life would be on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. You know it tells us that God gave us brains to use. And we heard, again, another story about a surgeon who had developed a way to transplant the brain in its entirety. We've been doing it for years with various other organs of the body, and he found a way to do it with the brain itself. This old fellow went to see the surgeon, and they said, Doctor, my brain doesn't work anymore. He said, I can't think, I cannot remember, and I'm having a hell of a time with it. Is there any possibility you could help me? The surgeon said, well, maybe we can. We'll have to run some physical tests to see if you can stand it physically. So they ran the test and the results were good. And the surgeon said,"Well, yeah, we can help you out." He said, your body's in fine shape. And he said, I believe we can transplant a brain in your head and everything will be great. And the old fellow said, Well, fine, doctor, what have you got to offer? And he says, Well let's go up in the display room and I'll show you what we've got in stock. And they went up in the display room, and he said, In this case over here I have the brains of an attorney. And he said I'll transplant this in your head, everything would be fine, it would cost you $10,000. The old man said, You got anything else to offer? And he says, Oh yeah, over here in this case I've got the brains of a lawyer, or of a doctor. And he say, I'll transplants this in you head and everything will be fine. It will cost you 20,000 dollars. The oldman said, Do you got anything elses to offer?" And he said, Yeah, in this cases over here i've got the brains of an alcoholic and he said I'll transplant this in your head everything be fine cost you fifty thousand dollars old man said I don't understand he said how come ten thousand for the attorney twenty thousand for the doctor and fifty thousand for The Alcoholic's Brain he said well hell man it's brand new it ain't never been used yet probably most of us will go to our grave with at least seventy percent of the original warranty on you. Okay, and that is a very good daily. If we try that, there's no way you can, you know, if you use that one every morning, your life has got to grow. You have got to grow through just that one. Now he talks about indecision. You think about our day, we may face indecisions, and we do each day. We may not be able to determine which course you take. You know, each day I know that I as an individual, I have had certain experiences of life. In my time I have experienced a lot of things and I have learned a few things in my life. And each time something occurs to me, this is a learning process. I got this in my little computer. And every day when something occurs in my life, I usually go into my information. And I don't have all the information in life. I've just been here for a short period of time, and I don' t know it all. And I won' t have the capacity to know it at all. I never will know it out. I just know a small portion of what is going on. And by the time when something comes up in my life, I have a little computer, one of those expensive ones either, just one of the little Radio Shack types, you know. That' s all I got. And in my little computer I have stored everything that is experienced to me as I know. When a problem comes up in my life and I face indecision, I usually go into my little computer and I turn it on. And the little tape don't take it too long to run out. And it says, we don't have that one. You know what I mean? And I say, well, run it through again. And they say, hell, we ain't got it, you know. And that's frustration. You know, we just keep running it through, running it through, and it says we relax and take it easy. And we turn it over to God. I know God has all knowledge. God has All Knowledge. And it's down within me. Not out in the air, but down within me. And it says we relax and take it easy. After a period of time the right answer will come. You know, when I got a problem I turn off my little computer about that. And when I turn off my computer on that problem at least it's free to do something else. You know when I'm wrestling with that problem I'm paralyzed. Well if I can turn it over to God and relax and take It easy after a while the right answer will come. I'll go occupy myself with some other activities. You know, when I let go of that problem, at least I can cut the grass. I can wash the car. I'm occupied to do something else in my life. Then after a while, the right answer will comes right within me, sometimes from other people. Our book says what used to be a hunch, we have all had hunches, occasional hunches. Occasional inspiration gradually become a working part of our minds. We can't live off of hunches We've got to, through prayer and meditation, we can make this a working part of the mind. And I realize God has about 10,000 answers for every problem I have. He's got 10, 000 great answers, but because God loves me and because he has a covenant with me, he will allow me to struggle on the basis of self. But if I can turn it over, relax and take it easy, I can get plenty of great answers for any problem I had. He says, being still inexperienced and just having made conscious contact with God is probably going to be expired at all times if you knew. We may pay for this presumption in all sorts of actions and ideas. Nevertheless, if we work at this for a period of time, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on a plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it. And finally, one of these days we will get to a point in life if we practice this definite and valuable suggestions on indecisions. One of these day's we will rely upon this and it will become a working part of our minds. Now he talks about prayer. How do we pray? We usually conclude a period of meditation with a prayer that would be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, searching for God's directions. Let us be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will and are careful to make no requests for ourselves. We may ask for ourselves, but others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us waste a lot of time doing that. It doesn't work and we can easily see why. again we see the emphasis here of healthy prayer as charlie said you know i had to begin realize that you know I didn't have a healthy prayer life never had so I had to began to practice this definite and valuable suggestion of fashioning your prayer life that that really fit my new way of life all I need was God's directions in my life and I needed the power to carry these out, and I needed this communication in such a direct way that my prayer life in the past had been cluttered with many other things. You know, most of my prayers to God were cluttered not with God's directions, but all my life I had used prayer like a letter to Santa Claus, you know, really. I never asked for God's direction. I asked for many, many other things in my life. Bill said someone asked him, what is one of the most single important things you learn out of the whole steps? And this would have to be hard for anyone. But he said, you know, one of those single most important things he learned was use prayer and meditation to receive God's will rather than use prayer by itself to sway God's will and list his petty needs. And this is what I had done in my old, I had always wasted my prayers in telling God what I wanted him to do. And I realized that God ain't interested in what I want. He's sure interested in the things that I want to do in my life. He's interested in it and what I need. And if I had taken this opportunity in the beginning, I wonder what would have happened to my life if I hadn't asked God for the things I wanted. Because God, you know, God, as I look back over 26 years in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, God has given me things far beyond my imagination. If I could have made a list 26 years ago, I would have really cheated myself because God has giving me things that I couldn't imagine would happen in my life. And it's the same today. So I don't have to tell God what I want. All I need is God's directions in my light. So it was very difficult not to tell God what you want. Try it sometimes and see how hard it is. You know, I started my early prayer life and each Sunday morning I talk about this constantly and how I developed my early pray life and it was in the church and I don't knock that church that's my church today too Charlie was in the Southern Baptist Church I was in the Southern Methodist Church them Baptists have drowned you I didn't go to that one. That's why you never did learn to swim. Okay. But in our church, we had one brother who used to pray for us every Sunday morning. He sat on the right over here in the second pew, and we sat at the end of the second pew. And I remember him just as a kid. He was there. His name was Brother Sanders. And he'd always get down on his knees, and I remember me. I remember in a brown suit. I guess he wore that every Sunday. And he had a watch bob that he used to bob off his vest when he got down. I remember as a child looking down there each Sunday morning, hearing him pray. And it took him about a half an hour to pray for us. We was in bad shape. And he would start off, and this is the way I developed my earlier prayer habits, actually it was through him. And he Would ask God for everything on the place. He would start of up top and say, God bless the President and his wife. You know, and kind of come down, you know, through the state officials and on down to the church. And then when he got to church, he said, Lord, bless the minister and his wife, and the sick and the poor to shut in, and help the senior choir and the junior choir and the Boy Scouts and ladies' aid. He'd go all around, and God do this and stop the war and do this and do that. Do this and do it. He just ordered God to tell him, ask for everything in heaven. And then down at the end he had one final statement when he finished asking God for everything. Final statement, he would say, Lord, that in haste which we have omitted, please grant us that also. In other words, we left it out and forgot about it. Give us that too, you know. And, you Know, you kind of do that all your life and you kind to get hung in that thing, you Know, and you come to AA and these guys, these idiots at AA say, hey, don't ask for nothing. I say, man, you're crazy. That won't work. But it really works. We don't have to ask God for anything. God knows our every need. You know, and as far beyond that, all we really need as individuals surely we through the inventory if we have taken step four and step five and seen the seen the disaster in our lives because what has happened to our life we should know that the only thing we need is god's directions in our life so desperately and the power to carry those things out this is all we need and we can do that if god can direct our lives, he takes care of his own. So he'll take care of the things we want far beyond our imagination if we can hone in in step 11 through prayer and meditation to receive his directions in our life. Now once we do that, and those are, that is a definite and valuable suggestion that can change your life. Now he goes into some small or many suggestions. If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation. That might help. If we belong to a religious domination which requires a definite morning devotion, we'll attend to that also. That's a little mini-suggestion. If not a memory of the religious bodies, we select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we are discussing. Good little suggestion. There are many helpful books. There are some other books too that can be helpful. A good suggestion. Suggestions may be obtained from one's priest, minister, or rabbi. Another good minute suggestion. Be sure to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they have to offer. Another good little suggestion. As we go through the day, when we pause, when agitated or doubtful, we ask for the right thought or action. Another little minute suggestion We constantly remind ourselves each day we are no longer running the show. This is very necessary. Say unto ourselves many times each day, Thy will be done. Now what do we get out of these definite and valuable suggestions? Because we are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, and foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. You know, we can get more living done in a day. We do not tire so easily. Boy, we used to be wore out, getting nothing done. Well, we're not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. It works. It really does. And it really does work. These definite and valuable suggestions work. We alcoholics are undisciplined, and we are undidisciplined. So we let God discipline us the way we have just outlined. You know, we use those definite and valuable suggestions. God will direct our lives and we will become disciplined people. But this is not all. There is action and more action. Faith without works is dead. The next chapter is entirely devoted to step 12. We realize that we're running a little over time, so we're not going to do a lot on this next chapter. But let's look for just a little bit of step 12 before we close. Step 12 is another one of those multiple-part steps. It has three distinct parts to it. The first part is probably the greatest promise to be found in the big book, having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps. Not a result, not some result, as the results of these footsteps, singular. I think it's a promise that if we will put the first eleven steps in our lives to the best of our ability, that surely we can expect to have this spiritual awakening. Now what is a spiritual awakening? A personality change sufficient to recover from the disease of alcoholism. We are no longer what we used to be. Bill says in the Twelve and Twelve there's many different kinds of spiritual awakenings. There are people in AA. But they all got certain things in common. We're able to feel, believe, and do things that we could never do before on our own strength unaided. Today I feel things I've never felt before. Today I fear love. I never knew what love was. I always had that mixed up with coming in heat. And today I realize that love and sex really don't have a hell of a lot to do with each other. Love is true compassion. Love is understanding of your fellow man. Love is wanting to help other people. Love is wanted by others. Love is warning other people to have what you want for yourself as bad as you want it for yourself. Love is true concern about our fellow human beings. I feel that today. I never felt that before. Before these steps, I could care less about you. I was concerned primarily with me, and I wasn't worried about God's will either. I feel things different today. I believe things I never could believe before. I believe that God is a kind and a loving God. Always before, I thought he was hellfire and brimstone. I don't think God needs to punish us. I think we do a reasonably good job of that ourselves. I think that God is a kindly and loving God and I believe that he stands ready at any time anywhere to help any human being in the world whenever they're willing to turn self back and start trying to operate on God's will. I can do things I could never do before. By golly, I can stay sober, and I never could do that before. So based on Bill's criteria, I believe I have had a spiritual awakening. Now, the middle part of that step charges me with a responsibility. It says we try to carry this message to other alcoholics. This message, not a message, not some message, this message. What is this message? Well, this message is, having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps. And that's the only message we know anything about. The message is very simple. It goes like this. If you're screwed up today and you're not happy, if you're drinking or thinking about drinking, we know exactly where you're coming from because that's where we came from too. And we came to the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. And within the fellowship, we found a book called Alcoholics Anonymous. And within that book, we find a program of recovery. We applied that in our lives to the best of our ability. And as the result of the first 11 steps, we've had a spiritual awakening and we're not that way anymore. And if you want to change the way you are, then you do the same thing and you won't be that way any more either. Now, that's the only thing we've got to carry to new alcoholics. Some of us tend to think that we are healers, and I really don't think we are. Some of Us tend to Think We're Economic Advisors, and I really Don't Think We Are. And some of us Tend to Think we Should Give Marital Advice, and I Really Don't think We Should. I don't know of any group of people in the world that screwed those things up worse than we did, yet we're willing to turn around and advise other people in those areas. No, uh-uh. No, we know one thing. we know how to recover from the disease of alcoholism. And that's the only message we have to carry. I believe that you and I are the luckiest people in the world, period. I think we are chosen people. I think I know what God's will is for us. Most alcoholics die from the desease of alcoholismo. It is said something like 97 out of 100 will die never even knowing they're alcoholic. And I used to say, God, why am I an alcoholic? Today I say, God, how come I'm not one of those that's dying? I believe God has always worked with people through people. I think in the 1930s, God got tired of seeing us die. And I think He used Bill and Bob and Ebby and Bill Dotson and Dr. Silkworth and Dr., and he asked for groups and he put this thing together so you and I could live. I believe also that God chooses all these people then and if he did then and they're all gone then most certainly he's still choosing people today. There's not an alcoholic in this room that shouldn't already be dead. How many times have we almost made it and the next morning we said wasn't we lucky? I don't think luck had anything to do with it. I think in order for God to use us He had to let us experience our disease and I think He saved our lives while we were doing it and then when He got ready to use us, when we had learned what He wanted us to learn Then he removed the obsession to drink. And I think the only question today is, what are we going to do with what God has given to us? He's always said, you only need to do two things to be happy. Number one, put no other gods before me. Now that can be money, power, prestige, sex, or anything else. And then he said, do what you can for your fellow man. He has fit you and I with some very unique knowledge to help some very unique people. We are the experts in the field of alcoholism. You and I know more about alcoholism than anybody alive because we experienced it. You and i are the expert's in recovery. We know more that than anybody live because we've experienced it now what are we going to do with this information? Are we going to keep it for ourselves? Are we going share it part of the time? Or are we going to our utmost to take the thing that God has given to us and avert death in other people? Oh, I think we're the luckiest people in the world. You and I have been given the opportunity and the knowledge to avert death in literally countless thousands of people. Most people never get that opportunity. I doubt very seriously if God cares where I live. I doubt sehr seriously if God cares what job I'm working on. I doubt if He even cares who I'm married to. I think what God is concerned with is, what are you doing with what I've given to you? Now, if I can take this and carry this message of recovery to other alcoholics, then for the first time in my life, I am real benefit to God and my fellow man. Now, step 12 also charges me with one other responsibility, and that is practice these principles in all my affairs. And I've seen meetings in AA go on for hours as to what are these principles. All kinds of arguments. I think Bill told us what the principles are way back over here and how it works on page 60 when he said, Many of us exclaim, what an order, I can't go through with it. Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we're willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. Just before he made that statement, he had set down the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the 12 and 12 in the preface, he says, The twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous are a set of principles, spiritual in nature, which if practiced will expel the obsession to drink. So I believe in Bill's mind that he must have been referring to the twelve steps. In all of his writings, when I see the word principles, it's in reference to the 12 steps. Now, practice these twelve steps in all my affairs. It's easy for me to do it here. Oh, I love you and you love me, and we're not going to hurt each other if we can keep from it. But I only spend an hour to two hours per day on those days that I go to AA in AA. Maybe I spend a total of six to ten hours a week in AA The other 22 to 23 hours I spend outside of AA. Do I practice these principles everywhere I go outside of AA? Am I able to go into my own home? God, there's where I have trouble. There's where my self-esteem is threatened. There's were my pocketbook is threatened and there's were sex life is in my own hole. Do I practise these principles there? Can I admit my powerlessness over my wife who's already, she's already over 50 years old, you know. Can I admit that I'm powerless over her? Can I realize the insanity of me trying to control her life? Am I willing to turn her will and her life over to the care of God as I understand Him? Can I inventory me and see why I need to keep controlling my wife? Can I find the character defects, talk about them to another human being? Can I ask God to take them away? Can I make amends to my wife quickly when I've harmed her. Sometimes I'm absolutely ashamed of me. You know, I treat absolute strangers better than I treat my own wife many times. Can I practice these principles with her? If I can, then I can be happy in my home with my wife. How about my children? Can I admit my powerlessness over my children Can I realize the insanity in me trying to run their life? Now, the oldest one is 30-something and the youngest one is 21. One, can I recognize the insanity of trying to control them now? Can I make a decision to turn their will and their lives over to the care of God as I understand Him? Can I inventory me? Can I do that with my children? How about my neighbors? Can I doing the same thing with my neighbors. How about, how about my co-worker on the job? Can I recognize that the stupidity of me trying to control everybody around me on my job? Can I turn them over to God? How about the lady in the checkout line at the supermarket? You know, that woman has got all them damn coupons and all those green stamps and you standing behind her and you in a hurry and she gets up to the checkout counter and then she wants to write a check and then after she writes the check she stands there for ten minutes and balances her damn checkbook. And I practice my principles with her. Now, if I can do this everywhere I go, then I can be joyous, happy, and free 24 hours a day. And I'm not in danger of taking a drink. But if I practice it only in AA and don't practice it outside of AA, and I stay unhappy out there, then chances are I'm going to end up sooner or later searching for something to make me feel better. And I'll become insane and I'll drink again. Let's go to page 164 and we're going to close. Joe, you got anything you want to say? Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize that we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who's still sick. The answers will come if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with him is right and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the great fact for us. Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. We did that in steps 1, 2, and 3. Admit your faults to him and your fellows and we did that in 4, 5, 6, and 7. clear away the wreckage of your past and we did that in 8 and 9 give freely of what you find and join us and we do that in 10, 11 and 12 we shall be with you in the fellowship of the spirit and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the road of happy destiny may God bless you and keep you until then we love you thank you for letting us be here thank you Very quickly, Joe and Charlie do about 35 to 38 minutes. eight of these a year on the weekend. And a young fellow asked me something out in the lobby a minute ago. He asked me, what do they get paid for doing this? And Joe and Charlie do this, as Chuck Chamberlain says, for fun and for free. They get paid their expenses, but they do it for fun. And I heard a young man in Jackson, Tennessee, and this was his opinion. You can form your own. We do that, you know. But he said that fifty-odd years ago God looked down and saw what was happening to alcoholics, and he sent two men, Dr. Bob Smith and Bill Wilson. Fifty-odds years later, God looked down and he saw what was happening to Alcoholics Anonymous. He saw the sawdust, and he sent two men, Joe and Charlie. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this meeting. And now you're in for a very, very special treat. Bernard C. is here and he's going to sing for us as we close the Lord's Prayer. So a moment of silent meditation coupled up, holding hands, Bernard C., doing that meditation. My name is Bernard Carter and I'm an alcoholic. Hi, Bernard. doing that meditation will come to know the truth that sets me free and that is the light of God surrounds us. The love of God enfolds us. The power of God protects us and the presence of God watches over us. Wherever we are God is. And in that consciousness we give thanks for being right here right now and being sober and giving thanks to that power greater than ourselves with a prayer, the Lord's Prayer. And I'll sing that for you now. Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done In earth as it is In heaven Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom And the power And the glory Forever Amen. Go in peace.