To AA or Not To AA. That is the Questions. Part 3

This is the third part of this series. You can go here to see part 1 and here to see part 2.

Image by Ben Scicluna via Flickr

I am NOT a saint. Let me go ahead and just get that out of the way. For those of you who thought I was, sorry to let you down. I still have my demons that I have to battle. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I lose. Once they get a hold, though, I lose that battle. I’ve yet to figure out how to get out of the submission hold once the demons grab me. I am trying though.

Whew, now that I’ve got that out of the way.

I got out of rehab in early March of 2008.  As I stated, I was very faithful in attending the rooms. Others in the room were very encouraging, even to the point of telling me that they thought I was going to help a lot of people. I kinda thought that too.

I started going to visit my other family, the family I hadn’t seen in quite a long time,  my favorite most precious family,  my church family, in mid-April or early May.  I’m not sure why it took me that long to go back.  I may have my dates off, but I didn’t go back right away.

At the same time, I was still going to AA meetings.  I missed worship services in order to attend AA meetings.  They were that important to me.  For a while.

The AA meetings still had a very spiritual feeling to them.  Some comments, though, didn’t really sit well with me.  Not that they made me angry or anything like that.  They were just, odd??, I guess.

One that sticks out, was a statement made by a fellow telling a story about a conversation he had with a “church” person.  His statement was basically, “I told him that I go to church every night.” speaking of AA meetings.  And I guess, if that’s where his higher power is, then it is his church.  In the next breath he would be using 4 letter words that I would just as soon not put on here.  So, I got to thinking.

A large portion of these folks’ higher power, may not necessarily be God.  I mean the one true God.  In fact, one calls his higher power “hp.”   Some prayed to the doggie god.  To be fair, for AA to work, one has GOT to believe in SOMETHING greater than themselves.  If that is what it takes (it’s what it took for me I think) to free folks from the power of alcohol, then so be it.  Pray to a flower pot, pray to dirt, just believe that there is something that is more powerful than you.  AA is not a place to evangelize.

I chose God.  Going to church was strengthening my relationship with HIM.  I desired to be with my church family more and more.  I finally began to get IT.  I started to understand what it meant when the words “Family of God” were used.

In the rooms, I was also not enjoying someone other than God himself, getting  the glory that God deserved for these folks beating their demon, Alcohol.

OK, that’s enough for now.  I’ll try to finish this series up with one more post, maybe.  I’ve still got a lot of thoughts on this going through my brain.  No promises on the one more post.

Because of HIM

SC