Saturday, June 18, 2011

Foreword to Second Edition: Strenuous Work Is Vital

TEXT (pp. xvi-xvii): [Dr. Bob] had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma but had failed. But when [Bill W.] gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, [Dr. Bob] began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no nonalcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery.

THOUGHT: There will be things I am asked to do in A.A. that I won't want to do. For a long time, I refused to sponsor other drunks. As far as I was concerned, I had worked enough of the Steps to "get mine," and I wasn't about to waste my new found freedom babysitting others. Thank God the statement above about strenuous work with other alcoholics being vital to permanent recovery eventually made its way through my thick skull.

PRAYER: Father, please enable me to set aside everything I think I know, for an open mind and a new experience; help me to see the truth about working with others.

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