My Christmas Recovery Message
This season is the annual celebration of Christmas. This incredible story, mythical in its scope, has persisted for millennia, celebrated annually by millions. Christians around the world feel feelings of joy, happiness, and deep spiritual connectivity.
Millions of Christians believe the birth of Jesus is the beginning of a spiritual awakening. For these millions, the birth of God on earth was the first step of a process of redemption and, for them, a new life, a second life. And this new life is a life with God eternal. They feel redeemed and saved from a seemingly hopeless condition of original sin.
We who are in Twelve Step recovery have a great advantage; we celebrate these same thoughts, feelings, and deep spiritual connectivity daily. While the rest of the world is content with annual, we alcoholics insist on a much greater volume.
In our Twelve Step Recovery lives, Step One is the beginning of a spiritual awakening. With Step Two, we become consciously aware of a Power greater than ourselves and with Step Three, we turn our will and our lives over to this Power. The spiritual awakening has begun, and we are spiritually connected, feeling happy, joyous, and free.
The spiritual awakening continues and grows as we practice the principles of our Twelve Step Program. With the practice of these principles, we recover from our addictions and develop an ongoing and persistent “God consciousness.”
We experience redemption, and we are saved from a seemingly hopeless condition. It is a life with our Higher Power, as we have understood that Higher Power. And we celebrate these thoughts and feelings of spiritual connectivity every day of our new life.
We must, or we will die.
Churchgoers experience the thoughts and feelings of the Christmas season once a year. We, in recovery, experience the feelings and thoughts of Christmas every day.
We never drank annually; we drank daily, and being creatures of habit, we partake in daily celebrations instead of annual ones. We celebrate Christmas every day.
We, alcoholics, do everything to excess. Half measures avail us nothing.
