Sorry . . . Or Not.

I have a sponsee who is a committed atheist.  He's also a committed Buddhist.  I know, I know . . . quite the party trick to hold those two seemingly contradictory thoughts in one small space.  I've been riding him pretty good the last week or so because the daily meditation book we both read has been hammering on the theme of spirituality and a higher power and it has been using the Big Book as the hammer.  As you know the literature has a whole ton of writing about these topics.  The founders knew if anything was going to trip us up it would be the "god thing."  And, just so you know, he can handle my hammering - I'm a pretty conventional Christian and all of this god stuff is starting to get on my last nerve.

"When many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness of the presence of God is today the most important fact of their lives, they present a powerful reason why one should have faith.  When we see others solve their problems by simple reliance upon some Spirit of the universe, we have to stop doubting the power of God.  Our ideas did not work, but the God-idea does.  Faith in a Power greater than ourselves and miraculous demonstration of the power in our lives are facts as old as the human race."

Sorry:       Regretful or apologetic for an action.

Amends:   Compensation for a loss or injury.  

I love to parse these definitions with my fellow trudgers in recovery.  Sorry is sort of a word thing, or it can be.  I was sorry all the time when I was drinking.  I wasn't sorry for my actions, mind you - I was sorry that I was uncomfortable or locked-up because I got caught for my actions.  I try not to apologize today unless I mean it.  And, more importantly, I try to change my behavior so that I don't keep doing the thing that I have to apologize for.  Words are cheap - actions have a cost.

"Who are you to say there is no God?  This challenge comes to all of us  Are we capable of denying that there is a design and purpose in all of life as we know it?  Or are we willing to admit that faith in some kind of Divine Principle is a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend?  We find a great Reality deep down within us, if we face ourselves as we really are.  When we find this Reality within us, we are restored to our right minds."