The Long Run

"There is a time for everything.  We should learn to wait patiently until the right time comes.  Easy does it.  We waste our energies in trying to get things before we are ready to have them, before we have earned the right to receive them.  A great lesson we have to learn is how to wait with patience.  We can believe that all our life is a preparation for something better to come when we have earned the right to it.  We can believe that God has a plan for our lives and that this plan will work out in the fullness of time."

Patient:  Willing to wait if necessary; not losing one's temper while waiting.

For this alcoholic "waiting patiently" is an oxymoron - two things that don't go together.  It's like saying "kind cruelty" or "happy disaster."  If I have to wait it will necessarily be with impatience.

"We can bow to God's will in anticipation of the thing happening which will, in the long run, be the best for all concerned.  It may not always seem the best thing at the present time, but we cannot see as far ahead as God can.  The future looks dark no more. I do not even look at it, except when necessary to make plans.  I try to let the future take care of itself.  The future will be made up of todays and todays, stretching out as short as now and as long as eternity."

This idea that I can't know what's best for me in the long run is integral to my recovery.    This is faith that my Higher Power knows what's best for me in the long run.  I don't have to understand it and I don't have to like it but it's going to be in my best interest to accept it.  I know that the long run is the only run I have to be concerned about