There was a lady in our women’s meeting tonight who sat next to me but kept her head down for most of the meeting. When they called for newcomers to identify, she reluctantly introduced herself. She wore despair and shame like a cloak. I had the strongest urge to reach over and hold her hand, but I knew that would really send her over the edge. I mean really…who does that?
It was a great meeting. There was a lot of laughter and some real heartfelt sharing. I could “feel” her next to me, and I noticed my focus shifting off of the meeting and on to her. I wanted her to feel something….anything….I wanted her to walk out of that meeting with HOPE.
When the meeting ended I asked her what she thought. “Did she like it?” She said “well no, it was too overwhelming.” I remember that feeling. She asked how long ago I stopped drinking. When I told her she looked sad. She said she would like to just be able to stop for 24 hours. I could smell the alcohol on her breath and coming from her pores. I told her I understood.
The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.
from There Is A Solution Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous
15 comments:
I hope that she comes back. I'm glad that you talked with her.
LOL ~ I often want to hug it all away for the newcomers. I understand how you feel wanting her to walk out with HOPE.
Thanks for sharing and hope she has not given up.
I was just surfing around blogs on sobriety and I just wanted to tell you that I like this post very much. In your first paragraph you say "I just wanted to reach over and hold her hand, but who does that?" I do that. A few months ago I had an experience like yours and I held her hand through the entire meeting. We became fast friends. Unfortunatley she could not stop and she died a few weeks later. I have never regreted literally reaching out to her. Keep up your awesome work.
Hi Meg,
The only valid "Spiritual Awakening" that we should share with others is the spiritual regeneration found only in Christ, and any other "spiritual awakening" is demonic deception which leaves men "spiritually dead."
Dear Meg,
Obviously, Christians are not to engage in any kind of interaction with demonic forces, but are to resist them and to oppose them, in the name of Jesus Christ and through the authority of a saved believer in Him.
Bill Wilson's error was in seeking a supernatural power, any supernatural power, rather than the one true God. His experience with the powerful seduction of this white light was one of his key motivations in forming Alcoholics Anonymous. What are your thoughts, Meg?
One Sober Alcoholic said...
"Between 5 of us, there were 170 years of sobriety at that table, and I was the "baby," with almost 25 years. And that is the way I like it, thank you very much."
Hello Mary,
We need to realize that we are not ALCOHOLICS in need of SOBRIETY; we are SINNERS in need of GOD.
We will never find God by trying to clean up our sinful behaviour one piece at a time. This is the wrong method to find true Biblical healing. A Christian does not keep their old clothes and simply sew new patches of unshrunk cloth on them, patching them up as they cleanse each sin.
If they were to do that their clothes would be worse off with the patch, not better! Look at what Jesus said:
"No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved." (Matthew 9:16 - 17)
Adolescents who hold strong religious beliefs are less likely to drink and take drugs. A new study just published in the September, 2000, issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry shows that teens who "have a personal relationship with God" are half as likely to succumb to alcoholism and drug addiction, said Lisa Miller of Columbia University, author of the report, according to Reuters.
..."This is the first study to show that personal spirituality strongly protects against ever developing alcoholism and drug abuse," Miller said.
"Most abusers experiment with drugs or alcohol in their teen years," she said. "The study surveyed 676 people aged 15-19."
..."The study evaluated the teens' personal relationship with God, adherence to a creed, and degree of fundamentalism in their denomination," Reuters said.
"Those who had a personal relationship with God and belonged to a conservative denomination were less likely to use marijuana and cocaine," the report said.
Dearest Meg,
Because "Bill Wilson had rejected the concept of a personal Creator God and because the thought of the existence of a God to whom he was accountable was completely repugnant to him, when he cried out in desperation because of his alcoholism, it was not to the one true God, but to any "higher power" who might exist, not to the God who has revealed Himself to man in His Holy Word, and this was an invitation with which Satan was delighted to comply.
Satan immediately rewarded Wison with an incredible occultic "experience."
In Wilson's own words, "Suddenly the room lit up with a great "white light." I was caught up into an ecstasy which there are no words to describe.
It seemed to me, in the mind's eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing.
And then it burst upon me that I was a free man. Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on the bed, but now for a time I was in another world, a new world of consciousness.
All about me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence..."
and because of that experience, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded so that others could share in Bill Wilson's experience.
References to similar experiences with "white light" can be found throughout the world of the occult.
Love
Micky
Alice Bailey, a leading New Age occultist and author, wrote a book named A Treatise on White Magic in which she told how to control the astral body by a "direct method of relaxation, concentration, stillness and flushing the entire personality with pure White Light, with instructions on how to "call down a stream of pure White Light."
Barbara Powell, a psychic says "remember, as with all divination, relax and surround yourself with the White Light of protective energy, then allow your mind to flow in the earth patterns and accept the message you find there.
Earth divination is one of the most harmonious forms of divination."
The Tara Center, a well-known New Age organization which promotes the "New Age Christ," called Maitreya, explains "visualize a triangle of White Light circulating above your heads; then see your triangle linked with all other triangles, transmission and meditation groups on the planet.
See the White Light circulating among this network of focal points and pouring out to envelop the world, thus helping to form a channel for the downpouring of Light and Love into the body of humanity.
When you say "From the centre where the Will of God is known, "which is Shamballa (where occultists say that their god, Lucifer dwells), visualise a great sphere of White Light." In an article entitled "The Spirits Speak" by Timothy Green Beckley, he describes a trance channeler (medium or psychic) who goes into a trance by evoking the White Light so that only positive energy may come through.
Circle Network, a witchcraft organization, had an article on how to meditate in their magazine. Part of the instructions were" "Begin by visualizing a protective White Light around you."
Lazaris, a spirit guide (actually and biblically a demon) suggests that he "be visualized, simply, as a sphere of White Light." The Polleys, spiritist teahers, make mention of "enlightenment for those along the path of White Light" in their newsletter entitled Voices from Spirit.
New Age channeler, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, held a conference where "the Ascended Masters of the Great White Brotherhood" (believed to be a "spiritual order of Western saints and Eastern reincarnated masters," who were actually demonic beings) were to be contacted to speak "on America's destiny in the New Age."
Their name referred not to race but to the aura of White Light that surrounded them.
Hi Meg,
There is example after example among those who serve Satan, among those who practice Witchcraft and among modern Pagans who have made similar quotations regarding their experiences with the "White Light" when they enter into meditation or trance states to seek power through contact with spiritual entities.
In Deuteronomy 18:10, God warns the Isrelites against the occultic - demonic practices of their neighboring countries and He forbids any of His people, those who call upon His name from engaging in them:
"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,..."In Acts 16:16-18 the Holy Spirit speaks through Luke to tell of an unsaved girl who was controlled by a demonic spirit of divination who revealed information about those the girl encountered:
"And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain maid possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: {of divination: or, of Python}
Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation."
And she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very moment.
Hello my friend! It's been awhile.
I appreciate what you have shared, I can relate on both sides.
There but for the grace of God go I.
And I have flirted with disaster yet again not long ago.
A slip, a relapse, and then a point where I'm not in recovery anymore. I don't ever want that again, and thanks to my online friends more than support here, I am grateful.
Meg I am so glad you are still posting . It has been a while since I've been around, and reading this today has given me hopw-love you Meg
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