AA Good Enough

0:00Thank you for coming on today's meeting. My name is Fernando. I'm an alcoholic and your secretary for this meeting. We're going to do portions of the A.A. Big Book. So let's pray. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. Amen. Welcome again, alcoholic anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share the experience, drink and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem to help other alcoholic states over recover, regain their sensibility, common sense. Okay, I'm relying on my memory or my spirit. The spirit of God is telling me what page is it turned to. Right now, he said to turn to page 100. First paragraph, it says, both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of

1:00spiritual progress. If you persist, remarkable things will happen. When we look back, we realize that the things which come to us, when we put ourselves in God's hands, we're better than anything we could have planned. Followed the dictates of a higher power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your presence circumstance says. You know, that says to me very easily, both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual power. How do we get spiritual power by saying uncle, by surrendering, by getting on our knees and asking God to keep us sober for that day and sobriety, it means aware. Sober means vigilance, vigilance against the drink, vigilance against people that don't care for their lives. Don't give a hoot or trying to knock you down. Vigilance for that evil alcholism, trying to eat your lunch once more, trying to take your peace, trying to tear

2:06everything apart. There, I get excited, huh? There is value and it's easy to whip the devil, alcohol. It's easy to whip them. All you say is who's asking these questions come to your mind, asking you to, for instance, say, why don't you buy that bottle and you know you can't and you say who's asking and that who disappears right away? The who has no spiritual value to it. It's just as a very little talk. In other words, opinion has very little opinions and if you go on it, which we did drinking, it's the same spirit for violence, same spirit for greed, for buying lottery tickets over and over again and not understanding that we're hurting our families. One way to put everything to

3:08peace say, I thank you God. Who is talking? Who wants to know? It's really beautiful. Who wants to know? It breaks up those voices in your head because you realize you still have the power. We are mating God's images. We still have the say soul. All we got to do is take control back and act like it. Act like God is inside of us for He is. We are not helpless. We have our willpower. We can say, thank you, God. I messed up. Yep. The only thing keeping me from saying that is pride, ego, anger, judgmental, resentments, indifference, what? I got to ball down to a God, indifference to God, indifference to His works, His mercy, His kindness, indifference to His nature, to His ocean, to the white of the eyes of a little child. That's where we become indifference.

4:13Indifference is not believing in life, not being all the way alive. Let's read this again, page 100. Well, if you and the new man, in other words, we have to understand that God has just brought us through an extreme training through alcohol university. Alcohol university just the school of hard knocks, just beat the daily living day lives out of me. When I said, Uncle, forgive me, God showed me. You need to thank me for your past so we can use it to help others. This is not going to work unless you pray for others and work on yourself in the literature. You got to rest. You got to do the first tradition or work on yourself. Come to class fully clothing your right mind. God tells me, put a dollar in the envelope, two dollars, put five dollars. How much did you spend while you were out there? Compare that to your basket and get ready to help another person. That's the only

5:20way this life game is going to work. AA has figured it out what saves lives, what keeps lives happy, what keeps life aware and tuned up. So we won't fall in those pits again. It looks after self-pity, greed, ambition that is wrong. Nothing wrong with ambition and greed can be used to help others. So let's use those two. Even anger can be used to help others. You want to get yourself properly associated in life. In other words petroleum in the truck. Good haircut, well rested, well maintained. So you can come to a meeting and be an example. Be a shining example of a program it's like having a wife taking care of you. Well if you and the new man must walk day by day

6:22in the path of spiritual progress, spiritual progress for me folks the way I do it is I thank God for my non-spiritual progress. Non-spiritual progress is not believing, not being in love. So the beauty of God's formula is I thank Him for my problems, my thoughts, my emotions, my feelings and then I thank Him for my fourth step. I thank God for the things I did, the ugliness, all the jobs and how I slopped it up, how I sent people to the hospital with my semi, well drinking and brawling in the corner on my days off, how I messed up my career over and over again. Thank you God I did that. Woo-hoo! I usually would have three to eight W2s every year. Some of them not because I was getting fired because it's just so much work available. One day I worked the whole 24 hours. I went to this company, a driving truck,

7:26were eight hours and I ran to the other company and worked another eight hours and then I went to the last company and I worked another eight hours. Consequently I just wanted to see what would feel like I don't know how long it took me to recover but I remember my body saying enough is enough. Thank God that the last eight hours was just moving traders in a lot. Anyway God bless you, thank you. I pray that I give you enough to ponder on that the way to get that God's mercy grace on our past situations is to thank Him. Let me read that again. Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress. You know the word progress means is the means that we're we're trudging and the word

8:28trudging means is that we're there's junk all around water against us wind whatever we're moving towards that we're fighting the current trudging spiritual progress. If we persist remarkable things will happen hey that we got remarkable things peace joy laughter for one fellowship the literature we fall in love the comeback is that we get the love we need by thanking God for the stupid things we did. Doesn't that sound pretty good? I mean it sounds really good to me if I can get God's love and start loving myself and think care of myself so I can take care of others by thanking him for the stupidity that I done. Come on man this is the greatest change as my sponsor calls it. When we look back we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands

9:30were better than anything that we could have planned. Thanking God that you don't have a plan gets you a plan. Follow the dictates of a higher power high in the world are we going to follow the dictates of a higher power. How do you do it? If I become a dick when I don't follow the dictates of a higher power and you will presently live okay and then you in a wonderful world no matter what your present circumstances your past circumstances your emotions and everything you bypass that by thanking God for his dictates thanking him for our problems allows us to receive his dictates. We clear our hands if I had a lot of resentments if I'm holding on to resentments means I don't have my arms available for the future for the love of the future for hugging God hugging his kids

10:35no matter what your present circumstances is I always tell when you come right if you have problems you're rich if you have problems what an opportunity to experiment let us go ahead and experiment take any problem that won't go away any situation you did any action that the most you regret write it down as and write it down a little covenant with God when you write things down it changes the earth changes the world changes the spirit folks when you write things down that stuff is moving it's alive it's you have declared something spiritual when you write it down that's what I see it you write down dear father in heaven forgive me for my derelictions now I thank you for them I thank you I did that I thank you I messed up continually I thank you I can my continue messed up I thank you for my DIY I thank you for my words that I said for the things I done I thank you for

11:40the shame the disgrace the poverty the things I brought myself to I thank you for them now that takes courage and it takes an open mind you know some people say I can't thank God for that and year later they're dead I seen it one guy I was telling I need you need to thank God for what he says that's the stupidest thing I ever heard of that I'm to thank God that I I bumped my big toe on the corner of the wall it was a guy that was from rehab he didn't have any place to live he lived four years with me he died in my house in the room I told him thank God that you have stomach problems hey go oh no I'm gonna go have a surgery I said you're gonna die sure enough in a year later they the cops call me I was in Las Vegas with the wife picking up the kids and going places and movies and laughing and join the young children and going to aquariums and just enjoying all the

12:44things they have for family out in hope and Las Vegas I got a call from the police department and they said hey we broke into your house because the neighbors are complaining about the car out there for four days and we have a no-night parking zone and sure enough they found him thank God he had the air conditioner full blast right it was summertime anyway life does happen thank God that my friend died thank God I don't make a big deal about the room so when other people want to live with me I say hey the guy died right there you're gonna move into the bedroom and besides that man it's twice the rent what he used to pay oh oh oh make it my worthwhile anyway I'm keeping you too long may God bless you bless us in this walk of life let's go ahead and pray our father who art in heaven hollow it be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it

13:45is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us for our trespasses and we forgive those to trespass against us leaders not into temptation but the liberals from evil with iron is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever never amen amen