god – Early Sobriety Group

The deal that God makes with us Alcoholics

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Early Sobriety Group

A drunk is walking home, feeling sick and hurt. He is at that magic moment of surrender.

On his way he sees God and notices He has something in his hand. The drunk asks “What’s that?” God responds “This is sobriety”. The drunk said “Oh man, I need that! Geez, I need sobriety. How much does that cost?” as he only understands buying things. God returns with “How much do you have?” The drunk says “I have about 20 dollars.” God responds “All right, for you, sobriety costs 20 dollars.” The man, trying to back out of says, “If I give you all twenty dollars, I won’t be able to buy any gas for my car.”

God responds “Oh! so you have a car? I’m sorry, but sobriety is going to cost you your car.”
“Whoa, whoa!” Says the man. “If I give you my car, how am I going to get to my job?”

“You have a job?!” Exclaims God. “No, no, no. Sobriety is going to cost you your job.”
The drunk responds “But, if I give you my job, how am I to pay for my house?” House!!

You have a house!?” God says with surprise. “I thought you lived in a cardboard box under the bridge! Your file is completely out of date! Sobriety is going to cost you your house.”

The man responds “If I give you my house what about my wife and kids?”

“A family! That’s right, you have a family! Yes, yes. Sobriety is going to cost you your family.

The drunk responds “But if I give you all that, what good is my life?”

God states “That’s right. Sobriety costs you your life.”

The alcoholic, because he is at that magic moment of surrender is willing to give his God his money, and his car, and his job, and his house, and his wife and his kids, and his life and for that God gives him sobriety.

Then God looks him deep in the eyes and says:

“All right. I’m going to give you your money back but, it’s not your money anymore, it’s my money. I’m going to let you spend it for me.”

“I’m going to give your car back but, it’s not your car anymore, it’s my car. You get to drive it for me.”

“I’m going to give you your job back but, it’s not your job anymore, it’s my job. You get to work at it for me.”

“I give your house back but, it’s not your house anymore, it’s my home. But, you get to live in it for me.”

“I give your family back to you but, it’s not your family anymore, it’s my family. You get to take care of them for me.”

“I give your life back but, it’s not your life ever again. But, you get to live it for me.”

That’s the deal a loving God makes with us in the 3rd step.

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The music of you…

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Early Sobriety Group

There are things being accomplished at this moment in time of which we are not aware. In perfect, divine timing God is working out the details, arranging and designing His perfect will for our lives. You don’t have to believe that this second now, but just for a moment act as if it were true.

Picture this: God’s will, His plan for your life is like a score of music. The piece is perfectly written. The sheet of music is representative of your life song, your journey. Some believe that our very DNA is a strand that represents a musical chord. Therefore, every one of us carries a unique spiritual song in our soul.

So we go along and hit all the notes as written and God’s will and our will are aligned as one. We know this when things flow, doors open and acceptance is present. Then suddenly, we decide to take our will back and sing some random note or maybe several random notes. We are no longer in the flow of life but have taken a stance of opposition to our highest good. We know this because we become fearful and controlling producing a cacophony of discord. But, because God is God; the moment we turn back to His sheet of music harmony is restored……He instantaneously rearranges the musical score to include our random note of self will and it is still a masterpiece of musical genius.

The musical score of your life may have started in the lowest notes of the scale. I don’t know that we get to pick the sheet of music; that one is still out for debate by more learned minds than mine. There may have been many pauses (silences) as tragedy seemed to prevail and life seemed at best unjust.

But like the greatest musical scores ever written, they usually originate from a place of heartache, desperation and fear into a crescendo of victory and love. The notes carry us from tragedy to triumph. Perhaps this is why it is stated that “pain is the pathway to peace”.

God’s work in us is being manifested moment by moment in this plane. He uses EVERYTHING to His glory, yes, even the bad stuff;; yes, even other people’s stuff to accomplish His purpose. He is God after all!! God is in the details. He resides in the nano-seconds and millimeters of life.

Each day, each moment, in each and every circumstance we, you and I have the opportunity to choose His will over our own. Every day, every moment, every circumstance we make a decision and then act by aligning our will with God’s or not. It is a choice by which we can experience the perfect peace that passeth understanding and the serenity that comes with surrender even in the storm.
God alone knows your heart, your past, your future. If you or I could have learned these lessons on the spiritual plane as spirit we would have. But the understanding is there are spiritual lessons that can only be learned in the physical and that is why we are here. Our perfect self has always been in the Mind of God.

Give Him permission to conduct the most beautiful musical score ever written. The music of you….

Angie M.

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I Stand by the Door

Posted on December 30, 2021 by Early Sobriety Group

I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.
The door is the most important door in the world –
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door – the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch – the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man’s own touch.
Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it – live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him.
So I stand by the door.

Go in great saints; go all the way in –
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics.
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in.
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia
And want to get out. ‘Let me out!’ they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.
For the old life, they have seen too much:
One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving – preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door.
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply and stay in too long
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.
Where? Outside the door –
Thousands of them. Millions of them.
But – more important for me –
One of them, two of them, ten of them.
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.

‘I had rather be a door-keeper
So I stand by the door.

Sam Shoemaker (from the Oxford Group)