GRATITUDE MONTH: DAY 16: “I have learned that in every circumstance that comes my way, I can choose to respond in one of two ways: I can whine or I can worship! And I can’t worship without giving thanks. It just isn’t possible. When we choose the pathway of worship and giving thanks, especially in the midst of difficult circumstances, there is a fragrance, a radiance, that issues forth out of our lives to bless the Lord and others.” ― Nancy Leigh DeMoss
I remember hearing someone speak and say that “either everything in my life is touched by the Hand of God, or nothing is.” Wow! I was relatively new then and still working to grasp the concept of both God and that there was some form of perfection in those horrible things that had happened to me as a young child and woman.
Ugh! Quite a stretch at first, isn’t it? I believe this is our struggle with finding that relationship with a Power for most addicts. There is so much we cannot believe is right in the world and we are so busy fighting against what we do not understand. This includes our addiction, but the rest of Life is just as tough to embrace as being spiritually driven and centered.
We complain about all of it! What is happening in the world around us…what is happening to and for us…what happens to family and friends…what we see on the news or see on Facebook or hear from others who tell us their stories. Then we judge and hate and fight some more.
The spiritual concept of “none of my business” is one that we all fight from time to time. But the first couple of times I got to this point in the early days, I cussed and yelled back…” Yes! It IS my business!” And sponsors being what they are, they laugh. We are so much like those 2-year-olds who are stomping their feet and throwing themselves onto the ground in tears because someone took a toy away from us.
I have that image in my mind when I am shaking my fist to the sky and yelling at that Power that I am NOT a happy camper with what is happening in any area of my life or your life or the world at large. It is so funny when I see myself in that light.
So, instead, I must thank and accept and thank and accept. Why? Because what the quote above says is true; there is a radiance that starts from within my heart and my peaceful mind when I do this. And it radiates outward into the entirety of my life and touches others with my happiness, peacefulness and joy of living.
And I don’t need to run the show, run the nation, run the world, run my life or yours or yours or yours. It is a beautiful thing and I have learned to love it more than any other aspect of my recovery. This is the key, for me, of the whole thing! I am either in radiance with happiness or I am in anger and depression because nothing in the world is going my way.
Having had the latter experience for many years, I am inclined to want to leave that space and go down the road whistling about my happiness. And I do. This is the best darn thing I ever found. What I wanted to achieve in alcohol and cocaine use, I got with a daily gratitude practice.
The world is not going to arrange itself for my benefit or to suit what I want. That is NEVER going to happen. So, I must adapt myself to live in the world with what IS and learn to love it and embrace it and thank it for the softening of my Will, which was killing me anyway. Did you forget that it was killing you, too? Consider this a grateful reminder that you are alive and free of your addiction today because of the beautiful grace of something greater than you. Say thank you and get on with living Life, not fighting it to win your Will back.
Dolphin Hug 