Note:Based on my recent experiences and my joyous time spent as a pastor within the AA community, this chapter was meaningful to re-write.
"It's actually beneficial for us to face challenges and tough times every now and then. Tough times serve as a reminder that we're on a trial run and shouldn't place our hopes solely in worldly solutions. It's good to experience contradiction and to be misunderstood by people even when we are in the midst of doing our best for all the right intentions. These situations help keep us humble and protect us from getting all caught up in bolstering our own value.
At times like this, when it seems like nobody is giving us any credit, when others don't think highly of us, that's when we're more likely to turn to God, who sees what is in our hearts. So you can see that it's important for a person to, above all else, ground themselves strongly in God so that they don't rely on the comforts and praise of other people. After all, what commendations can they provide that could replace God’s delight in you?
When someone with good intentions is going through a tough time, facing temptations, and battling with negative thoughts, it becomes clear that their greatest need is for God. Without God, they can't do much that's good. In their troubles, when feeling down, they are likely to pray or even have thoughts of death just to be with Christ and escape the hardships they’re in. It's in these moments that there is opportunity to fully grasp that true security and complete peace can't be found in this earthly life: “on this side of heaven.” And to find it!'
Illustrative story:
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was born out of the experiences of two men, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, who struggled with alcohol addiction.
Bill Wilson, commonly known as Bill W., was a stockbroker from New York who battled severe alcoholism. In 1934, he found himself in a hospital after a prolonged drinking spree. Bill Wilson, commonly known as Bill W., was a stockbroker from New York who battled severe alcoholism. In 1934, he found himself in a hospital after a prolonged drinking spree. Despite attempts to quit on his own, he couldn't stay sober. In the hospital, he had a profound spiritual experience that marked a turning point in his life.
His story of adversity and recovery to become the founder of the worldwide community of AA is below:
No words can tell of the loneliness and despair I found in that bitter morass of self-pity. Quicksand stretched around me in all directions. I had met my match. I had been overwhelmed. Alcohol was my master.
My musing was interrupted by the telephone. The cheery voice of an old school friend asked if he might come over. He was sober. It was years since I could remember his coming to New York in that condition. I was amazed.
The door opened and he stood there, fresh-skinned and glowing. There was something about his eyes. He was inexplicably different. What had happened?
I pushed a drink across the table. He refused it. Disappointed but curious, I wondered what had got into the fellow. He wasn't himself.
"Come, what's this all about?" I queried.
He looked straight at me. Simply, but smilingly, he said, "I've got religion."
But my friend sat before me, and he made the point-blank declaration that God had done for him what he could not do for himself. His human will had failed. Doctors had pronounced him incurable. Society was about to lock him up. Like myself, he had admitted complete defeat. Then he had, in effect, been raised from the dead, suddenly taken from the scrap heap to a level of life better than the best he had ever known!
Had this power originated in him? Obviously it had not. There had been no more power in him than there was in me at the minute; and this was none at all.
That floored me. It began to look as though religious people were right after all. Here was something at work in a human heart which had done the impossible. My ideas about miracles were drastically revised right then. Never mind the musty past; here sat a miracle directly across the kitchen table. He shouted great tidings.
I saw that my friend was much more than inwardly reorganized. He was on a different footing. His roots grasped a new soil.
[The rest of Bill W’s story can be read in AA’s Big Book]
Lead Well! Lead with your challenges as a foundation.
Rev Dr Darren Roorda
