Didn’t We Hurt Anybody?

“Some of us, though, tripped over a very different snag. We clung to the claim that when drinking we never hurt anybody but ourselves.”

Wow, were we ever self-centered??? Yet, that was what I believed and it was the point! Though I wasn’t up to task. When the time came (and it did often) I couldn’t pull the final “plug.” Thank God…

“My parents, who had been deeply hurt by my isolation from them, my employer, who worried about my absences, my memory lapses, my temper; and the friends I had shunned, without explanation. As I faced the reality of the harm I had done, Step Eight took on new meaning. I am no longer uncomfortable and I feel clean and light.”

[The book doesn't mention (in this reading) the harm I did my wife and children, those I loved the most and caused the most harm. I'll mention it to satisfy my critics.]

Post from: Blisstree

Wasn’t That The Idea?

And it will eliminate the “easier, softer way” the Internet offers.

“When listing the people we have harmed, most of us hit another solid obstacle. We got a pretty severe shock when we realized that we were preparing to make a face-to-face admission of our wretched conduct to those we had hurt.”

I love the way Bill calls things – “wretched conduct.” He pulls no punches with his words.

“It had been embarrassing enough when in confidence we had admitted these things to God, to ourselves, and to another human being.”

I’d wonder about that. Was it truly embarrassing to you admitting your wretched conduct to your God?

“But the prospect of actually visiting or even writing the people concerned now overwhelmed us, especially when we remembered in what poor favor we stood with most of them.”

Get the picture? Oh he**! I have to go face them??? There’s a fear I’d have drank over/at! Anything to avoid the certain anger and condemnation my actions had earned. A “small” indication of more value to a thorough Third Step.

“There were cases, too, where we had damaged others who were still happily unaware of being hurt. Why, we cried, shouldn’t bygones be bygones? Why do we have to think of these people at all?”

To be thorough and complete with our God. Because I said I was willing to go to any length to gain victory over alcohol. Because “These were some of the ways in which fear conspired with pride to hinder our making a list of all the people we had harmed.”

I can’t be sure how you feel about it but I know I don’t want to meet my Creator having left someone out because of my pride and ego. He’s given me the most incredible gift I could have imagined. The least I can do to stay sober and say thank you is to be complete.

Post from: Blisstree

Preparing For A Face-To-Face