PROMISE #7 WE WILL LOSE INTEREST IN SELFISH THINGS AND GAIN INTEREST IN OUR FELLOWS. SELF-SEEKING WILL SLIP AWAY.
“As we start our program of recovery we notice that there are persons in the group who are less well off as we are.
Newcomers can also remind us of ourselves when we stepped into the group for the first time.,
They struggle to keep back tears and hurt as they speak, possibly for the first time, trusting that they are with people who have been where they are. This is what provides comfort. They hear how recovery is possible.
“…We need to air our hurts, our shame, and let others hear our story.” (Depressed Anonymous. Page 122).
It is almost a truism to say about those of us who want this program are now focused – not on self, but on the will of God for their lives.
I personally believe that once I have made the First Step, and admitted my powerlessness, I set in motion a force – the loving force of the creator in my personal life. In time I am filled with energy and find that this power can change me – restore my life with purpose and meaning. It can prepare me to meet those to whom they are willing to risk leaving behind the prison of their depression. BY my own interest in getting in touch with the Higher Power and getting its direction to “do the next right thing” I find that my own life is gradually becoming more filled with purpose and energy.
There is a saying that to gain energy you must give energy away. I have found this to be true for my own life.What appears to delete our energy is when our thoughts implode and collide with each other as they are kept focused on the problem. Actually, a person who is depressed is much like a community which is divided and at war with itself.
If you nurture yourself, you will find that just as in the natural world, the growth will be good and the growth will be gradual. There are no quick fixes in life – only slow solutions for the most part.
We all have a competence, an identity, an autonomy and an interrelatedness to everything alive around us. We are truly a part of every living community on the planet and in the entire universe. We are all one – and the more we see ourselves as part of the universe then nothing can prevent us from feeling that we have every right to be here. We belong.
I know that as I prepare my daily life with prayer and meditation that my self-seeking will disappear. I will more often choose to become involved in this universe and be part of creating a wonderful garden of diversity and plurality where everyone feels a part.We again realize that by my willingness to live in the will of God that I can live in the peace of my own consciousness of being one with all. What I mean by this is that God acts in and through us the more we “let go and let God.”
The more you and I wait on God’s still small voice in our times of quiet, that much more will God begin to move into its plan and prepare for you and guide you to execute its will; where you live. God has a plan for each of us – and the power of its will can free us from ourselves, our worse fears and into the solution of freedom.
Joel Goldsmith who is a spiritual writer contends that the more we “gain this consciousness of God’s presence you have the whole secret of success in every walk of life.
He also said that there ” is an invisible bond between all of us. We are not on this earth to get from one another, but to share those spiritual treasures which are of God. Our interest in each other is, in truth, purely spiritual. Our purpose in life is the unfolding of the spirit within.” Page 146.
As Bill W., states in the AA Big Book, “we let God demonstrate through us, what God can do. We ask God to remove our fear and direct our attention to what God would have us be. At once we commence to outgrow fear.”
We believe that as we can become aware that God dwells in each of us and demonstrates its power in us the more we remain open to God’s personal presence.
We humans are so grounded in the material and spatial world that it is veritably impossible to be conscious of a Higher Power in and around us. We are so mired in the muck. We can begin to believe that we can tap into this consciousness and let it unfold its plan, its purpose and plot for our life.
It will not plan something small and insignificant but will, by small steps, lead us, cause us to unfold in our lives what it has for us to accomplish while we are here on this earth. And I believe the spiritual nature and the fellowship of Depressed Anonymous is what God uses to get us aware and conscious of its love and presence.
RESOURCE
(C) The Promises of Depressed Anonymous (2002) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville, KY. Pges16-18.
(c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Page 122.