The last few days have been rough ones for me. Over the
weekend I went away and as my friend Bob says “got out of my routines and
practices”. Got out of sync. I got a
call from a friend Dan this morning and we talked about being spiritually fit
and how that is the most important thing for our peace and serenity. I admitted that when I feel “bad” the first
thing I want to do; is do something to escape, anything (thank God drinking does not come to mind) - preferably those things that are
“fun” things to do for me. Golf, fish, buy something, etc. These are not bad
things in themselves but they are not the priority, if my objective is to get
some peace of mind and get connected with God. Once I get connected spiritually
then my world opens up to
many exciting, pleasant possibilities.
I told Dan about the clearest example I ever had regarding
this subject- again, the topic being that the most important thing for my
well-being, for soundness of mind, is my spiritual condition- not to try
to find happiness in “worldly” things while my spirits remains "in the dumps".
The example I referred to was on a family vacation in Hawaii
several years ago. When I got there I was out of sorts and it got worse each passing
hour. It hit a boiling point when we were all sitting on a mountain looking at
the most beautiful scenery I had ever seen; it was about 80 degrees with an
ocean breeze- we had just finished a really nice lunch –from every imaginable
human point of view we were in heaven on earth. That’s when my wife couldn’t take
me anymore and said, “:Have you looked around lately? What could possibly
be wrong with you? How can you be this miserable?
All I could say is, "I don’t know what’s wrong – I need to find an AA meeting".
So off I went into the town of Lahaina and found a most beautiful local AA club-housed in an open grass hut. I went in, was warmly welcomed, engaged in the
meeting and just hung around with the surfers and locals for a few hours- When I
got back to my family I was spiritual well again and the entire rest of the
vacation was terrific- for all of us.
That’s my lesson- Keep my spiritual condition as the priority
and my life (and those around me) will be so much better-wherever I am.
How is your spiritual condition right now?
You're starting to get clairvoyant Rick. Not too long ago I had an absolutely miserable few days--for absolutely no good reason that I could put my finger on! While driving home, it dawned on me--I was the reason! I was struggling spiritually because I had become complacent with my program and my daily spiritual activities. Can you believe it? Some nerve!! Since then, I've redoubled my efforts spiritually & have received an AA infusion by attending all new meetings and introducing myself to an entirely different group and region of AA's. The results have been invigorating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI had a few days about two weeks ago when I was feeling "out of sorts". I had not abandoned most of my spiritual discipline. However, I realized in hind site that I had stopped asking God to instruct me as to His plans for each day and then listening for His response.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I added this practice back into my days, I was all good to go! :)