PoM 230
“What I know is that God can, and will, help heal illness.”
There are some holes in this belief about God.
My daughter once asked me “What are you going to say when you meet God?”
I told her I will say “There is only one thing I do not understand. If most of addiction originates in childhood abuse, then why do we have to wait until we are adults to surrender our lives to You to receive the help we need?
I do not understand that…but I have a suspicion.
In 1963, Cecil Williams, an African American Methodist minister, was walking through the Tenderloin, our ghetto in San Francisco.
He saw the desperate poverty, the mental illness, drug addiction, prostitution and robbery and said to God, “Why don’t you do something about this?”
And God said “Why don’t YOU do something about this”?…and he spent the next 58 years doing just that.
In Jewish history there have been two men who were able to get God to change his mind: Moses and Abraham.
What if all the world prayed for something, like “God, please help us protect children”, do you think that God might give us a new deal?
The Christian’s believe that the New Testament is a new covenant, or new deal, with people.
That may or may not be true, but what is interesting is the possibility that God might reshuffle the cards, as he did with Moses and Abraham.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease…
PoM 231
We had a significant and sudden financial loss today, Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day.
The first thing I felt was hurt and frightened.
But, I remembered two things. One quote from Romans “All things work for good for them who love the Lord”.
And secondly a line from the Al-Anon literature: “What if I gave thanks for all the problems I experience.”
One of the things that I have found is that when new things look like painful problems, they often turn out to be, if I continue to do God’s will, better than they were previously.
Then, Gummy needed a bath, and I had to let go of my own self-centeredness.
There’s a difference between selfishness and self-centeredness.
When I’m in pain it’s only sane to be centered around myself.
But, then a two-year-old needs a bath…
PoM 232
HP,
I really was annoyed at getting old…until I realized what the alternative was.
I didn’t like :
That I couldn’t see my bank balance without my glasses.
The first time a theater offered me a discount on admission.
That I would forget peoples names.
That night clubs wouldn’t card me.
But, what I found contributed to feeling old, more than anything else, was the stupid food I was eating.
When I was a child, I ate like a child…Cheeseburgers, French Fries, Pizza, Fried Chicken, Bacon, Pork Chops, Candy, Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Chocolate shakes.
You can tell you’re getting older when broccoli, spinach and Brussels sprouts appear in your diet more than once a week.
However, getting old seems to be the best bet to live a long life…so give me Greens.
PoM 233
Lazy - unwillingness to work or use energy.
As a workaholic the first part of that definition doesn’t interest me…but the second part? Hmmm
Where does my energy come from?
Sleep and food, obviously.
But also, ironically and paradoxically, energy comes from exercise.
Well, how am I going to get the energy I need to use energy, so that I am not lazy?
The 12x12 says “All by myself, and in my own light, I become willing”.
It is when I get sick and tired of being sick and tired that I will myself to do something…here, to start exercising.
Of course, if that doesn’t work…I can always ask God to give me a gentle push.
He’s done pretty well for me in the past, after all.
PoM 234
Addicts are extreme…
I asked a man to start exercising by just leaning forward for 30 seconds.
His response was that that was “crazy”, that it was like climbing Mount Everest in your shorts or running through the desert without water.
Now, I don’t know…but, I’m not sure that stretching for 30 seconds is the same as running through the Death Valley without a Perrier.
Just sayin’.