A Tool or Impediment?

We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms. Almost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also report that out of every season of grief or suffering, when the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons were learned, new resources of courage were uncovered, and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came that God does "move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."

TWELVE STEPS

 AND

 TWELVE TRADITIONS

STEP ELEVEN

(pp. 104-105)

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There are things that went down in my life, and went down heavily, that I had nothing to do with other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are those who would say, "That was your karma from past lives." Such explanations are usually a matter of opinion that do little or nothing to relieve the suffering and is very similar to saying, "God was punishing you for your sins." The fact is that sometimes life is unjust… what am I going to do about it one way or another?

            Why do some people accumulate tremendous wealth at an early age while others toil away all our lives? Living paycheck to paycheck, or worse, picking out a meager existence from garbage dumps, is unfair. But I can't say that the prosperous are of higher moral backbone than others less fortunate? Karma isn't about past lives or sin. Karma is about where I am now and how I act in present circumstances.

            It doesn't matter to me today. What matters is how I react to situations that are devastating. Suffering can become a tool to advance rather than an impediment to progress. When the city condemned my home of 18 years I could have gone back to the bottle, living on the streets and disappearing once more. But, what my conscious contact with what we call God directed me to hunker-down and seek out direction. Was I simply lucky to find my way out of that situation? I think not.  Had I ended up on the streets, my attitude still would work better if I stayed humble, receptive and willing to change. Gratitude for present circumstances or acceptance spurs me in directions I would not have taken otherwise. I see the hand of God working with me when times are good or bad if I refrain from judgment and defer toward acceptance of that direction.

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