Going It Alone?

What comes to us alone may be garbled by our own rationalization and wishful thinking. The benefit of talking to another person is that we can get his direct comment and counsel on our situation, and their can be no doubt in our minds what that advice is. Going it alone in spiritual matters is dangerous. How many times have we heard well-intentioned people claim the guidance of God when it was all too plain that they were sorely mistaken. Lacking both practice and humility, they had deluded themselves and were able to justify the most arrant nonsense on the ground that this was what God had told them.

Twelve Steps and 

Twelve Traditions, P. 60

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There are times I wonder whether or not God has anything to do with this whole business of human affairs at all. Before I sink into the despair of doubt I have to reflect; where would I be without the Hand of One greater than me? There is a balance, however, where I follow the dictates of conscience or yield to the counsel of my fellows. There are times when the direction is clear to me alone but such times are rare indeed. It takes practice to know good sense when I see it. I can ask myself these three questions to figure out what action I ought to best take: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? If the answer to any one of these three is vague I should run to wise counsel… run! How much regret to I need for a word thrown into conflict based on false information unnecessarily without compassion in mind? Wouldn’t the humiliation of regret be worse than the humility to run it by another for an objective opinion?

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