John K. & Michael K. of the Primary Purpose group of Dallas, TX going through the chapter Working with others at the Big Book Weekend in Pratt, KS

Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. There's another guarantee in AA right there. They will always materialize if we work for them. This thought brings us to step 10, which suggests that we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along.

Well, there's no new information here. We know how to do an inventory. This is now that we're in this process of making amends, now we're gonna say how do we live sober today? This is a practical program of action on how to live sober today. Alright?

When do you when, you know, what and when is the 10th step? It says, we vigorously commence this way of living as we cleaned up the past. So as I begin my 9th step, I begin my 10th step. I've seen all the stuff blocking me from the power. In my 10th step, I'm gonna keep that stuff current so I don't have stuff blocking me from the power.

It's pretty simple. We've entered the world of the spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. I just don't get to step 10 and all of a sudden I'm I'm understanding and effective.

It's not an overnight matter. We're gonna work at it. Right? How long do you do a 5th step? It should continue for a lifetime.

So, today and hopefully every day after, I do a 10 step, a good 10 step. Alright? So, now, they're gonna tell you what we're gonna watch for. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. All the stuff that we've identified in my 45.

Right? No new information. This is what I'm gonna watch for today. When these crop up, they're gonna crop up. I'm gonna get resentful.

I'm gonna get in some, in some fear. Right? I'm gonna be a little dishonest or whatever it is. They're gonna crop up. Now, they're gonna lay out exactly what we're supposed to do.

First, we ask god who wants to remove it. Ask god. Right? Then we discuss it with someone immediately. Talk to my sponsor.

Make amends quickly if we've harmed anyone. Check. We know how to do that. Right? Then we turn our thought resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help.

That's a 10 step. Easy stuff. Right? You know where I'm gonna screw up? I'm gonna be at work or let's let's just use the work example.

I'm gonna be at work and I get crossways with one of my coworkers. Right? He does something wrong to me. I retaliate and now we've had words and it's a big ugly mess. Right?

I've done some wrong. Walking away from that experience, I know in my heart that I did I shouldn't have spoke to him that way. Right? My John Kelly brain says, say a prayer. Ask god to remove it.

I say a prayer. Ask god to remove it. I know I've done something wrong to him. So I go to this man and Jimmy Jack, I wronged you blah blah blah. How can I make it right to you?

Right? I'll do that. Then I'll turn my thoughts to who I can help. I can do that. You know where I'm gonna screw up?

I'm not gonna call my sponsor. You know why? Because I don't want him to know that I screwed up. My little ego and my arrogance. See, I'm a big book thumper.

You know what I'm saying? And I don't wanna call Cliff and say, Cliff, I stepped into it again. You know how quickly it can unravel? A few weeks ago, I called my sponsor, like, 9:30 in the morning. Right?

Everything is great. Now the cloud on the horizon, I got a big work day ahead of me. Everything's cool. We're talking. It's just a beautiful, beautiful little lovefest on the phone.

Right? I hang up the phone. Right? About 10 minutes later, a guy that I'm working with calls me and he just he started hitting my my little buttons, and and and then I'm kind of just it just spiraled quickly out of control. And he said some things he shouldn't have said, and instead of me pausing, I retaliated.

And I said some things that were I mean, I was brutal. So when it for me and Fine, the 10 minutes later, I'm nuts. Right? So I hung up the phone with my buddy and I'm like, god dang. So I said a little prayer, call Cliff.

Cliff, we gotta talk. And I started telling me, he's like, he's like, well, good grief, John. 15 minutes ago, you were on top of the world. What happened? I said, well, this is what I did.

And he's like, man, man, man. I had to take care of it. This is how I keep my day current. Right? This is how I don't let that I don't have the luxury of a normal person to let day to day resentments and fears.

See, my brain, my my stupid brain, my John Kelly brain says, that's no big deal. Oh, that fear, I'll handle it. Oh, that you know, I don't have the luxury of normal men to do that. I get into fear. I need to ask god to remove it.

I need to talk to my sponsor and say, you know what? This stuff about the work is is really killing me. I'm in so much fear. I don't know if I'm gonna have a job. I need to let him know.

My actions of me following these little four principles. Right? Saying a prayer, talking to my sponsor, making amends, turning my thoughts. My actions show God that I'm willing to go to any length not to pick up a dream. I imagine god creating universes in heaven and god sees me pray, he just keeps creating universes.

But when he sees me follow these actions, now he pays attention. I can pray myself to the liquor store. Guy wants to see me in action. Alright? Now check out these promise or it says, we turn our thoughts to someone we can help, love and tolerance of others is our code.

Now look at this stuff right here. Important stuff. Larry, just keep underlining big boy, all right? And we've ceased fighting anything or anyone even alcohol. For this time, sanity will have returned.

Promise of step 2 has come true. We'll seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as we're a hot flame. We react sanely and normally and we'll find that this has happened automatically. We'll see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part, it just comes.

I'm not doing that, folks. I'm not managing a trigger list. I'm not avoiding temptation. I'm not trying to not drink. I'm following these directions in this book and this happens.

That's god's deal. When When faith and preparation collide, the results are what God does. Alright? It just comes that is the miracle of it. What is the miracle?

The miracle is the mental obsession has been removed. Alright? Says, we're not fighting it neither of we avoiding temptation. Where am I gonna go on god's green earth where I'm not gonna be tempted if I'm managing the drink deal? What if I was like Bill and I had to add telephones to my trigger list?

What if I'm like Fred and I gotta add doorways, thresholds to my trigger list, fighting temptations? Where am I gonna go? I flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico and knew one soul. By the end of a week, I was the mayor of old San Juan. I knew every shady character, every dive bar.

I could get my groove on. Where am I gonna go? I don't have to worry about that because I ain't fighting and I ain't avoiding temptation. God's taking care of me. I do my part.

God takes care of me. We feel as though we've been placed in a position of neutrality, safe and protected. We've not even sworn off instead the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We're neither cocky nor we're afraid.

That's our experience. That's how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. Work and self sacrifice for others. Right? Great stuff.

You can bet your life on those promises as you do this work. Let's do a little test here. Let's do a little do a little audience participation. 3rd step prayer is on page 63. So hold your pink finger on page 84 and 85 and pick up page 63.

We're at the turning point, right? It's step 3, right? I'm either gonna go do it my way, drink myself to death or I'm gonna make a commitment in step 3 to work these steps. 21 pages later, I just got those promises on the 10th step, I am free. The middle of session has been removed.

I am a recovered alcoholic. 21 pages of work. You got somebody struggling in AA's trying to stay sober, you gotta ask yourself one question, is my life worth doing 21 pages of work because that's all it is. Hell, we got comic books thicker than this. It's 21 pages of work will get you from a whole state of mind and body to the power that saves your life.

Huge stuff. Now, check out the next paragraph. This is what happens when you don't follow directions. Right? It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels.

I'll put it in my language. It's easy to lit up on the spiritual program of of action and rest on my ace, you know? See what happens is I start rocking along and I start feeling the power and I start getting all this good juju and stuff and my little John Kelly brain says, you you know, man, I've been kicking butt for so long. I need to take a day off. I need to chill.

I don't need to go to the big book study tonight. I need to watch ER. I need to do this or I maybe I need to go to a maverick game or maybe, you know, I've been working so tirelessly in AA. I need to rest a little bit. Rest on my past accomplishments.

That's what laurels means. Screw what I did yesterday and screw what I got planned tomorrow. I got today. That's the only day I got. My actions today show god.

So if I start getting all high and mighty thinking, oh, I've been kicking butt for so long, I'm gonna take it easy. All I'm doing is looking up to god saying, thanks, big boy. I got it from here. We're headed for trouble if we do for alcohol is a subtle foe, cunning, baffling, powerful, waiting for me to slip up. We're not cured of alcoholism.

What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent upon the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry this vision into all of our activities. Every day. Not some days, not most days, every day. And there's a must.

What do I what do I must do? I must carry the vision of god's will in all my activities. Not only at my AA group, but I can need to carry this vision into my work, to my family, to people in traffic, people at the grocery store, people I don't know. Gotta carry this vision into all of my activities. There's a prayer.

How can I best serve thee? Thy will not mine be done. There's the 10 step prayer. These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our willpower along this line all we wish.

It is the proper use of the will. That's a 10th step throughout the day. Are you getting into some resentment? I call my sponsors. Say a prayer.

Make amends. Turn my thoughts to someone I can help throughout the day. I know in the 12 and 12, it has it word a little different. I don't have that luxury to wait till the end of the the day. I I love it when guys call me.

I like my guys calling me early in the days to start off with so they can start practicing. Right? But, you know, we get this call every once in a while, and it's, like, 9 o'clock at night. Right? And my knucklehead's calling me, and he's, like, oh, man.

I had, like, words with the boss this morning. My day just spiraled out of control, and then me and my boss were crossways all day long and blah blah blah. And I'm fearful about going before the judge and and I'm like, what time is it? Well, it's 9:30 at night. This has been going on since 8 o'clock this morning.

You're just now getting around to calling me? Who do you think you are? Okay. Well, let's let me ask you a couple of questions, big boy. How much time did you spend with god today?

Well, you know, like I told you, I mean, I had to work oh, okay. So you didn't spend much time. God is everything. Right? Yeah.

So god is everything and you spend no time with god. Oh, okay. Okay. I see. Who have you helped today?

Well, so you don't follow directions in the big book and you let all this stuff pile up all day and now you're gonna call me late at night and tell me your problems? I'm sorry. Go talk to god and go straighten this out. Go help somebody. Click.

Biggest butt chewing I've gotten in 7 years is 10 step stuff. I arranged my weekend one time a long time ago, got out of work early, and and trying to have some time with my sister and her kids, and it's gonna be a great time. I got so much work that I don't need to be taking off on that Friday, and I just arranged life to suit myself. And by the time I got to my mama's house, my sister's there with her kids, the kids are snot nose and sick, and they're cranky. And I'm getting coming down with the cold, and I'm cranky, and it's just not going the way I expected it.

And I'm calling my buddy Kurt, and I'm calling my buddy Myers, and blah blah blah. That's on a Friday, Saturday by Saturday evening, I'm like, mom, I gotta go home. You know, this is not working. You know, I gotta go home. I still don't call my sponsor.

Finally, Saturday Sunday night, I call my sponsor, and he let me get it all out. And then he asked me, who in the hell do you think you are? You got all this work stuff eating your lunch. You've arranged your life to suit your way. You need to be doing this.

You need to call your boss or talk to your boss on Monday and tell him you're sorry. You apologize for skipping out on Friday because they needed you. My god, you're not a normal man. You can't let this stuff pile up because, you know, what happens, this stuff piles up. I still think I'm connected to the power, but somehow, somewhere along the line, unbeknownst to me, I get disconnected from the power.

My life starts to spiral out of control. Why? Because I'm running the show. That's when suddenly comes in. That's when I walk across a threshold and suddenly happens.

Every day since that day, I bet 99% of the days since then, I'm in contact with my sponsor. Lot I work a lot on my own a lot, so I don't really screw things up at work too much. So my days a lot of my days are pretty easy, but you know what? I'm I'm always in contact with my sponsor. And one of the cool things is is that when something does happen, when that resentment does crop up or that fear or that thing, phone call.

It's a done deal. Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from him who has all knowledge and power. If we have carefully followed directions, here's a promise, we've begun to sense the flow of his spirit into us, and I call that the God groove. If I'm following directions, getting in the game, doing this stuff, I'm in that groove, you know. The days start just adding up.

Right? I'm in that groove. Things are just kinda flying by, you know. I'm doing a commitment here, speaking here, helping a newcomer here. Boom boom boom.

Making a mint. The days just start to pop up. I get in that little groove, that little rhythm. Right? We got any basketball fans in here?

Athletes get into the groove. Right? And I'll I'll never forget, man. I think it was Michael Jordan's last we've seen it a bunch from him, but it was like his last year of playing. They're playing the Pacers in the in the in the Eastern Conference finals, and Mike is on fire.

Mike is hitting threes from all over the court. He's unconscious. Right? And there's a one shot. The the shot pocket is winding down.

Reggie Miller's in his face. Mike is way behind the 3 point line, and he's gotta make this bucket. And he throws up. He just launches 1, a high archer, and it is nothing but the bottom of the net. And the camera shot it's on, every TV show, in every magazine is Mike running down the court going, I got no clue how that went in.

You know? He was in the groove. I can get in the groove in AA. I stay tied to my sponsor. I work with the newcomers.

I make my amends. I do a 10 step, and I'm in this groove. Some pretty cool stuff. To some extent, we've become god conscious. We've begun to develop this vital 6th sense, but we must go further and that means more action.

Step 11, I'm gonna do the first part of 11. Step 11 suggests prayer and meditation. Alright? Prayer and meditation. Prayer is me talking and meditation is me listening.

I do a lot of praying and sometimes, you know, it's my tendency to do a lot of praying and not much listening. It's like it's like, you know, when I'm coming up here, we're coming up here planning our trip, and I ask Jimmy Jack for directions on how to get to Pratt, Kansas. Right? And I said, Jimmy, I've never been there. Can you give me detailed directions on how to get to your your lovely city?

Right? And and and I say, Jimmy, let me get a pen. Right? So I get my pen and Jimmy starts to talk. And as Jimmy starts to talk, give me directions, I start monkeying with the TV.

Right? I ain't listening. A lot of times I pray and ask god my little laundry list of needs and wants and desires and all that stuff and I ain't I don't sit around long enough to listen. Some people say, well, John, I don't know how to meditate. You know how to worry, don't you?

Well, yeah, everybody. Then you know how to meditate. Worrying is just negative. Think about when you're worried about something. You're locked in, man.

You're just focusing on that thing and that thing only. That's meditating. The meditating they're talking about here is is is positive. And think about who wrote this. Bill Wilson wrote this chapter.

Bill Wilson who considered himself an atheist when he or an agnostic when he got sober. Right? And here, he's gonna give us valuable instructions on how to do some prayer and meditation. And they're gonna lay it out to us and it says, we shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer better, man, than we are using it constantly. Here's a promise.

It works if we have the proper attitude and work at it. I'm gonna learn how to do it. After my fist step, part of the stuff that my sponsor had me read every day for, like, 30 days, he wanted me to read pages 76 to 88, the end of that chapter. Did he want me to memorize it? No.

This is a practical program of action on how to live sober today. He wanted me to read it over and over and over so that I could learn the practical program of action. I gotta have a proper attitude and work at it. It would be easy to be vague about this matter, yet we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions. So I'm gonna do this little first part and pass it over.

So they're gonna tell us what we do at night. When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Constructively, that's a positive term. Not destructive, which is the opposite of constructive. I'm gonna review my day positively.

Right? And they're gonna ask me some simple questions. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest, or afraid? So I'm getting ready to retire for a night, got my little big book open, and I'm gonna start answering these questions. And my experience has taught me if I do a good 10, this part of 11 is pretty simple.

If I'm skipping on my 10, I got a lot of questions to answer. You know what I'm saying? But if I'm doing a thorough 10 step throughout the day with my sponsor, this stuff is a piece of cake. But some valuable questions because I'm not gonna be perfect on my 10 step. Never ever.

So we ask us if we were resentful, selfish, dishonest, or afraid, do I owe an apology? Have I kept something to myself which should have been discussed with another person at once? Have I done something that day that I should have discussed with my sponsor that I kept to myself? That'll catch you. It's kinda like a catch for my 10th step.

What falls through the cracks, you know? Were we kind and loving toward all? Oh. Hey. I'm a work in progress, man.

Catch me in rush hour traffic Sunday, and I ain't kind and loving for it all. I don't really flip people off anymore, but I do a lot of talking in my car and it ain't spiritual. You know what I'm saying? Kind and loving toward all, you know? What could I have done better?

Right? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? There's a tough one. Let me ask you a question. When you woke up this morning, who'd you think of?

I woke up this morning. My first thought wasn't of you. I would have loved it. I would love for it to be. How can I meet these people's needs?

I would have loved it. My first thought this morning was, good god, I gotta pee. I need a cup of coffee, You know? Look, I'm my biggest fan. I think of myself most of the time.

You know? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others? See, there's an alternative for thinking about myself. The alternative is what I could do for others. Right?

Of what we could pack into the stream of life. Look, I consider this, what this experience, you know, our first time doing this, this is packing into the stream of life. You know what I was like in the nineties? I was not packing anything into the stream of life. I was withdrawn.

I had withdrawn for I took Timothy Leary tune in, turn in, turn on, drop out to a whole another level. I was not a part of society. I was in a hovel guzzling vodka. That's what I was doing. Now I get to see what I can pack into the stream of life.

I've met 100 and 100 and 100 of people since in the 7 years. I get boatloads of emails. I get tons of phone calls. I got stuff going on all the time. I need a longer day.

Packing to the stream of life. That's great stuff. But we must not be careful to drift into worry, remorse, and morbid reflection for that will diminish our usefulness to other. Worry, who am I thinking of? Self.

Morbid reflection, who am I thinking of? Self. If I'm worrying and morbid reflecting ing, I'm being selfish. If I'm being selfish, how am I gonna help you? I'm not gonna help you.

If I'm not helping you, how am I gonna stay sober? I won't stay sober. After making our review, here's the prayer. We are a prayer in the 11th step. The first one, we ask god's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

It's what we do at night. It's pretty simple stuff for us smart folks. Alright. Well, now we've learned how to end our day and it's kind of interesting in step 11. Did you ever notice that you'd think well, I'm on step 11, I'll start tomorrow?

Doesn't that you notice it no. It says, as soon as we make amends we're on step 10. Once we're on step 10, we're on step 11. So you're obviously awake already. So how we're gonna begin it?

We're gonna start off right away at night. I I always wondered why they had night before they had the morning. You know? You're up and running. You're on 11.

Get going. Tonight, here's how you're gonna shut down the day. You know? And so many times I've heard people say that, you know what? I do my step 10 at night.

No. That part about step 11 at night is we're recapping, looking how we did at step 10 throughout the day. And we're looking at how can we do it better for tomorrow, the constructive review. So now that we're into tomorrow, how do we begin this thing? It says upon awakening, let us think about the 24 hours ahead.

I love this next line. We consider our plans for the day. You notice it didn't say we plan out our day. If they wanted you to plan out your day, that's what they would have said. You notice the word they use?

We're gonna consider our plans. Have you ever planned your day out before? And and it's amazing. Your plan and God's plan sometimes aren't the same at all. I consider my plans and it's amazing.

I'll have a day planned out and all of a sudden I got my phone ringing and and my guys got me going somewhere. I got a new guy somewhere. My plans have changed. I'll consider them. It says, before we begin, here's a cool little prayer.

What a great way to start a day. We ask god to direct our thinking especially asking that it'd be divorced from self pity, dishonest, or self seeking motives. So as I wake up and the first thing I'm thinking about is me, what do I do? I say a prayer and say, okay, God. Enough about me.

Direct my thinking because my thinking is directed right back towards me by default. So now I'm asking god, here, I need you to direct my thinking and here's what I'm I'm asking of you. Get me out of me. Get self pity away. Get dishonest and self seeking motives.

Under these conditions, we can flare mental faculties with assurance for after all god gave us brains to use. How about that? My brain is not just to keep my ears apart. You know? Here, we're actually gonna get to use our brains but we're gonna ask God to hear direct it so I don't screw this thing up.

Pretty cool. Our here's the promise. Our thought life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. There's that word again. From here on out, we are on a constant motive check.

Constantly. It started out in that 9 step and it's all about motives. In thinking about our day, we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Just about every day, that's my day.

I'm really not sure what direction I go. And and here's what I'm gonna do. I'm asking God for inspiration and a tune of thought or decision. So now that I've laid it out for God and I've done my praying part, now I'm gonna do my meditation part. Says we relax and take it easy.

I'll be darned. The book's telling you to do it. Why is it that we never do this? But halfway through the day, I'm calling my sponsor saying, you know, I'm just wore out. I I really need to stay home and kick back tonight instead of going to the meeting.

I need to relax and take it easy. Weren't we supposed to do that this morning? It tells us. You had your time to relax and take it easy, now get busy. You know?

And here it is. We relax. We take it easy. We don't struggle. And and I don't know about you.

Did anybody hit the ground running on this meditation thing? I was not that guy. I mean, if I could relax and take it easy and keep locked in and focused and and in tune with God for 3 and a half minutes, that was, like, amazing right away. I mean and and I always call my sponsor. I'm like, god.

This is this is hard. I'm so scatterbrained. I'm all across the board. And he's like, you know what? Look at this next line.

We're often surprised how the right answers come. After we have tried this for a while. Underline that. So, if your new guy is having problems with this, guess what? Bring him right to this.

This is practice. Remember, we're gonna grow in effectiveness here and understanding. This is gonna take a time. It's gonna take practice. It's a discipline.

What used to be the hunter, the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. Being still an experience, having just made conscious contact with god, it is probable that we're not gonna be inspired at all times. We might pray for this assumption and all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Oh my god. Underline that.

No. Really. God told me this morning I need a Porsche because I can get to the meetings quicker. It's amazing what we come up with early on. You know, early on, I'm not sure what's god's will and what's my will and that's when I talk to my sponsor.

You know, it says, you know, nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. And there it is again as time passes, as we work at this, we come to rely upon it. So how do we enter our meditation period? We usually can true conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we'd be shown all through the day what our next step is to be. God, please show me what I'm supposed to be doing today.

I need your help. And that we'd be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self will and are careful to make no requests for ourselves. More prayers. How about that?

We may ask for ourselves only, however, if others will be helped. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many have wasted a lot of time in doing that. It doesn't work. You can easily see why.

Anybody's done that? I'd my life was praying praying about all about me, me, me, me, me to God. And, you know, he must have got really tired of it. You know? The next paragraph is gonna tell you about, you know, if we can bring our wives into this group meditation with your family members.

And the interesting thing is it says, you know, if we belong to a religious denomination which requires definite morning devotion, we tend to that also. But you notice it it says we attend to that also but it doesn't say we omit what we've covered up to this point and do what that says. It says, yeah, if you have other things to do, do that also. Keyword. It tells you how to start a day, how to end a day.

Step 11's got it all covered. Right? You know what else step 11 does? It tells you how to get through the day. Look at the next paragraph.

As we go through the day, highlight. Here's a word you wanna underline, circle, exclamation point. We pause. It's the most powerful word you will ever have in your life. We pause when agitated or doubtful.

What did you normally do when you got agitated? Oh, no. You I I drank after I did something else. You agitated me and I came back at you and ran over the top of you and I straightened you out as fast as I could. And then after the dust settled, I thought to myself, wow.

Should I have done that or not? Does anyone else do that stuff? Act and then think if you should have acted that way. And then I go drink because I really shouldn't have acted that way. That was pretty much my, the way I did things.

Here, we're gonna do it a lot different. Here, John isn't acting the way I want. He's starting to agitate me a little. Here, I feel it coming on because what am I doing? I'm continuing to watch out for this in step 10.

And before I act, if I pause and say, you know what? I ask God, give me the right thought or action. I get God involved in this thing in the get go. You know what begins to happen? My step 10 gets a lot cleaner.

When I don't do this, I act and I don't pause and I don't get god involved and I jump down John's throat and I show him exactly how he should be living today like it's my job. And then I get to clean it all up and call my sponsor and ask God to remove that. And you know what? You can here's the test. Don't do this, and let me know how your 10th step worked out today.

Then tomorrow, do this and let me know how your 10th step worked out for that day. You can try it. It's an interesting experiment. It works flawlessly. If I use that pause word, my 10th step gets clean.

If I use that pause and do that prayer and I get God involved, my 10th step gets clean. If I don't spend time with God in the morning, spend time with God at night and get God involved during the day, my 10th step is a nightmare. That's a promise. It's gonna happen. Since we constantly remind ourselves, we're no longer running the show humbly and asking ourselves many times each day, thy will be done.

If you walked around in my 1st year sobriety, that was my mantra going on inside my head. If you're wondering why I'm so quiet, I'm just going thy will be done thy will be done. It was a savior. Where are then much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient.

You ever wonder why you're so wore out back in the day? I mean, by by noon, I was wiped out. I start doing this stuff and all of a sudden I'm going through and it's 3 in the morning. I'm like, oh my god. Look what I gotta accomplish today.

I don't wear out as quickly. Proof's in the pudding. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily for not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. Shortest paragraph in the book.

It works. It really does. Oh, this is all on 88. Underline it. It works.

It really does. No shades of gray there, is it? Here's a masterpiece of understatement. We alcoholics are undisciplined. No, it ain't so.

So we let God discipline us in the simple way we've just outlined, but this is not all. There's action and more action faith without works is dead. And the next chapter is entirely devoted to step 12. Here's where the book radically changes. Has anybody ever noticed this before?

There's an audience the book talks to up to page 88. Then there's another audience that talks to from here on out. Let's see if we can catch it. Says chapter 7, working with others. I don't know how to sponsor people.

No kidding. Guess what? We got a chapter to cover that. It's called working with others. What a novel idea.

How do I do it? I follow the directions. Look at this. Practical experience shows that nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It doesn't say intensive sitting in meetings.

What does it say? Intensive work in with others. What does the word immunity mean? Anybody have the smallpox lately? Why do we not have smallpox anymore?

Does anybody know? We all got that lovely scar on our shoulder. Don't we? It ensured immunity from it, didn't it? If you don't ever wanna drink again, what do you gotta do?

What did it say in the forward of the second edition? What was vital to permanent recovery? Work one alcoholic with another was vital to permanent recovery. What did Debbie tell Bill? What was imperative?

Work and self sacrifice with others. There's no reading between the line. There's no mystery here. If you wanna know what I need to do, trust in God, clean house, and work with others. It's too simple.

It's so simple our minds can't grasp the simplicity. The mystery is shrouded by simplicity here. It's amazing. This is our 12th suggestion. Is it a suggestion?

Do it. Go ahead. Don't. Alright. Remember the ripcord.

It's a suggestion. Carry this message to other alcoholics. What does it say? Wait for the alcoholic to show up. It says, carry this message.

Get off your butt and go find a drunk. Doesn't say wait for the drunk to appear. It says carry. The word carry has meaning. Pretty simple.

You can help when no one else can. Have you ever wandered through life going, why am I here? Now you know why you are here. If you are an alcoholic, you have a mission statement. This is it right here.

You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail. Have you ever had a nonalcoholic talk to you before trying to tell you that they understand what you're going through? Oh, I understand. No, you don't.

But have you ever had another alcoholic all of a sudden talk to you and you're going, oh, my god. You know exactly what I am going through. Who carries the message of depth and weight? Another alcoholic. Who can help when no one else can?

Another alcoholic. Remember, they are very ill. Life will take on a new meaning to watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish. You see a fellowship grow about you. Anybody noticing this word?

To have a host of friends, this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is a bright spot of our lives. Perhaps you anybody noticed the change here? Up to page 88, who was it talking to?

We. Who's it talking to now? Me. It's pointing a finger at Michael Kelly and saying, you mister, can help when no one else can. It's not talking to a group of people.

It's pointing a finger at each and every one of us and saying, here is your marching orders. We all do this sort of thing. Remember what John touched on? His favorite line. Not some of us.

Not some of us are made to make coffee and some of us are made to 12 step. No. All of us do this sort of work. That's how it worked. If you wanna know how they were so successful, here it is.

You can easily find some alcoholics by asking a few doctors, ministers, priests, or hospitals. Trust me. These people are wore out. They're more than welcome to go. Here's one right here we don't know what to do with.

If you can't find a drunk, they're telling you exactly where to go because these poor people are just wore out, pulling their hair out, going, we don't know how to help these people. It says don't start out as an evangelist or a reformer. Unfortunately, a lot of prejudice exists. You'll be handicapped if you arouse it. Ministers and doctors are competent and you can learn much from them if you wish.

But it happens that because of your own drinking experience, you can be uniquely qualified or uniquely useful to other alcoholics. So cooperate, never criticize. To be helpful is our only aim. Here's the thing. Have you ever been in a room and 2 people were speaking, John and I, and all of a sudden, half the room goes up to her, John, and goes, I love what you just said.

And the other half walks up to me and goes, man, you really got through to me, and we said the same exact thing. It's amazing. Some people only hear it from certain people. This person over here could be saying the same thing you're saying, but this person only heard you. For some reason, you made the connection, and he didn't this time.

That's God's work. That's not our work. Our job is just to be in the position to be helpful because who knows which person is gonna get through to this next person. Remember that. So how do we work with another alcoholic?

Well, it says when you discover a prospect for alcoholic, find out all you can about him. Don't go beating him over the head with this book. Oh, he pulled up a desire chip. Here, let me write it. You need to do this.

You need no. My job is to find out all about it. Remember what they when they talked to Fred and they talked to Jim, they asked him what happened. They they got as much information out of him as they could. Why?

Because if he doesn't wanna stop drinking, don't waste your time. The first thing we gotta find out, do you honestly wanna stop drinking? People walk into AA for a whole lot of reasons, don't they? I need a sheet of paper signed. I don't want her to leave me.

It has nothing to do with stop drinking. Their butt's on fire, and they want the flames out. Our job is to find out what is going on. It says, let's see here. Don't, you may spoil later opportunity.