Spiritual growth

"Spiritual growth, love and compassion are but idle potentials until shared with a fellow addict. By giving unconditional love in the fellowship, we become more loving, and in the sharing of spiritual growth we become more spiritual."

Basic Text, chapter 10, page 99

To become more loving of ourselves, of others, and of our higher power is, indeed, the goal of spiritual growth. This is especially true for me, since my higher power IS love..... To me, this means, if I strive to love others and love them a lot, I will not go in the wrong direction.

Sometimes that means "tough love" like when an oldtimer is "harsh" with a newcomer who doesn't want to quit, or like a parent with an errant child. Sometimes this means loving from a distance, especially if we have to detach from those who are actively using. We pray for those people if we are doing it right. Sometimes that's all we can do for some people, especially if all they do is argue with us -- no matter what we say.

Humility is essential to spiritual growth. We must realize, like our constitution says, all of us are created equal. Nearly everyone we meet can teach us something useful. Others have the same potential we have. Step seven says, "We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings." We MUST accept that we do have them, and they do stand in the way of spiritual growth. We have to be humble enough to see that spiritual growth is something to be desired.... "We have to understand that our way of thinking is not the only way; other people can give us direction. When someone points out a shortcoming, our first reaction may be defensive. We must realize that we are not perfect. There will always be room for growth. If we truly want to be free, we will take a good look at input from fellow addicts...." Basic Text, Chapter four, p. 35. Spirit does speak through others sometimes....

Love does not thrive on an island of isolation.... "Isolation is dangerous to spiritual growth," Basic Text, chapter 7, p. 81. It needs to flow out from Spirit, to us, and through us, to others and back to us. Often, people who are actively addicted are very isolated, cut off emotionally from others, and unwilling to reach out to others. They are unwilling to hear anything good or good for them. A lot of active addicts will tell you how much against love they are..... They will tell you how awful love is.... They don't give or receive -- they just take what they think they want. I honestly believe that actively using addicts are trying to get the benefits of love, because only love makes us feel good. Love makes us act good..... We naturally associate being good with being spiritual, after all it is the Spirit that defines goodness.

"As we recover, we gain a new outlook on being clean. We enjoy a feeling of release and freedom from the desire to use. We find that everyone we meet eventually has something to offer. Be become able to receive as well as to give. Life can become a new adventure for us. We come to know happiness, joy and freedom." Basic Text, chapter 8, p. 88. That adventure IS spiritual growth. How we handle the unexpected reveals spiritual growth. As we grow spiritually, Spirit makes us feel happier and more free.... Feelings really aren't so awful after all. We develop a tolerance for our own feelings -- they become less raw, destructive, and threatening. "As we grow spiritually we become attuned to our feelings and our purpose in life." Basic Text, chapter 10, p. 101. Our feelings no longer run our lives -- we have a HANDLE on them....

"Sharing with others keeps us from feeling isolated and alone. This process is a creative action of the spirit," Basic Text, chapter 7, p.81. We also learn to communicate better and more effectively if we are growing spiritually. Such things become more important to us the longer we stay clean.... We realize it is NOT all about us, after all, and we lose our egocentric paranoia and grandiosity. We begin to care about others... and thus care about what kind of messages we are sending out. "We recognize our spiritual growth when we are able to reach out and help others. We help others when we participate in service work and try to carry the message of recovery to the addict who still suffers. We learn that we keep what we have only by giving it away...." Basic Text, Chapter 5, p. 56.

H.O.W. Honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness are essential to growing spiritually. The steps take us down the road of spiritual growth. There is always room for growth. We don't get there, imho, until this life is over and we begin the next.... perhaps we never become perfect -- but who would want to be perfect. I don't even believe that God or Goddess are perfect.

"Loving may be a mistake, but it's worth making" Lee Ann Womack