A Plan Just For Me

A Plan Just For Me

Well, my first full year of continuous sobriety is now behind me and what a year it was. The weeks leading up to my first "re-birth" day and those that followed were cause for considerably more reflection on my life than usual. Specifically, 1) what it was like, 2) what happened and 3) what it is like today.

Both time and space in this publication of the Coffee Cup, the high probability the readers would become significantly and quickly disinterested and therefore, prudent judgment, prohibit me from outlining my entire story. "Whew!, you say, "thank you." So, consider yourselves spared from all the specific details relating to my childhood, my upbringing, my family, my friends, my time in college, my relationships, my jobs, blah-blah-blah! Oh, and I would add and can't forget the Dreams-Doom-Dread-Despair-Drama-Disagreement Disillusionment-Debt-Drunks-near Death. "Enough already" you say, "get on with it."

So, here it is! The one thing that I am absolutely convinced of today more than any other time ever before is that there is a common denominator of what life was like before coming into AA, what happened to bring me to AA, and what life is like for me in AA today. What is this one thing, this common denominator? The presence of a loving God!

I realized during my reflection the HE has and has had a life plan just for me.

God was with me as a young child. You know, "Now I lay me down to sleep.." and, "God is great God is good..." HE was present as a young adult in the form of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the rare visit to church services and the occasional day after hangover comment of "Oh my God!" To have been wed to my beautiful wife and bringing our two boys into this world, certainly God was doing his work in my life then. God was even there as my disease progressed to a near fatal stage. And, HE became miraculously present in a most vivid way to me one moment during a 5 day stay in the Intensive Care Unit. In fact, this one event, what I consider to my spiritual awakening of God-consciousness, proved to be the most critical turning point not only in my sobriety, but my life since.

For 48 years, I have had a blessed life. However, I am certain that had it been my plan, my will, I would have not chosen to have alcoholism as a part of it. I will never forget Mike, my counselor at Chandler Valley Hope, telling me that he predicted I would one day look back on becoming an alcoholic and consider it one of, if not the, best things to ever happen to me. I thought he was absolutely out of his mind when he uttered those words. Today though, after being active in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, it is abundantly clear to me now that he was absolutely right. God's plan just for me took me down the path of alcoholism for a reason. HIS reason!

The reality is that God has been there with me the entire time and every minute of every day. The difference between my past life, sober or not, and my sober life now is that the spiritually based program of Alcoholics Anonymous is prominently in my life today. The 12 Steps and the Fellowship are essential to my life today. By continuously being in conscious contact with my Creator - my God, the promises are coming true. So, what is HIS plan just for me? I am just going to stay tuned in, and I know more will be revealed!

By GWP

By: GWP