SEP 23, 17 .. DO WE HAVE THE POWER TO CHOOSE NOT TO DRINK..

Today's Rhetorical Question : 

Do we have, within us, the power of choice not to drink?

Once in recovery, I never thought that I would ever seriously consider taking a drink of alcohol.

November 25th, 2016, I fell in the Dubai airport and broke my left hip.

November 28, 2016, I flew from Hong Kong, China, to Phoenix, Arizona, to seek medical assistance with my broken hip.

At the beginning of my Hong Kong to Seattle flight, I encountered an enormous crisis. I actually felt, that if I did not pick up a drink of alcohol, I would not be able to survive, with any degree of sanity, the upcoming 12-hour flight. 

I felt that I was about to go mad with the nagging pain and the enormous physical discomfort of my broken hip.

The thought occurred to me..

"No one will ever know. Just one drink will give me relief from this pain and discomfort." 

I wrote a Post about this crisis and what happened.

http://aaphotoshere.blogspot.com/2016/

Think the drink. Play the tape all the way through. Be on guard for the unguarded moment.

Back to my Rhetorical Question. 

I firmly believe that.. If we are diligently working the program of A.A., and we have a considerable amount of sober time since our last drink, we have indeed acquired the power to choose not to drink. 

We have two books, two Big Books if you will..

The Holy Bible, King James version.

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In the Holy Bible, in the Old Testament, in the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 30, Verse 19, God tells us..

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.

Biblical scholars teach that this verse tells us that God's great gift to all of mankind is that we have been given the power of choice. This, the power of choice, is indeed God's great gift to us.

I feel that A.A.'s great gift to us is the gift of having the power to choose not to take a drink.

Recently one of my closest A.A. friends and I were having dinner. I recounted the above story about my in-flight crisis and actually needing a drink.

He listened quietly and then, quoting the Big Book, page 43, he said..

"In the Big Book it states that.. The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power."

He went on to say.. "I don't think I could have done what you did. When the urge to drink would hit me, I drank without thinking it through."

Bill Wilson wrote the A.A. Big Book back in the late 1930's. At that time, no one in A.A. had the long term sobriety that some of us now have. Decades. Several decades. Many decades. 

The Big Book also states that..

We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.

I feel that this recovery allows us the power of choice over alcohol.

I believe, again with the proviso that..

If we are diligently working the program of A.A., and we have a considerable amount of sober time since our last drink..

We have indeed acquired the power to choose not to drink.

I will add a final proviso.

We have several realms of reality. The physical. The mental. The spiritual.

In the physical realm we are NOT equal. I will never be able to run 100-yards in eleven seconds. At my stage of life, I can barely walk 100-yards.

The decision of whether or not to pick up a drink falls into the mental and spiritual realms.

In these realms, I believe that, IF one of us can achieve the power to choose not to drink, we all can.

If I could choose not to pick up the drink on the above airline flight, all of us can make the same decision.

If you doubt your power of choice over alcohol, let me be an example that you too can choose not to pick up a drink when, and if, that urge to drink seemingly overwhelms you.

If I can.. You can..