THE WORDS...OR THE MESSAGE?

Said a traveler to one of the disciples, "I have traveled a great distance to listen to the Master, but I find his words quite ordinary."
"Don't listen to his words. Listen to his message."

"How does one do that?"

"Take hold of a sentence that he says. Shake it well till all the words drop off. What is left will set your heart on fire."

© Anthony de Mello, SJ


At a meeting yesterday morning sat a young girl (well, to me, "young" is well under 40! or 50?)...whom I'll call "N", sober three weeks, and learning, yes, learning. Well, she had sat through almost the whole hour, and it was your (how--and why--DO they say it?) "garden-variety" AA meeting, ya know what I mean?

And then, in voce pianissimo, N. spoke slowly...deliberately...thoughtfully. I cannot quote, but her words said to me something like this: "You know, I've been wrestling with the "God" thing, and someone recently said to me, "God could and would, if He were sought...NOT CAUGHT".

Momentarily, her eyes and mine "caught" each other's, and my face reddened. I remembered that line. It was posted in one of my earlier blogs--and N. has been reading them, along with this "astute blogger group" -grin- of which I feel a member, of sorts--another grin.

Immediately I felt something like a powerful swoosh of God's grace, having flowed through myself, out to N., and felt also the graces flowing back to me. How seldom am I honored in that fashion--to know that God has worked through me, and alllowed me to SEE and HEAR the result within a few days!

God is so good, actually He IS goodness Itself! He is not only within reach, He is WITHIN each of us, and it is that which I LOVE in each of us. He demands this. And it will not be otherwise.

N. spoke more, with succinctness. In my opinion, she gave us--as a group--so much more than we had given to her during the hour. Truly I believe, and pray, that N. is on her way to "catching" God, but you know--I think He has caught HER! She showed an understanding of spiritual principles far beyond where three mere weeks of meetings, Steps, reading, and sponsor guidance might lead.

Sometimes I become upset with myself for not paying more attention to the news, local, national, and world. Guess I tune in the wrong newscasts, or read the wrong papers, because I get "All the news that's unfit to print". I have become just SO HAPPY with Alcoholics Anonymous, you people, and God's gifts, which He has entrusted to me for giving to others, as I have received.

WOW! Me is really on that soapbox again. Well, I'll step off it, and go read someone else's blog, and maybe, just maybe, I'll become humble enough to learn something today....maybe even before 8 AM!
Steve E.

More later: ...and yes! I DID learn more , and I was forced to be humble, humble enough to accept reality, humble enough to accept certain things I cannot change, humble enough to know the world does NOT revolve around ME!
Thank You, my God...and AA people!