Freedom From Bondage

05/18/2026

My Spiritual teacher once told me after I asked him, "Why do i have a hard time surrendering to God?" He said, "FEAR! It's not that we're afraid to surrender to God but rather we're afraid of what it will cost us."

MIND BLOWN. 🤯

Thought for Today

The deal that God makes with us Alcoholics/Addicts
By: Pharm C.

A drunk/addict is walking home, feeling sick and hurt. He is at that magic moment of surrender.

On his way he sees God and notices He has something in his hand. The addict/drunk asks "What's that?" God responds "This is sobriety". The drunk/addict said "Oh man, I need that! Geez, I need sobriety. How much does that cost?" as he only understands buying things. God returns with "How much do you have?" The addict/alcoholic says "I have about 20 dollars." God responds "All right, for you, sobriety costs 20 dollars." The man, trying to back out of says, "If I give you all twenty dollars, I won't be able to buy any gas for my car."

God responds "Oh! so you have a car? I'm sorry, but sobriety is going to cost you your car."
"Whoa, whoa!" Says the man. "If I give you my car, how am I going to get to my job?"

"You have a job?!" Exclaims God. "No, no, no. Sobriety is going to cost you your job."
The drunk responds "But, if I give you my job, how am I to pay for my house?" House!!

You have a house!?" God says with surprise. "I thought you lived in a cardboard box under the bridge! Your file is completely out of date! Sobriety is going to cost you your house."

The man responds "If I give you my house what about my wife and kids?"

"A family! That's right, you have a family! Yes, yes. Sobriety is going to cost you your family.

The alcoholic/addict responds "But if I give you all that, what good is my life?"

God states "That's right. Sobriety costs you your life."

The alcoholic/addict, because he is at that magic moment of surrender is willing to give his God his money, and his car, and his job, and his house, and his wife and his kids, and his life and for that God gives him sobriety.

Then God looks him deep in the eyes and says:

"All right. I'm going to give you your money back but, it's not your money anymore, it's my money. I'm going to let you spend it for me."

"I'm going to give your car back but, it's not your car anymore, it's my car. You get to drive it for me."

"I'm going to give you your job back but, it's not your job anymore, it's my job. You get to work at it for me."

"I give your house back but, it's not your house anymore, it's my home. But, you get to live in it for me."

"I give your family back to you but, it's not your family anymore, it's my family. You get to take care of them for me."

"I give your life back but, it's not your life ever again. But, you get to live it for me."

That's the deal a loving God makes with us in the 3rd step.

05/07/2026

Oldtimer said, "Cunning, baffling, powerful! This is how the Big book describes alcohol's (and drugs) effect on the addict/ alcoholic mind. For alcoholics and addicts, this is a primary truth we must accept, or else we perish. This is difficult for a mind that has been warped by years of drinking and using. Alcohol and drugs distort our reality with pleasure, and the pursuit of this pleasure became our primary purpose, which we pursued with unbridled passion.

Even in the face of the all too obvious destruction it brought to our lives, we remained enslaved to our addictive pleasures. It enhanced our sexual instinct, then enslaved it to serve its sordid purposes. It enhanced our social instinct, then left us isolated and wallowing in a pit of loneliness and despair. It enhanced our sense of security, then took everything from us and left us with nothing. Drugs and Alcohol gave us wings, then took away the sky.

To the outside observer, it appears the alcoholic/addict drinks and uses too much, but for the addict/alcoholic, the reality is we cannot use or drink enough to satisfy a maniacal craving for alcohol and drugs that takes us to the gates of insanity and death. We cannot see their version of the truth, and this keeps us baffled about the nature of our problems, of which we have many.

Sweet relationships become battlegrounds and a test of wills as we defend our right to consume that which is destroying our lives. We see ourselves enjoying life with our drinking and using. They see us on a su***de mission we commit one drink,hit,line,pill,needle at a time. We feel in control in our stupor when exactly the opposite is true.

It is when sober that the real problem of the addict/alcoholic manifests. We are restless, irritable, and discontented when sober, so we seek our solution. Drugs and Alcohol relieves us of these feelings of insecurity and gives us a sense of ease and comfort, even as it systematically destroys our lives.

The true power of addiction wields over us is the delusion of control and choice. We can't say for certain, on any given day, whether we will use or drink or not. And once we start to drink use, or both we cannot control how much we will consume Only when confronted with a crisis that overwhelms our delusional mind with a reality we can no longer postpone or evade, do we consider sobriety as a viable option to the way of death drugs and alcohol delivers.

This is when the true power of addiction exerts itself. Even though we are not using or drinking, we remain under the influence of addiction. Not with getting high or drunk, but with an obsession that overpowers our strongest desire to not drink or use. We think willpower, common sense, or reason should bring a sufficient defense against the first hit, drink,pill,line needle and yet we return !

This is when we experience that we have truly lost the power of choice when it comes to drugs and alcohol. This insanity repeats itself over and over again with every desperate attempt to abstain from alcohol and drugs. These countless vain attempts to quit using and drinking on human power drive home our desperate need to bring a Power greater than human power into our lives.

When we came to the rooms we acknowledged that addiction was too much to overcome by ourselves. We had to have help, and it had to come from a Power greater than human power. It had to come from the source of all power. That one is God. Fortunately, the Steps provides us with the path to this Power source.

This path is the essence of every addicts and alcoholic's recovery from a hopeless state of mind and body. It is a path open to all who earnestly seek it. When we work the Steps, we remove from our psyche the selfish ideas, emotions, and attitudes that block the Power we need from entering our lives. As a result, we find contentment with life on life's terms and become a channel for the peace, prosperity, happiness, and joy that come with freedom from our bo***ge to this terrible disease .

05/06/2026

04/10/2026

April 10, 1939.

On this day, a book was published…
that would go on to change millions of lives.

Not written by professionals.
Not written as theory.

But written by alcoholics…
who had found a way out.

“We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered…”

That was the promise.

And for the first time…
recovery could travel beyond a room.

Before this book existed, the message was carried
one person to another…
one conversation at a time.

But on this day—
that message was put into words…
printed…
and placed into the hands of anyone willing to read it.

It was written in 1938 by Bill W. and early members of Alcoholics Anonymous, built from real experience — not theory — with one purpose:

To show other alcoholics precisely how they had recovered.

The first printing was just a few thousand copies…
and at first, it barely sold.

But something happened.

The message spread.

Hand to hand.
Meeting to meeting.
Generation to generation.

And today…

That same book has reached millions around the world — translated into dozens of languages — carrying the same message it did in 1939.

The message has never changed.

And the miracle has never ended.

87 years later…

It still works.

One day at a time.

04/10/2026

Big Book

Chapter 3 More About Alcoholism (pg 30 & top 31)

MOST OF US have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics(addicts). No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his(or her) fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking(using) careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink(or use) like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking( and or using drugs in whatever form) is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.

We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics( or addicts or both ). This is the first step in recovery. The delusion that we are like other people, or presently may be, has to be smashed.

We alcoholics ( and addicts) are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking and or using . We know that no real alcoholic ( or addict)ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals-usually brief-were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man(and women) that (addicts) alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better.

We are like men ( and women)who have lost their legs; they never grow new ones. Neither does there appear to be any kind of treatment which will make alcoholics ( or addicts)of our kind like other men. We have tried every imaginable remedy. In some instances there has been brief recovery, followed always by a still worse relapse. Physicians who are familiar with alcoholism/addiction agree there is no such thing a making a normal drinker ( or recreational user )out of an alcoholic/addict Science may one day accomplish this, but it hasn't done so yet.