Meditation Books

Cover via Amazon

A long time ago I was told that spiritual principles don't conflict. My life experience has shown that to be true. Quite often I read different meditation books and some of them do not contain Bible verses or specific references to Christianity. Instead of talking about Jesus, they tend to stick to a generic 'God' and let you fill in the blanks with whatever your conception of that Higher Power might be. However, while minus some of the theology that I believe in, the principles are generally the same and the wealth of spiritual 'gold nuggets' I can mine from such books is priceless.

Such a book is the Twenty-Four Hours A Day book. While perhaps one of the most "religious" meditation books out there in use by many A.A.'s, it still tries to maintain a "one size fits all" structure to its writings. Today's reading (December 11) discusses the difference between many doctors' view of A.A. as group therapy [where the individual is in it for what they can get out of it and nobody else's benefit] versus the reality of A.A. as a fellowship--where the welfare of others is important and of paramount importance to an individual's growth in sobriety. There is so much more to the idea of fellowship than simply viewing A.A. as some sort of group therapy will ever provide.

A favorite book of mine in use by at least one meeting I am familiar with is titled In God's Care: Daily Meditations on Spirituality in Recovery. Today's reading speaks to me of God's immeasurable grace. He loves us because we're human--and not in spite of it.

Twelve Step Fellowships

When I first came to a twelve step fellowship, I had lost sight of the fact that God loves me in spite of myself and not for what I have done or who I am. I needed a place to go that was free from legalism, religiosity and the judgment that always springs forth from it. I had suffered long enough from a confusion of grace and needed an injection of it instead.

Twelve step fellowships are (in my opinion) a great starting place for the "road to happy destiny." For me, it was essential to my beginning to attend and remains equally essential today. I continue to participate because it keeps me in touch with where I came from, so I can convey a path of recovery to others. It's not about a fear of drinking if I don't go; it's about a healthy respect for the disease of alcoholism and desire to help others find a new life as I was helped (and continue to be).

Celebrate Recovery

Aside from A.A. and other fellowships, I think that Celebrate Recovery meetings are a great idea and work well in helping Christians recover from alcoholism, drug addiction or whatever type of malady is plaguing them. To me, as a Christian, they are the best of both worlds: a twelve step fellowship that also affords the ability to worship Christ as we feel the necessity without fear of disapproval by the rest of the meeting. My success in recovery has brought me from a place of just twelve step fellowship meetings to embrace CR and the other activities of the church I attend. It was the logical 'next step' for me in my recovery journey. The principles laid out in the Bible are essentially the same as used in A.A.--or any other successful twelve step organization. As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, spiritual principles do not conflict.