One Good Thing I Learned in AA

I can say that I learned some good things in AA.

I  did not have to let the opinions of other prevent from living and thriving in the world.

I learned the importance of rest, not doing, to receiving His peace in our lives.

I will never forget this one guy. He was cool.

He had long hair, a big, bushy beard, but he was no Pharisee.

He never pretended to have all the answers. He was not like those religious, uptight people in Celebrate Recovery, either.

This guy radiated some real warmth in his life. He happily, laughingly admitted that in AA, you will find that most people are not "hail fellow well met" -- not everyone was a rosy personality with anything worthwhile to share.

The best thing he ever said to me and the rest of the group involved mercy and grace, and I am learning so much more about God's grace:

"Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, and grace is getting what you don't deserve."

That phrase was so good, I tried to repeat it as soon as I heard it, then he wrote it down for me. That was the one time that I can remember when someone went out of their way to provide me real information, somebody who did not baby me through my hardships and troubles, someone who shared something straight in line with the Word of God, although he did not know it.

God desires mercy, not sacrifice (Hosea 6: 6), and we get both mercy and grace through the Cross, where all our sins are purged once and for all forever, and we then receive His life, with all the glory and goodness and blessing which comes from being a child of God (1 John 3: 1).

One good thing that I learned in AA -- grace is getting what you do not deserve. All that I receive, I receive as a gift from God, as every good and perfect comes from above, the Father of Lights (James 1:17), and I am a son of Light (1 Thessalonians 5: 5) in Christ, who is the Light of the World (John 8:12).