It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die.
What is resentment, exactly? It is a work of the flesh:
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21)
In Christ, our flesh has been crucified (Galatians 5: 24), and thus God invites us to reckon ourselves dead in the flesh, but alive in the Spirit (Romans 6: 11)
This passage has to be one of the biggest scams which kept people coming back to AA over and over. We do not get rid of resentments by focusing on them. More often than not, we can choose not to be offended. People cannot make us mad, if we choose peace. In fact, peace is a gift ministered to us through the Holy Spirit:
"17For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Romans 14: 17)
Peace works in us through the Spirit, and thus we do not identify with our feelings, not one bit. We are righteous, at peace, and full of joy because of all that Jesus Christ has done for us!
If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison.
This statement is an erroneous, dangerous falsehood. There are times when we should get angry!
"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: " (Ephesians 4: 26)
"Angry" and "wrath" are two different words in the English and the Original Greek.
Frankly, I am not surprised that the AA cult would require members to be "free of anger", because so many unpleasant, unethical, and criminal actions take place in AA, where men and women refuse to accept the consequences of their actions, where they insist on complaining about their lives and make everyone but themselves accountable, and everyone else is forced to submit and endure the chronic, self-righteous, self-glorifying confessions which have nothing at all to do with sobriety, recovery, or life and that more abundantly.
No comments:
Post a Comment