Spiritually Refreshed

A friend allowed me to post the following thoughts he shared with me here.


Refresh: to make someone feel less tired or hot.

Refreshing: pleasingly new or different.

Spiritually refreshed and glad to be alive (mentioned twice in Step 12 in NA's Basic Text).

As I cycle through the 12 steps of NA I become aware of the changes in my belief system. And each time thru I further tweak or refine my belief system. In our Basic Text it says " Everything we know is subject to revision, especially what we know about the truth ".

I lived a lifetime of being misinformed by the misinformed. As a result, I lived a life of impending doom, based on delusional self-destructive information. The 12 steps helped me to examine my beliefs and offered me an alternative belief system. One that was spiritually rewarding, beyond my wildest dreams. So today I give back what was so freely given to me. The only condition I place on another is what was placed on me : I had to want this. An admission that is best expressed by action.

My behavior will always speak for itself. My desire for change is contingent on practicing the principles of our program. If I don't  practice or stop practicing, I can always revert back to the desperate dying addict who came in the rooms of NA. Yes the process can stop; either I'm working on something or something is working on me. My disease doesn't take days off.

~ Curtis W.