SPIRITUAL STANDARDS

Diversity is fine as long as we don't get lost in it. In freedom from active addiction and distraction, we study the puzzle of life. We penetrate the maze until it becomes a plain path to us. Very important to the kind of spirituality that can help us is to constantly bear in mind that God, not us, works the miracles. If we were to identify with the divinity that works the miracles, we would feel and appear very powerful. This would be a lie. Such dishonesty would confuse people and they would look to us for the answers rather than follow our example and look to their own spiritual condition. We share what comes to us individually and find a commonality that will work for us.

We can't live clean without an increased recognition of and alignment with the truth. In other words, increased capacity means increased responsibility. The more we can do, the more we will do. This is important because many of us have tried to get the benefits of recovery without the willingness to do our part later on. Others have found out what it is like to try to help someone who doesn't want - and won't allow - us to help them. If we see a problem, and don't do our part to resolve it, we will find our powers sinking back down to the level we fell to in active addiction.

When does doing the right thing for the right reason make the transition from a practical way to avoid pain to that point of freedom we enjoy as a spiritual awakening? Do we necessarily need to look back to realize progress? Is hope re-evaluation and faith evaluation of a life to come?

Many of us were confused by religious standards. The religions may be fine but usually our perceptions twisted what was workable spirituality into unworkable patterns. Many of us were agnostic to begin with. We claimed spiritual bankruptcy, disregarding inner spiritual standards that wrenched at our very being. The guilt and remorse we felt behind harming ourselves and others. Often emptiness, despair and general disinterest in our near or distant future was our reaction to our inability to perceive denial in our lives. The self centeredness of our disease, tells us we are to be judged by the physical evidence of our actions.

Regardless of how we felt about them, this judgement was the origin of our slow execution. We couldn't see our disapproval as evidence that forces beyond our control created many of the situations in which we found ourselves, though we hated who we were and what we were doing. Only by changing can we escape the terrible course on which we set ourselves. When we get clean and stay clean a short time, we begin to see that our pain was caused by our inability to live up to the spiritual standards we didn't know we had. We can then begin to get a sense of who we are rather than merely define ourselves by what had happened to us. This is not a clever rationalization of the damage we did. We just acknowledge to fact that clean we don't do what we did using. And the longer we are clean, the more we take up new ways.

It may be impossible to collect written material on this subject without seeming conceited or presumptuous to those who seek but have not yet found their own spiritual reality. We hope for simplicity in the knowledge that what is hard today, may come more easily in time. None of us is perfect and we all have to decide what we can live with. Spiritual principles work where nothing else can. What we learn determines how much better it gets for us. Our basic belief is that we are better off just being clean; our spirituality enhances our basic cleanliness. None of us are perfect and we all have to decide what we can live with on a personal basis.

Standards affect outcomes. When we sink into sloth and laziness, we may think we're able to coast on our past accomplishments. They run out and we may find ourselves weakened by our inertia. Living up to standards we set for ourselves may make the difference for us. Naturally, much of this gets done automatically if we follow the admonition to keep coming back. We focus inward through prayer and meditation on a daily basis. Many of us keep a journal to see our growth. As we develop our own system of standards we begin to see our spiritual growth. Love, compassion, empathy, and growth become useful words to consider our spiritual standards. Add your own as you continue to grow.

We think, we project, therefore we fear. Our projections are as flawed as the rest of our thought processes. Unless we feel certain that the other parts of our minds are in full working order, it may be best to stay close to those who love and understand and put off projections too far from today, either forward or backward in time. Planning allows us to provide, within reason, for what may happen. Projection insists it will happen, and we justify fury if it does not.

It may be that spirituality and fear occupy the same niche. Spirituality can replace fear and fear can replace spirituality. Spiritual existence allows intimacy in our lives. Fear of others, their opinions, judgements and beliefs prevent us from being open. This makes is impossible to be intimate. Being spiritual allows us to be human. It allows us to make mistakes and also to do the right thing for the right reasons. Spiritual standards allow us to reconfigure our lives. We can compare our present standards with those that might give us more freedom and joy. This is where we need to strength and guidance of our higher powers. As addicts we lived in lonely desperation. Isolation was a way of life. Today, we hug.

A safer ‘less’ is familiar. It is something we know. We may hurt, we may hurt a great deal. But we will not pick up over these feelings if we can maintain our connection with a power greater than ourselves. It may take a great deal of time before we can face the fear and try again. But when we are tired enough, sick enough and bored enough, we will do it. God did not bring me this far to drop us now. Whatever our higher power has planned for us is far better than anything we could dream of under our own steam. Faith and trust is the basis of our spiritual beliefs. Without that basis, we have no spirituality in the sense of a power greater than ourselves. God is not a deal we make to get our way.

While almost any degree of spirituality seems a great blessing for us in the pain and defeat of initial recovery, we may find ourselves in time wondering how far to go personally with spiritual aims and commitments. Should our standards cripple us in competition with others in the work place? How are we spiritual and as spiritual people, how do we deal with worldly concerns?

It may take a while for spiritual to become as practical as worldly. The same laws govern both yet the spiritual rules over the worldly. If you want something to happen outside, get it to happen inside first. If we are not getting the results we want, it is up to us to review our understanding and locate flaws that may prevent our effort towards spiritual achievement from coming to fruition. Surely, if we have surrendered to the fact of our addiction and unmanageability, we will accept the difficulty of learning as most likely blocked by our own ego rather than the power of the God of our understanding.

Finding out what we really like clean - and building that into our daily lives - is how most of us set spiritual standards for ourselves. Going further with this and trying to improve the way we feel and act is a valid goal in recovery. Many find themselves unfulfilled and bored because they look at spirituality as a matter of right and wrong instead of a process of becoming our best selves. It takes allowing ourselves to aspire to the "best" to arouse the desire we need to power the recovery process. We do better in recovery to seek simple ways to understand and work our program than to get into platitudes that sound good but are impossible to live up to in real life.

We know that if we do not consider our resources, we may not be able to recede from having expended all our resources. To commit and exert ourselves on a par with other people our age and background, we need also parity in terms of back up systems. With support we may risk giving our ‘better,’ even our ‘best’ efforts. If those we are compared with are only going to go back to their support group and laugh about getting ‘e’ for effort, and we are going to experience extreme alienation and condemnation for having even tried, then the contest and any comparison is unfair.

What then is it that keeps us from giving our best? Why do people settle for a safer less? It seems worth mentioning from our experience that failure hurts. Great failure can kill us. Stuff that we really ‘like’ agrees with us and doesn't sicken us or make us feel bad. For some reason, addicts, even those who have been clean awhile, seemed shocked when they find themselves still identifying themselves with beliefs and behaviors that were adopted and taken in during active addiction. What power should these sad entries in our personal journals have over us today? Self-destructive thoughts, beliefs, and actions continue to operate in our lives until we shut them off through working our Steps.

Power, the ability to define or change reality, is related to our spiritual growth directly. It has to do with what is meant by powerlessness. We all have it to some degree however mangled and torn it may have become through our addiction. The ways we had to exert our energy to supply our addictive needs are the ways we need to change. We can moderate, eliminate and replace the ways we go about living so that we have more fun, peace and less hassle. All members face the moment when they discover again the power of surrender: when we stop struggling, what we want comes to us seemingly of itself.

When we say ‘love’ in NA, we don't mean low energy, no effort love. Our giving love takes much effort. In fact, sometimes we're loving just to see if it works better than our defensiveness. Still, the standards we can reasonable set and occasionally live up to rise because of the ways in which we back each other up.

Living in the moment keeps us centered spiritually. If we surrender on a daily basis, life is good. Diseased self will has always led a slow painful death. Spiritual growth daily keeps us free. Sincere thinking about God is a daily habit. We discover the power of this when life tests us. Our redirected lives put us on a different course and what is ahead for us is different totally from what we leave behind. Still, our steps must be taken in the present and we cannot help stepping on the ground that surrounds us on our way out. The unconditional love we give and accept among our fellow members, takes us our of our self preoccupation. We discover our new lives in the process of giving away what was so freely given to us. Our new attitude and behavior are the most sustaining changes that keep us from falling back into our old patterns.

The ten thousand issues that plague mankind may resolve down to sex and gold. Can these outward symbols satisfy our inner needs? What has your experience been with achieving ongoing satisfaction with having money or emotional security as vested in another person? Was it enough? In time clean, we want to become clear as to what is real and important and what is unreal and inconsequential.