I had another slow start this morning but not as bad as yesterday.  I never really got a chance to pray effectively until I was in mass.

Our readings today were about justice in eternity for evildoers.  On the surface these seemed liked difficult beliefs to deal with but with a little thought there were two simple lessons that could be ascertained from them:  1. Everything on this earth is impermanent, so don't place your faith there, and 2. One can transcend the injustice on this earth through faith in eternal justice from God.  

This afternoon my son and I invented 2 fun baseball games in the backyard to make practicing fun.

I had feelings of aimlessness today but trudged through them just doing the next right thing.

This evening I got to go to a meeting. We read pages that had a couple of major ideas that I found to be great sources of inspiration.  I thought about commenting in the meeting but chose to remain silent to practice humility. Several group members commented on the same thoughts that I had.  They brought up some excellent perspectives that I agreed and disagreed with: 

"Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone."  I thought about how this was a revolutionary idea to me for it's emphasis on change from within, despite one's circumstances and domestic difficulties.

"Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress."  Someone pointed out that this is an imperative that we must be willing to do intense sponsorship work to stay sober.  They pointed out that it is in the chapter "Working with Others" therefore it is so.  But in looking at the context, I took it as an imperative to uphold the standards of spiritual progress and  guard against become entangled in the new man's domestic affairs.  

"In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. "  This was the one that really caught my attention. I remembered how this really struck me when I was trying to find my belief.  It occurred to me that it was an incredibly bold statement for a fledgling organization trying to build credibility.  The idea that they would not use techniques of aversion but rather conversion was either proof of a miracle or based on experience.  Given that they all had under 5 years of sobriety, clearly it was the former.

Thanks be to God.