Tomorrow I shall celebrate my 30th sober anniversary, my sober birthday. Today, I somberly recall that it was thirty years ago today that I took my last drink of alcohol (please dear God).
A few years ago I could have probably told you how this might have happened to a humble drunk like me. However, the years go by and I become less and less sure of everything.
I am only absolutely sure of one thing:
The Grace of a Loving God.
By the grace of God, I stumbled upon Alcoholics Anonymous, and there I was cared for by a bunch of others in the same boat as I. Somehow we helped each other. Oh, I know there are books written about how this happens, but it is a mystery to me. We can break it down into steps and formulas, but it will forever remain a mystery and a miracle to me.
How else could the blind lead the blind, each of us getting to somewhere we never even knew existed?
We can talk about the intricacies of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous all day long, but without the Grace of God, it is all mechanics. Oh, it is all quite necessary, but it is not the miracle.
Thank you dear Lord for these last thirty years of life, a full life, lived sober. Thank you that my children do not remember me drunk. Thank you that my grandchildren have never seen me drink. Thank you that for the last thirty years I have been present in the lives of my family, and my friends. Thank you that people trust me now. Thank you that I can now be a worker among workers, a friend among friends, a neighbor among neighbors.
I will never stop thanking God for this incredible gift.
