May 23

May 23 – AM

Page 180, Doctor Bob’s Nightmare, Part I

The question which might naturally come into your mind would be:  “What did the man do or say that was different from what others had done or said?”  It must be remembered that I had read a great deal and talked to everyone who knew, or thought they knew anything about the subject of alcoholism.  But this was a man who had experienced many years of frightful drinking, who had had most all the drunkard’s experiences known to man, but who had been cured by the very means I had been trying to employ, that is to say the spiritual approach.  He gave me information about the subject of alcoholism which was undoubtedly helpful.  Of far more importance was the fact that he was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience.  In other words, he talked my language.  He knew all the answers, and certainly not because he had picked them up in his reading.

May 23 – PM

Page 12-13, Bill’s Story, Chapter 1

The real significance of my experience in the Cathedral burst upon me.  For a brief moment, I had needed and wanted God.  There had been a humble willingness to have Him with me—and He came.  But soon the sense of His presence had been blotted out by worldly clamors, mostly those within myself.  And so it had been ever since.  How blind I had been.
At the hospital I was separated from alcohol for the last time.  Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens.
There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, to do with me as He would.  I placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction.  I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing; that without Him I was lost.  I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new-found Friend take them away, root and branch.  I have not had a drink since.