Finding Faith Everywhere

I heard someone recently talking about coming to OA for the sanity and better friendships. Really? Not to lose weight? I agree that both my sanity and my relationships have improved across the board since I put down my alcoholic foods, but I came into OA to be healthier and smaller.

But then I got something more from recovery that was wholly unexpected: a deeper and more personal connection to my Higher Power. I had no idea I needed or wanted that, but my spiritual relationship has made my existence fruitful.

On page 62 in Voices of Recovery, the author spoke for me, “I looked inward and there was honesty. I looked outward and there was hope. I looked up and there was faith.” I have come to believe that I can look in any direction and find faith.

I now look for those sacred moments each day, for opportunities to pause and really take in the moment. I start by really focusing on what’s at hand, such as the miracle of roses flourishing in my garden and the huge redwood tree keeping watch. It is easy to see Higher Power’s handiwork in nature, hear it in shares at a meeting or in conversation, and observe it in service, sponsorship, and in acceptance that we are all one in the eyes of HP.

My willingness to believe in a Power greater than myself has helped me thrive through both challenging health trials and the positive experiences that can sometimes be all the more dangerous to my abstinence. I never thought I’d gain back any of the weight I had lost, yet I have. This was neither desired nor expected, yet here I am.

Then I remind myself of the turmoil my body has been in for the last several years, and I return to the belief that I am right where I’m supposed to be. I am grateful for all of it. Not just the parts I desired, like self-acceptance, inner peace, relationships that work, and community and spiritual connections; and not just the parts I expected, such as feelings of being a part of instead of apart from; but all of it. I surrender to my HP as said in the Seventh Step prayer, “all of me, good and bad” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th. ed., p. 76). In this moment, I have faith. I find peace in meditation and prayer and then again and again and again in every sacred moment, and that makes life worth living. Even in my physical pain, there is a release, a slight reprieve, when I show up in faith, in being of service, and in who I am and not who I imagined myself to be.

— Anonymous