If you were to ask someone in recovery from an addiction, what keeps them sober, you’d probably get a wide range of answers.
Some might say it’s by going to a lot of meetings.
Others might say it’s in keeping to regular contact with their sponsor.
I’m quite positive that some would say it’s in sponsoring people as well.
And there’s even those who would say it’s in staying around sober individuals and fellowshipping with them on a regular basis that does it.
For me though, it’s none of those answers. For I’ve learned over the years that there is NO person, place, or thing that will ever be able to keep me sober.
I’ve sponsored many people who went to meetings every single day and still relapsed. I’ve known others who reached out to their sponsor daily as well and still relapsed too. The same holds true for people who were sponsoring individuals and still fell back into their addiction. And sadly, many of my friends who did their best to only spend time with others remaining sober, found their way back into their addiction anyway.
Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, once said that there is only one reason and one reason only why anyone would ever fall back into their addiction and it’s because they failed to enlarge their spiritual life, of which I wholeheartedly agree.
Given what I’ve bene going through these past bunch of years with my health, it hasn’t been the recovery meetings, or my sponsor, or my sponsees, or the fellowship times with others that has kept me sober. What’s kept me sober is my constantly seeking the Light of God through prayer, meditation, reading devotionals, and spending time alone in reflection. And through those things, my Higher Power has led me to attend many meetings, has helped me find a sponsor, has guided me to sponsor others, and has steered me towards sober individuals to hang out with, all of which only added to my remaining sober.
Overall though, if there is one thing I know in recovery, it’s that God is the One who actually keeps me sober and so long as I keep seeking God and remaining open to expanding my relationship with Him, that I will remain sober for the rest of my life, one day at a time of course…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
