Prayer and Meditation for the Day (April 6, 2018)

Contributed by Marco Pardo 

Meditation for the Day

A balanced spirituality asks two questions. The first one is: What can this practice do for me? Since most of us seek God from need, any spirituality that doesn’t address our needs will be of little value to us. As addicts, we come into recovery when our suffering becomes intolerable. Our need is to be relieved of that suffering, so our first prayers express that need. We ask some unknown power to relieve us of the pain of our addiction. If our suffering is increased by feelings of shame, guilt and remorse we’ll seek a loving God who is compassionate and merciful.

It’s very common for addicted people to start their recovery with this “spirituality of need.” In time, we discover that this program does provide us with some relief, and that it’s possible to be free of our worst suffering and the insanity of this disease. So our first question gets a very clear affirmative answer: Yes, this practice can relieve us of our misery. Tomorrow we’ll ask to the second question: What will this program require of me?

Prayer for the Day

I thank God that I am experiencing relief from the pain and desperation that brought me into recovery. I ask my Higher Power to not let me forget all the suffering that motivated me to come in so that I will gratefully do the work to protect my recovery.