Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Hebrews‬ ‭13‬:‭7‬

Critical thinking may elude us as we emerge from the drunk world. As soon as our capacity to think of something other than ourselves returns, though, it does us good to take an honest appraisal of the situation.

Often this is what landed us in treatment, in AA, or in therapy in the first place. Call it a moment of clarity.

But we’ll need more where that came from, and quickly. The great allure of sobriety is to imagine that it’s enough.

Now that we are sober, shouldn’t everyone get off our backs already? Now that we’ve owned up to the problem, let’s get on with things, please and thank you.

It doesn’t work like that at all, of course. In the wake of our past, we’ve left a trail of damage. Those around us have been scarred more than ourselves, but no one has escaped unscathed.

And so, further help is needed. What we really need is an example. We need companionship and partnership in our own sobriety and future. We need sponsorship, mentorship, friendship.

We must get out of our own way and concede that we may not be as unique as we thought at one time. There have been others before us.

Thank God for this, too!

Latch on and follow in the footsteps of those who’ve gone before you. In parallel, we help one another recover and by doing this ensure our own recovery. It’s a two way street.

We shouldn’t have to sacrifice our brains either. Look around and take an honest assessment. Aren’t there others in recovery that seem to have found a way to live in happiness and harmony with the world around them? Isn’t this at the root of what we were after when we were drinking?

Our vices were symptoms of a deeper problem. We’ve been seeking a solution to that all along—just in the wrong places.

Am I following the right people today? Are they pointing me toward God?