The ancient Hebrews used a bag of rocks to cast lots and determine the will of God. Each rock was inscribed with Hebrew letters. Every time the lot was cast, one rock always had the correct answer. The priest did not have the power to pull out the correct rock every time. Only God had the power to bring the rock with the correct answer for that moment to the place where the priest’s hand could grab it.
Next week I will have surgery to remove some pre-cancerous cells from my nose. I was okay until I got a little pamphlet entitled “You’ve Been Diagnosed with Skin Cancer—What Now?”
A member with one year of sobriety recently wrote to me, asking me to describe the meaning of progressive victory over lust. He said, “I know the sobriety definition, but how can I define whether or not I’m sober with progressive victory over lust?”
Now that Roy has passed, it is incumbent on all of us to carry on his primary emphasis on recovery from Lust. Unlike other “S” fellowships, where the emphasis is on the powerlessness over acting out, we in SA emphasize our powerlessness over lust.
I cringe with self-centered fear each time I hear a sexaholic attempting to assuage the pain and shame of a relapse by subtly downplaying the value of his or her lost sobriety.
In Tasmania, we have a meeting location at Deloraine, midway between Ulverstone and Launceston. However, this is a round trip of 140 km for me and 100 km for a second member. A third member lives in Hobart, 300 km from Ulverstone and 200 km from Launceston. Thus, the three of us usually meet by conference call.
When I started my journey of recovery, I was not prepared to call myself a sexaholic. Even though my life was unmanageable, I knew I had a problem with sex, and I was attracted to men, I did not believe I was powerless over lust.
Dear Fellow SA Members: This quarter I would like to share my deep gratitude for Roy K.’s impact on my life, as I have expressed in my following letter to him.
The Middle Tennessee Fellowships will once again host the winter International Conventions. Our theme describes the result of following the journey of Twelve Step Recovery: when we thoroughly follow this path, we will have a spiritual awakening and enter into the “Fellowship of the Spirit.”
The Reno, Nevada group has two meetings a week and four regular members. We have a website and are working on other ways to pass the message about our meetings, in a manner that is attractive and not promotive.
