What we find is not that the Higher Power spares us the difficulties of life, but that we receive the grace to come through them clean.
Living Purely, Chapter 3, “Walking the Way”
When terrible things happen to us or to people we love, especially those we see as innocent and wronged by an ordeal, our first reaction is usually to try to make sense, to look for someone or something to blame. "How could this happen?" Such incidents—like a terminal diagnosis or the loss of a child, or less dire, like being fired from a job—can shake our faith in a Higher Power or the NA program. We may ask ourselves, "Why am I bothering to stay clean and try to live by all these spiritual principles if life is going to end up causing me so much pain?"
No matter how much integrity we practice and how much love we have in our hearts—or how little—life will keep showing up. Instead of trying to rationally work our way through pain or out of a mess, we learn to ask our Higher Power, in whatever way makes sense to us: “How do I get through this clean@?”
If we ask this question seriously and listen to the answer, we will be able to find grace. Grace is an active force in our lives. It's the gentle nudge that directs us to the next right thing and offers us a break from the thinking and logic of our addiction. Grace allows us to find blessings in the hardships we endure—or, at the very least, to accept what happens to us and seek guidance. We know that others have gone through the same life events that we are experiencing and have stayed clean. This collective wisdom, the deep well of experiences and resources available to us through our connection to NA, is grace. The more we notice and recognize the presence of grace, the more grace we will experience.
Even in times of great misery, I will make an effort to be present enough to recognize and receive grace.
