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Faith in the process means believing that we are moving in the right direction, even if it is not the one we thought we would go.<\/b><\/p>\n
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Living Clean, Chapter 1, \u201cFrom Despair to Passion\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
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On the day of our first NA meeting, we may have made predictions about what our lives would be like without drugs, but what if our dreams don\u2019t come true? Despair has forced us to strive for something new, but what will that be? We now have choices in our lifestyle that we didn\u2019t have before, but how do we know what the \u201cright\u201d path is and whether we are following our \u201ctrue\u201d life purpose? If we don\u2019t have enough faith for the future, how can we gain more?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Whatever questions we have about finding our true purpose, the same crystal ball that didn\u2019t work when we were high doesn\u2019t work when we\u2019re clean. Fortunately, more is revealed as we stay clean. Through the Steps, we discover our values and beliefs. For many of us, this means our purpose changes radically or that we finally find one. Recovery gives us the opportunity to reexamine goals that addiction interfered with, or to start over. Hope helps us believe that we\u2019re on the right path, and faith guides our steps in that direction.<\/p>\n
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We find purpose (or many purposes, over time) in NA, in a career, in relationships, in our communities, on a mountaintop, in a foreign country, or in sitting still. We learn to serve others more than our own ego. We practice self-acceptance and offer it to younger members who think it is impossible to be okay with ourselves. Many of us also have\u2014or are rediscovering and rekindling\u2014our faith in a God who has a plan for us that we cannot foresee, fervently believing that this plan is better than anything we could create on our own. Others find purpose in a life governed by spiritual principles or believe that the universe is conspiring on our behalf, inspiring us. Faith in finding and living our purpose takes practice. Recovery in NA provides us with tools to manage our discomfort through trial and error, which is impossible without a sufficient amount of open-mindedness and willingness during the journey.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I can't predict the future, but I believe I can. I'll move in one direction and see where that path leads. It's worth staying alive to find out.<\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-12203","spad","type-spad","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.na-greece.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spad\/12203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.na-greece.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spad"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.na-greece.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/spad"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.na-greece.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}