For Today: November 28th

Hope is the risk that must be run.

Georges Bernanos

Have I tried and failed?  Try again.  The Big Book says, “If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it---then you are ready to take certain steps.”

Going to any length means taking twelve specific steps, one day at a time, and never being finished.  In the process, sanity will be restored and abstinence will become a reality.

Hope and willingness are the springboards to recovery.  The hope of being healed of my illness is a risk I’m willing to run today and every day.

For Today:  I have hope, or I wouldn’t be in OA.  Do I have the willingness to take that leap into the steps; into abstinence?

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What comes first..........abstinence or taking the 12 Steps?  For me, abstinence came first. In other words, I had to commit myself to a strict food plan BEFORE I did anything else.  Until I removed myself from the excess food, I wasn't able to see anything clearly.

Once I stopped overeating, I began to see my addiction and what it had done to me........what it turned me into: a slave.  Compulsive overeating robbed me of my freedom and stripped me of joy and happiness.  


After finding abstinence, then I was able to throw myself into working the steps.  When I got a taste of the freedom that came along with restricted food intake, glimpses of happiness started peeking into the darkness.  I had Hope again..........finally, and that was a great feeling!


Without Hope I am a hopeless addict who believes in nothing, finds comfort from nothing, and stays in a childlike state, unwilling to grow & learn & flourish.


Without Hope, I am nothing BUT a compulsive overeater.


With Hope, compulsive overeating does not define me.  It blends into the background of my life instead of consuming me, body mind & spirit.


For today, I pray for the willingness to keep an open mind; for the willingness to stick to my food plan with the realization that a whole lot MORE is at stake than how much food goes into my mouth.  My LIFE is at stake, quite literally, and for today, I choose not to risk it.