Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

"Showing others who suffer how we were given help is the the very thing which makes life seem so worth while to us now. Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have -- the key to life and happiness for others. With it you can avert death and misery for them."

--The Big Book page 124

I am grateful for my dark past. No, I'm not masochistic. It's just that we learn more from our losses than from our victories.

Fortunately, my dark past only goes back 10 years or so, not somewhere along life's road miles before I came to this rest stop....

If I hadn't driven through the dark past, I never would have come to know myself and how to repair the damage I caused to myself and others. Only because I had bad times did I find God and pray for His will to be done through me. I see results of that prayer every day.

Stanley Lake in Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains

When I lived in Idaho, I came to realize those beautiful mountains couldn't exist without valleys. A lack of valleys is what makes the Great Plains plains. We need highs and lows to appreciate life. My low came from drinking; my high comes from God. My dark past truly
is the greatest possession I have.

Rick Warren, in The Purpose-Driven Life, says it this way:  "The good news is that God wants you to pass the tests of life, so he never allows the tests you face to be greater than the grace he gives you to handle them."  (https://www.churchsource.com/church-and-small-group/church-campaigns/the-purpose-driven-life-what-on-earth-am-i-here-for-1?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9IS12ffT3AIVE77ACh3BmQzqEAAYASAAEgKatfD_BwE)