May the Words of My Mouth...

When I am moved to speak at A.A. meetings, the words from my mouth aren't mine. I'm not that wise. Instead, I believe it is God speaking through me with a message He wants someone in the room to hear.

Similarly, someone may say something that has me grabbing for my notebook to write down a poignant message God intended for me to hear. Mark, at my Thursday night meetings, says that if he ever hears God's voice speaking to him, lock him up. On the other hand, he believes God does speak to him through the words others at the meetings say.

I write this blog in the belief that God leads me to deliver a message someone needs to read. I don't get many views each day. But if there is one, maybe God has chosen to speak to that person through me. God, may I do Your will!

Another Mark told a story at A.A. this afternoon that illustrates the point I am trying to make. Years ago at a meeting, he tried to deliver a message, but got lost along the way. When he was finished, he felt what he had said made no sense at all. It happens that way to all of us.

But after the meeting, a man shook Mark's hand and thanked him. He said Mark shared exactly what he needed to hear that day. He paraphrased what Mark had said, but clearly the message he heard wasn't even close to what Mark had said or was trying to say.

God was speaking through Mark and enabling an interpretation shaped into God's words, not Mark's.

We never know what little thing we say and do is really a mini-miracle from God. I'll close with this anecdote from A.A.'s Big Book, page 519:

"When it came time to hold hands and pray at the end of the meeting, I had no hand to hold on one side. I remember thinking 'I will never fit in here' and hanging my head. I felt my hand being taken -- someone in front of me had taken the time to be sure the circle was complete. To this day I don't know who it was, but that person is the reason I came back the next night -- that person saved my life. And I kept coming back."