On February 14, 2009, I was stood up by one-night stand. My reaction was to get drunk and suicidal. When I woke up on February 16, this alcoholic’s desire to drink had been removed by some unseen, unexplained, unexpected cosmological force. Fast forward three years. My grandmother died yesterday, February 20. I grieved for a few moments, affirmed that she was in a better place, and set myself to being of service to someone else. Self-centered reactions like drinking or other self-destructive behaviors never entered my mind. This is just one piece of evidence that a Higher Power is working in my life.
You don’t have to believe in it to experience it. The thing about truth is that it just is, whether we recognize it or deny it. What worked for me was simply the willingness to open myself to greater possibilities. The Higher Power—which I choose to call God because I think that’s the best word in the English language to describe it—does the rest. God makes Himself known to those who are open to see and receive. It’s not dogmatic. This isn’t about religion in the institutional context. If you define religion simply as faith and belief, then I suppose it fits the description. But this matter of God isn’t about rules and ritual. God is far bigger than our human constructs. And that’s what makes the whole thing so wonderfully freeing. There’s no wrong way to do it—faith in God, that is. I know that if it worked for dead drunk like me, it can work for anyone open to it.
