Jesus, one of the readings we do every morning in the AA meeting I attend is a section out of the AA Big Book that says,
No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress, and we claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
I feel like that's the path I've been on most of my life. Somehow striving for spiritual perfection will always disappoint, but continuing to make spiritual progress even in my darkest times somehow moves the game piece forward.
It seems that the sharper the chisel is, the better it is at knocking away the rough and sharp edges that remain. And, in the end, the better I am because of it.
I believe that not a single day has been wasted - that somehow you as the master sculptor still have your eye on what the final work of art will look like. It's up to me to try to be more malleable and more willing to fit into the mold you have in your mind for my life.
In the end, it's only because of your skillful hands and the picture of what you want me to see who I can be that I will be able to break out of an ugly piece of marble and be a thing of beauty that others choose to gaze upon.
Amen.
