Meditations on "Powerless"

For those of us who live in the northern hemisphere this is the shortest day and the longest night of the year.

S As the Twelve Traditions are read at the meetings we attend, we join the reader on the final phrase with the words, “principles before personalities.

In the Bible we read of many festivals the people celebrate because God intervened on their behalf.

G The following Psalm is one that in many ways expresses the emotions we were dealing with when we called out to God in our powerlessness over our dependency and the unmanageable lifestyle we were living.

What came first the chicken or the egg? When we called out to God in our powerlessness, did we suddenly show up on His “locating system” or was He already waiting for us to call and available to help us?

Trying to be self-reliant and seeking to sort out life on our own took many of us into lifestyles of isolation, addiction, denial, and destructive behaviour.

The writer of today’ Psalm is putting his trust in a faithful and righteous God and asks Him to listen to his cry for help.

The following words were written by King David after he had allowed his lust for a woman to lead him down the path of sexual immorality and murder.

All of us who have weathered the storm of an addictive lifestyle know that our days were filled with trials of one sort or another.

“Where is life going from here?” is a question we may ask ourselves when we come to admit that we are powerless over our dependencies and that our life has become unmanageable.

Transition is difficult. It requires that we leave something behind and move into something new.

One of the great comforts and challenges, all at the same time, is the reality that we are powerless to manage our lives on our own.