20250407 - God is infinite

20250407 - God is infinite

He links this to what he calls “rightly relating” to God – not asking for stuff, but honestly sharing fears, hopes and frustrations, then shifting into gratitude, even for something as ordinary as fingernails: evidence, he jokes, of “God doing for me what I cannot do for myself.” He talks plainly about alcoholism as “a disease that centres in my mind,” showing up as an “unsatisfiable, fault-finding, opinionated mind that's always in a hurry, easily frustrated and can't stand the word no.” He connects this with AA’s step two, and the idea that many alcoholics have “grave emotional and mental disorders,” whether they’re drinking or not.

How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober? This conversation with Randy Mermell circles around a simple yet demanding idea: talking to a higher power as if it were a trusted friend. Randy guides the group through a slow, breath-by-breath experience of the third step prayer, pausing after each line to actually ask, “Do I really offer myself to my higher power today?” and to notice resistance as it appears.

True humility, he says, is admitting that and staying open to the possibility that a higher power could restore sanity. Group members share how this approach is changing their day-to-day lives: Sarah battling racing thoughts at bedtime, Rachel using step two to let go of procrastination and compulsive spending, Ty wrestling with the “self-talking mind,” and others describing practical tricks like repeating, “The power of God is within me, the grace of God surrounds me,” to fall asleep.

Randy keeps returning to one core message: God is infinite, so the relationship can keep deepening, moment by moment. Meditation, prayer and rightly relating aren’t occasional tools; they’re a way of walking through the day. If your mind feels too loud and your disease talks in your own voice, could this kind of simple, continuous conversation with a higher power be worth trying?