Home > Work > Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
41 " there is an early stage “holiness” that looks like the real thing, but it isn’t. "
― Richard Rohr , Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
42 " We are all spiritually powerless, however, and not just those physically addicted to a substance, which is why I address this book to everyone. Alcoholics just have their powerlessness visible for all to see. The rest of us disguise it in different ways, and overcompensate for our more hidden and subtle addictions and attachments, especially our addiction to our way of thinking. "
43 " The reason we do anything one more time is because the last time did not really satisfy us deeply. As English poet W.H. Auden put it in “Apropos of Many Things”: “We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die. "
44 " God resists our evil and conquers it with good, or how could God ask the same of us?! Think about that. God shocks and stuns us into love. God does not love us if we change, God loves us so that we can change. Only love effects true inner transformation, not duress, guilt, shunning, or social pressure. Love is not love unless it is totally free. Grace is not grace unless it is totally free. You would think Christian people would know that by now, but it is still a secret of the soul. "
45 " Say five Our Fathers and five Hail Marys as a penance” still perpetuated a de facto notion of a juridical exchange instead of any deep experience of healing forgiveness or unearned grace. You cannot deal with spiritual things in a courtroom manner. It does not achieve its purpose; it does not work at a deep level. We forgot our own unique job description as people of the Gospel and imitated courts of law instead. "
46 " May the God of peace make you whole and holy, may you be kept safe in body, heart, and mind, and thus ready for the presence. God has called you and will not fail you” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). "
47 " Only love effects true inner transformation, not duress, guilt, shunning, or social pressure. "
48 " As physicist Albert Einstein frequently said in a different way: No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused the problem in the first place. "
49 " the old ego will always prefer an economy of merit and sacrifice to any economy of grace and unearned love, where we have no control. "
50 " Stinking thinking” is the universal addiction. Substance addictions like alcohol and drugs are merely the most visible form of addiction, but actually we are all addicted to our own habitual way of doing anything, our own defenses, and most especially, our patterned way of thinking, or how we process our reality. "
51 " All societies are addicted to themselves and create deep codependency on them. "
52 " A.A. is the only group I know that is willing and honest enough to just tell people up front, “You are damn selfish!” Or, “Until you get beyond your massive narcissism you are never going to grow up. "
53 " Step 8 is a marvelous tool and technology for very practical incarnation, which keeps Christianity grounded, honest, and focused on saving others instead of just ourselves. “Anyone who claims to be in the light, but hates his brother or sister, is still in the dark” (1 John 2:9). Until religion becomes flesh, it is merely Platonic idealism instead of Jesus radicalism. "
54 " •All societies are addicted to themselves and create deep codependency on them. There are shared and agreed-upon addictions in every culture and every institution. These are often the hardest to heal because they do not look like addictions because we have all agreed to be compulsive about the same things and blind to the same problems. "
55 " Like apples of gold in a silver setting is a word that is aptly spoken. It is a golden ring, an ornament of finest gold, such is a wise apology to an attentive ear.” —Proverbs 25:11–12 "
56 " God can help you get what you want, which is still a self-centered desire, instead of God’s much better role—which is to help you know what you really desire (Luke 11:13; Matthew 7:11). "
57 " Good religion keeps God free for people and keeps people free for God. You cannot improve on that. "
58 " Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, said that what he resented in most Christians was what he perceived as a constant underlying resentment: (1) a denied resentment toward God for demanding sacrifice, (2) toward others for not appreciating our sacrifice, (3) sacrificing as much as we sacrifice, (4) and a resentment toward others for not having to do it! "
59 " Have you ever experienced the embarrassed and red-faced look of shame and self-recognition on the face of anyone who has been loved gratuitously after they have clearly done wrong? This is the way that God seduces us all into the economy of grace—by loving us in spite of ourselves in the very places where we cannot or will not or dare not love ourselves. "
60 " Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. "