I'm not in a big writing mood today, but I want to highlight two points that I learned at my AA meetings this week.
1. Yesterday, I went to a speaker meeting, in which a person tells the story of his recovery from alcoholism. The speaker yesterday was saying that he used to be part of a tightly-knit Big Book meeting that met for years. Eventually, the group disassembled, as people went their own way. The speaker was sad about that, and he related that many attempts to restart the group failed. But he concluded that it was time for the group to move on, for its members had to carry the lessons they had learned to the outside world. He noted that he's met a lot of people with sponsors who were once a part of that special group.
That reminded me of a couple of things. In Stephen King's It, fate drew together the kids in the Loser's Club specifically so they could defeat It. Once their mission was accomplished, their special bond to one another began to fade, as they went on to live their individual lives.
Then there's the Book of Acts. The saints were concentrated in Jerusalem, where they enjoyed God and one another. But persecution drove them out of their comfort zone and pushed them to spread the Gospel to other areas.
One thing I like about being on a spiritual path is that life becomes like a story, in which I can be a significant character with a purpose. As C.S. Lewis once said, Christianity means that our beloved stories are real.
2. The view above assumes that things in life have a purpose. But there are some events that make me wonder who is minding the store. In a meeting today, a man lamented that his fiancee recently cancelled their marriage plans--out of the blue. Where is God in this? Why would God lead them to each other, if their relationship was to end? I ask about this what I ask about a lot of things: What is the point?