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Source: DICOBE-00416 – Wesley P – SOUTHEAST INDIANA STATE CONF – 1977-09-18.mp3 File: dicobe-00416-wesley-p-southeast-indiana-state-conf-1977-09-18.mp3 Duration: 01:16:59
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So I'm going to turn this over to Wesley P. from Pompano Beach, Florida. Wesley, there he is. Good morning. Good morning. Hey, y'all look all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning, Sunday morning. Isn't it wonderful to be sober? And I want to thank you before I get into this. What I have to say is I want to thank the committee for inviting me to this wonderful conference. And I've always had a warm spot in my heart for Indiana.
In 1942, no, 1944, I was inducted to the Navy. And I was in a place in Virginia. And a fellow and I went out and got drunk one night, and we become fast friends because we were the same had the same personalities, and we become very firm friends through boot camp. And he was an attorney out of Atlanta. And so the Navy offered him a rating if he would stay and not go on boot camp, boot leave. And so when I came back, he was in charge of the outgoing drafts of all the men where we were supposed to go in the Navy.
And this boy says, now, I've got something good coming up for you. And he says, it's going to be a little time. And he says, I got your name out of the file. So through the grace of God, three weeks later, he told me, he said, you're leaving Thursday. And I said, where am I going? He said, you're going to West Lafayette, Indiana. And I said, what am I going to do in West Lafayette, Indiana? I said, I've never heard of such a place as the Navy.
I said, that's far ways inland. And he said, you're going to Purdue University. I was 32 years old. And I came to Purdue University, and through the grace of God, I was taught the theory of electricity. And I have been in that business ever since. So you see, I have a warm spot in my heart in Indiana. Because you, at 32 years old, I got a trade. I also want to thank the committee because, you know, a long time in my life, I was never invited anywhere.
And just to be invited is a great thing. And I'm very grateful, very grateful for this invitation. And so for a long time, I can never separate the words thankful and grateful. They were synonymous as far as I was concerned. But finally, through his grace, one day I picked up a book. And this book was giving the interpretation of being thankful and being grateful. And it said that whenever you are thankful for something, you are directly benefited.
Like I am thankful for your friendship. I'm thankful for the AA program. I'm thankful for my family, for the food I eat, and things of this nature, where I directly benefit through the grace of God. But now to be grateful, this man went on to say, is to be willing to reciprocate for what you are thankful for. In other words, to make payment thereof to God for what he has been giving you so generously.
And so today I am thankful. I am thankful that you invited me because I have directly benefited from it. And me standing up in front of you, I am grateful because I am trying to repay God, to reciprocate for what he's done for me. AA is just as important to me today as the blood in my veins. I'm an alcoholic. I've got an incurable disease called alcoholism. I'll have it till the day I die. I can never cure it, but I can arrest it.
And the only way that I've ever provided this arrest is through the application of the AA program in its entirety. I had the good fortune of finding this program at a very early age. I was 34 years of age, and I found it November 13, 1947. I'm in my 30th year in the program of AA. But that means nothing. It's the quality of the sobriety that counts. I need the program more today than I needed it 30 years ago.
30 years ago, I had nothing to lose. When I came to you, I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired.
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And I had no place to go. And you have taught me a new way of life. And it's an old cliche in Alcoholics Anonymous says that you've got to grow or you've got to go, one of the two. And believe me, I know this to be true. When I came to AA, I had no self-respect. I didn't have the love of my family. I lived in a house. I didn't live in a home. I wasn't acceptable in the community that I lived in. I was a bankrupt businessman, morally bankrupt.
And the worst of all, I didn't even have a god of my understanding. I had nothing. Today I have my self-respect. Today I have the love of my family. I live in a home today. I don't live in a house. There's love and there's laughter. I have been a successful businessman through the application of this program. I have built a million-dollar business since I've been in Alcoholics Anonymous. And when the time came, I had a son to take the business over.
I'm retired now. I'm retired now. I don't have to work another day of my life through this program. I'm acceptable in the community that I live in. But all of those things are great, but that's not the greatest. The greatest thing of all is that I have found a god that I can call my friend through the application of this program. My friend. I can have what I've got today, or I can have one drink of alcohol.
I can never have both. I can never have both. I have a choice every day that I live, which choice I want to take. Am I going the AA way, or am I going to that drinking-sticking way? So you see, I want to grow every day of my life in this program. And the longer I stay in Alcoholics Anonymous, the more I go back to the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, the first 164 pages. This book tells me that if I will do, and it tells you this same thing, that if I work, it'll work.
It tells me that if I work this program to the best of my ability, not what somebody else thinks, but the best I can do, that things will happen to me beyond my fondest dreams. And I stand in front of you this morning as an example, not proud, but humbly, to tell you that this is true. This program works if we work as individuals. But it's up to you to apply it to yourself, and it's up to me to apply it to myself.
Each is own. This book has the answer. It's made for alcoholics. It works. It was not always that way. I spent four and a half years in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous thinking that I was God sent. I spent four and a half years in AA thinking that AA could not operate in my hometown of Pompano Beach, Florida without me being there, without me applying myself into my group, without me picking the speakers so that my other members would not get contaminated.
No one else could make another 12-step call but me, because I knew exactly what to say and how to say it. If I see a pigeon of mine talking to someone else, when he got through, I'd call him over. I'd say, come over here, boy. He'd say, yes, sir. I said, what are you talking to him about? And he'd tell me. And I said, well, now, how long has he been sober? He'd say, well, he's been sober two years.
I said, how long have I been sober? He said, four and a half. He knew exactly. And I said, well, now, who's got the answer, me or him? If you want to stay sober, you better get with it. Is that not a negative state? I was like an old hen with her biddies, you know. I kept them under my wings. And one morning I woke up. I had two left. And I woke up this Sunday morning and the telephone rang and this woman, little Al-Anon, says, Wesley, he's drunk.
I says, no. I said, we have a moon in Florida, and it seems that the moon affects alcoholics. What you tell them really doesn't make any difference. If that moon gets in the right position, you're a dead duck,
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as far as your pigeons are concerned. And I said to her, I says, well, what happened? She says, I don't know, Wesley, but he got drunk. I says, who was he out with? And she told me. I says, well, how is he? He says, well, he's drunk, too. That was both of my pigeons. And I says, no. I says, they're the most unappreciative individuals that I ever learned, I ever met up with. I said, I gave them a dime to call me, and I says, they didn't call me.
And I says, what am I going to do? And I hung up the phone, and I went in to see my wife, Rena, and I told my wife, Rena, I says, Rena, I says, I'll never make another 12-step call as long as I live. I says, now, I'm not going to quit AA. I'm going down and make the coffee and clean up the mess, wash the cups, sweep the floor, mop it, and all that, but I'll never make another 12-step call. I says, you know, Chris, now, Chris is my sponsor, and he's a sponsor like everybody should have.
Pardon me. I says, you know, Chris lied to me. And Rena says, what did Chris tell you? I says, Chris told me that the more of this program I give away, the more I get. I says, well, that's not true, is it? I says, it's sure not. She says, why don't you go see Chris and talk it over with him? I says, that's a good idea. Well, it wasn't a good idea, but I thought it was at the time. So I got in my car, and I went down to see Chris, and I knocked on the door.
And Chris comes to the door. He was from Orangeburg, Kentucky, and he had lived in Florida for years, and he was about 6'6", like a beanpole, you know. And he comes to the door, and he says, my God, look what the cat's drug up here, you know. I says, Chris, I'm not in the mood for that this morning. He says, what's wrong with you? And I says, they're all drunk. He says, who's all drunk? I says, my pigeons.
He says, so what? I says, you lied to me. He says, how have I lied to you? I says, you told me the more of this program I give away, the more I get. He says, what's wrong with that? I says, it's a lie. He says, well, maybe you just haven't looked at it in the right perspective. And I says, what are you talking about? He says, well, tell me, Wesley. He says, how can you give away something you haven't got?
And I says, you're kidding. He says, oh, I know you've been sober four and a half years. He says, every time you get with me, you tell me it's a four and a half marker. He says, I know that. But he says, when are you going to start practicing what you preach? When are you going to start applying the program of Alcoholics Anonymous to Wesley Parish? This is what I want to know. He says, Wesley. He says, my bird dogs come to see me, and I'm ashamed of what I hear about you.
He says, you haven't changed one iota. You still lie and cheat and steal, and you're no good father and a no good husband. He says, how you stayed sober, he says, I don't know. He says, I'll give you credit for the first half of the first step, and that's the only thing I'll give you credit for. I says, Chris, you hurt me. And he says, I intend to hurt you. He says, you want to talk about it? And I says, yes.
He says, well, sit down. Well, he was retired, and I knew he had all the time in the world. And so I sit down. And he says, Wesley, you don't even know what the first step says. I says, you're kidding. He says, all right, what does the first step say? I says, the first step says we admit that we're powerless over alcohol and our lives become unmanageable. He says, that's not what it says at all. He says, you don't even know how to read.
I says, Chris, you shouldn't talk to me like that. He says, well, between the word alcohol and that, there's a little dash. A little dash. And he says, that dash was put there for a reason. He says, everything that's put in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous is put there for a reason. And he says, that dash is there for a reason. He says, it's a punctuation mark. And any time you see one of those dashes, you pause.
Because the contents of the sentence is changing. He says, now read the step like you're supposed to. Tell me what it says. I says, we admitted that we're powerless over alcohol. That our lives have become unmanageable. He says, you have done nothing about your unmanageable life. Nothing. He says, do you know the steps are numbered? I says, I've never seen them without numbers. He says, they'd look naked, wouldn't they?
I says, yes, I says, they sure would. He says, well, you know why they numbered them? I says, no, I don't. He says, they numbered them to keep screwballs like you from messing them up. That's exactly what he says. Screwballs like you for messing them up, that's exactly what I remember.
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He says, you have heard over the podium that you can take these steps cafeteria style. If you don't like number one, you go to five. If you don't like number five, you go to eight. If you're comfortable, you stay with the step. If not, well, you go to another one. He says, that's a bunch of hoes. He says, if you start with one. He said, in How It Works, it says, rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.
He says, you ain't followed the path, you're detouring everywhere. And until you get on the path, Wesley, he says, you're not going to make much out of this program. And I said, well, how do I get on the path? He said, one time, Wesley, there was an old Chinaman that said that if you're going to start a 3,000 mile journey, the first thing you have to do is take the first step. And he said, if I was you, I'd start working on it. And he said, now, I know this sounds elementary, but he said, it might be well to bring it out at this time.
Now, after you take the first step, if you want to go farther on down the path, he said, if I were you, I'd take the second step. And he said, after you take that second step, then I would take the third step. He said, they're all done in the past tense, and there is a rise between each and every one of them. That's the reason they're called steps, because that rise is a growing area between each step. He said, the second step says, came to believe.
He says, came is the past tense of come. And he said, you've got to do a lot of coming before you came. He made it very simple. Now, if I had not heard this morning, I would have never stayed sober 30 years. Uh-uh. Never. It would have been impossible. It's impossible. It would have been impossible for me to stay sober if it hadn't been for this man having this morning's session with me and telling me the truth.
You see, the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is based upon one thing, and that's total truth. That's all it's based on. And as long as we try to keep our old ideas mixed up into our Alcoholics Anonymous new way of life, we'll never make it. Because the big book says we try to hold on to our old ideas, and the result is nil until we let go absolutely. It's not our drinking that's stinking, it's our thinking. He accused me of being malnutritious between the ears, and I had to agree with it. I had to agree with it.
And I said, well, what am I supposed to do about it? He says, I want you to go home, Wesley, and start applying the program of AHA yourself. Find out something about the program, and be a student of the program, and apply it. Well, since that time, I've tried my best. A lot of times I've slipped and fell and all of that, but I've picked myself up. I have never seen a time in AHA that I could not take a stumbling block and make a stepping stone out of it.
It was according to my mental attitude, how I looked at this given thing. There's always good in everything, if we look for the good. If we don't look for the good, we'll never see it. I never found a time that I could not apply the AHA program to my way of life, regardless of what happened to me. I've tried it in business, it worked. I've tried it with my family, it worked. I've tried it in politics, it's worked.
I've just tried it in living, and it's worked. It works if we work as individuals. So I went back to Pompano Beach, and I started to get busy in the program. Now, to bring out what I have found out, I have to go to a little history, because history is very important. It's too bad, now I'm not a book salesman, and I don't pretend to be a book salesman, but it's too bad that so few alcoholics and alcoholics anonymous never read A Comes of Age.
Now you know why I know they don't read them? It's because of our whole entire fellowship last year, there was only 13,500 of these books sold. And this is number two book in my life. This is number one, and this is number two.
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Because this just tells me how Alcoholics Anonymous came about, and what happened. And lets me know something about this program. And lets me know what type of man Bill Wilson was, and what type of man that Dr. Bob was. It lets me know that they were human beings, just like I was, and the other members of Alcoholics Early Members that came along was human beings just like you and I. There were no differences.
I suggest to you very strongly that you ask your group to get one of these books, and buy it and read it, because you'll get a lot of good out of it. Now for the little history that you will find in this book. Bill had seen Eddie for the first time, and he went out to a Sam Shoemaker's mission. And he went to a meeting there at Sam Shoemaker's mission, and this man started talking about Jesus Christ, and it's all in this book.
And Bill was sitting there listening, and Bill had what he called an emotional conversion. An emotional conversion. In other words, he got all emotionally stirred up about what this man was saying. Have you ever been to a camp meeting, or a tent meeting, or a revival in the Protestant religion? Or Billy Graham, have you ever heard him on television? And he gets people all emotionally stirred up. Well, this is what happened to Bill. He got emotionally stirred up.
He had an emotional conversion. And he said, well, this is it. And he went home that night and told Lois about it, and he felt so good about it the next morning he got up and got drunk. That's how much it lasted. And this was his last drunk. And so he went. After two or three days, he decided he would go back to Dr. Siltworth's hospital. And so he goes back to this hospital. He buys three bottles of beer on credit.
And he goes to the hospital, and he drank the last bottle of beer as he was walking up the steps. And as he walked in the corridor, there was Dr. Siltworth. And Dr. Siltworth says, Bill, he says, go on up and go to bed. Well, Bill must have had a special bed there. He must have had it. Because Dr. Siltworth had always announced him absolutely uncurable. He was a chronic alcoholic and could not be cured.
So Bill went upstairs and went to bed. He wasn't in too bad a shape. And so in two or three days, he was in pretty good shape. And who walks into his room one day but Ebby, all smiling, you know, smiling and grinning, sober. And it made Bill just mad. And Bill says, thought he'd come in there to evangelize him. And he says, all right, give me those four or six things that you said the other day that you got from the hospital room.
And so Ebby repeated them. One of them was that I'm licked, and so forth and so on. So Ebby left. And it made Bill so mad that he yelled out, if there's a God, show yourself to me. And all of a sudden, there was a big flash of lightning come through his window. And he said it was like sat on a mountain, and a spirit, a wind went through him, and he felt clean. He felt free for the first time. And it just scared him to death.
He thought he was having DTs. Dr. Siltworth came in the room, and Bill told Dr. Siltworth what happened. And Dr. Siltworth says, well, Bill, I don't know what it is, but it must be something spiritual. It's going to do you some good, so hang on to it. And so Bill says, okay. And so the next day, to show you this program is more divinely inspired, the next day Ebby came back. And he brought him a book called Variety of Religious Experiences by William James.
And he gave Bill this book, and he said, read it. And Bill started to read the book after Ebby left, and it was very heavy. And he finally realized that this book was telling him what had happened to him the day before. This book was telling him that he had a spiritual experience. And Bill got so fascinated with this, he just consumed this book, consumed it. And as he read in this book, he found out what a spiritual experience was.
Joe said something about it yesterday morning in a fleeing moment. I thought you were going to take my thunder, Joe. But Bill found out that a spiritual experience was deflation at depth.
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Now, he's not an alcoholic, and he don't know what I'm talking about. Deflation at depth. That is getting rid of ego. Joe brought it out last night, ego. Time and time and time again, the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous says that selfishness and self-centeredness is the root of all of our troubles. And so Bill found out what a spiritual experience was. It was deflation at depth, and he says, that's the answer.
That's the answer. And Dr. Sitworth came back in the room, and Bill gave Dr. Sitworth this book. And he says, read it. It's got the answer. And then he went out. He was discharged from the hospital, and he went out on the streets of New York. And for six solid months, Bill tried to find another alcoholic that would go along with him. One alcoholic talking to another. But he was a complete failure. But he must have had enough inertia from this spiritual experience, and enough determination and enthusiasm built in from this experience that fed him all of these six months.
But finally he got discouraged, and he went back to Dr. Sitworth, and he was talking to Dr. Sitworth about it. And Dr. Sitworth says, well, Bill, I'm going to tell you what your trouble is. He says, you're preaching to these drunks. And he says, you can't preach to an alcoholic. He says, you've got to change your method. He says, there's very few people that have a spiritual experience like you have.
Usually, these kind of things are gradual. And he says, yours was in the most minute measurement of time. And he says, they don't know what they're talking about. You're going out here and talking about the absolutes, absolute purity, absolute love, absolute unselfishness, absolutes, something else. But you're talking about the four absolutes. And he says, the drunk don't know what you're talking about.
They're going like this, saying you're crazy, and going out and getting drunk. He says, you've got to develop a program where you can start talking to these alcoholics about the physical and mental part of this program. And then as you win over their confidence, then you can talk to them about the spiritual. He says, you've got to identify with them. You've got to get their attention. And he says, you've just been going about this thing the wrong way.
And Bill says, Doc, I think he got something. And Doc says, do you remember that guy William James? You left that book with me. And Bill says, yes. He says, you know what that guy said. He said that you had to have deflation at great depth. Great depth. He put that word great in there. So Bill said, Doc, you got it. That's the answer. Divinely inspired. Two or three days later, Bill went to Akron unexpectedly on this business deal.
And you know the story of what happened in Akron. The business deal went to pop. And Bill, Joe brought it out last night. He was in Mayflower Hotel, and he couldn't decide whether to go in that bar and see what they were doing. Now, can you imagine an alcoholic standing up and saying, I wonder what they're doing in that bar. Can you imagine that? I don't know exactly what they're doing in that bar.
Song Music, Mellow Lights, and Chanel No. 5. That's what's going on in there. He and a she, and that's all. And finally, through his spiritual experience, he went over and he called the little minister who got him in touch with Henrietta Salvin. And Henrietta Salvin got him in touch with Dr. Bob. And Dr. Bob and Bill got together. And for the first time that Bill used this new concept, the physical and the mental part of this disease, starting to talk to an alcoholic about it.
He used it on Dr. Bob. His first success. His first success. Is that not divinely inspired? And as Bill talked to Dr. Bob, Dr. Bob said, My God, Bill, that's me. You are the only man I've ever met that knew what I was, knew how I felt and how I feel and how I think. You're the only man that I ever knew that knows anything about alcoholism. My God, you've got something here. You see, Dr. Bob didn't need any spiritual attention from Bill Wilson.
Dr. Bob was already, had spent two years in the oxford movement, but he couldn't stay sober. Years in the Oxford Movement, but he couldn't stay sober because he had Dr. Bob, self, and
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God. He couldn't remove self. He didn't know how to remove self. Dr. Bob was a hundred times more spiritual man than Bill Wilson ever thought about being. In the end, he turned out to be the rock, the rock of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Bob spent two years, two and a half years, with a phenomenal craving in his gut for a drink of alcohol. And the only way he could ever get relief was by working with others. And he was the greatest Twelve Step worker that was, was ever known in Alcoholics Anonymous. Two and a half years he had this phenomenal craving. And only through working with others did he get a spiritual awakening, a gradual thing. Do I get my message over? We have two co-founders. One had a spiritual experience, the other one had a spiritual awakening, as I interpret it. And these are my opinions, and I have picked this out from my eight compilations. Well, when Bill sat down to write out the Twelve Steps, he kept this all in mind, I'm quite sure, because it was the violin part. He wrote the Twelve Steps in thirty minutes. But he reminisced, he reminisced. A little bit before he read, he wrote the steps and he says, I've got to write these steps. He had six that they had, was passing along, word to mouth, that he'd got from Eddie. And he says, I have got to write these steps in hard words, where an alcoholic can't wiggle out of them, can't wiggle out of them. And he went on to say, he said, we have found at this time that it is one step, there is one step that has to be taken, or an alcoholic gets nowhere. And that's the first step of Alcoholics Anonymous.
If you don't take the first step, you get nowhere, and you take it in its entirety. Over in, and when they discuss the Sixth Step in Twelve and Twelve, it says, and I hear this all the time in AA, that this is a program of progress, not perfection. That's not what it says. It says, in the big book it says, this is a spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection. And over in the Sixth Step of Alcoholics Anonymous, in the Twelve and Twelve, it says, that it's one step that has to be played to perfection. And that is step one.
Before you can get anywhere in this program. It's the most important step in the book, step one. Because this is where you start the journey. This is where you start the process of deflation at depth. And this is the way Bill Wilson wrote this thing. Now let's go through the Twelve Steps and let's see what we're talking about. Number one, he says we're admitted that we're powerless over alcohol. Is that not a deflation? You mean to tell me you're telling this drunk that he's powerless over something? My God, that's a, that's self-will run riot? That's an unheard of thing, telling a drunk that he's powerless over anything.
But I'll tell you through my, through my own admission, and through my surrender, I don't use the word acceptance, because when I accept something, that means, damn it, I don't like it, but, and I can't go for that in my life. I have to surrender to that drink. One drink's too many and a thousand is not enough. And that's deflation. I have found something bigger than me. And even you Al-Anons have got to deflate yourself to the point that you cannot do nothing about alcohol. You can only do something about yourself. And so that's the number one thing, is I'm powerless over alcohol. And then the second part, it says that my life has become unmanageable. My life has become unmanageable. Drunk or sober, it doesn't say anything whether you're drunk or whether you're sober. It says that your life is unmanageable.
For four and a half years, my life is total unmanageable. I was in worse condition after four and a half years than I was the day I came into Alcoholics and Mongers. The only reason that they didn't bury me in bankruptcy was that I just didn't have nothing to be bankrupt on, that's all. Period. And I was still, had the same character defects and full action. I still had not got rid of one of my old ideas. Not one. I wanted my cake and eat it too, and you can't have your cake and eat it too in the program of Alcoholics
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and Mongers. The old way has got to go. The old stinking thinking has got to go. So I got busy on this unmanageable life, and I came up with the idea that if you can't manage your life, it'll be a good idea to get some managers, or try to find someone to help you manage your life. For the first time in my life, I became willing to let go just a little of myself, just to let go. I was everything to everything, and you know what, I ended up being nothing to nothing. Everything to everything. Now first thing, you know, I know the big book says if you get spiritually fit, you'll get materially fit too. I know it says that. But you see, my nose runs and my feet smell, and I'm different from other people.
And I had a lot of financial difficulties, and I thought that was the most paramount thing in my mind, to get these monkeys off of my back, and so I put, give that priority. And I started thinking about that, and I come up with the idea that I can make money, but I can't manage money. I'm the type of individual that I don't buy what I need, I buy what I want, and my wants are heavy. I'm the type of individual, if you sell me something on credit, I'll take two. I'm just that way. I'm the type of individual that's got a blank check, a lot of blank checks here, and I've got a signature for every one. I could care nothing about the stub. Income tax is the least of my work. These small minute things like that, bookkeeping and keeping balance and checkbooks and all that stuff, that's for somebody else, that's not for me. I don't have time for that kind of stuff, I'm an alcoholic.
Well, you know what kind of shape I was in. I can't manage money. I could have always been able to make money, but I couldn't manage it. So I decided, I said, you know, the first thing I need me is a financial manager. And I said, well, I'm going to get me a CPA, and I said, no, I can't afford to let him know what type of businessman I am. You know, this is vanity, you know. And I said, well, I'll get me a bookkeeper, a combination bookkeeping secretary. I said, I can't do that, I'll have an affair with her, you know. So one day out of the clear blue sky, I happened to think of my wife, Rena. I said, you know, when I married that gal, she had a thousand dollars, and she saved this thousand dollars, got a little old bit of stinking dry cleaning business. In the heart of the Depression in 1930, 32 to 36, we got married in 36. And I know she had the thousand dollars because we spent it. I know this, you see. I got proof of it. And so I went home to see Rena. I said, that's what, I won't have to tell her nothing. She knows it all anyhow. So I go home and I walked upstairs to this little apartment into the living room, and she was in the kitchen doing something. And I said, honey, you know, I didn't run off my lips, because I wanted something out of her. And she says, I don't have time for that this morning. I said, you don't even know what I come home for. She says, I got a good idea. I said, that's not it at all. I said, come on in here and sit down. She came in and sat down and said, hurry up, I haven't got much time. You know how they are. I said, I want you to come to work for me. She says, come to work for you? This morning you didn't want nothing to do with me. Now you want me to come to work for you. What can I do for you? I said, I want you to manage my money. And she says, I thought you wanted me to come to work. What money do you have to manage? And I said, now don't be facetious. Don't be facetious. I said, I'm trying to give you security. I don't know about the spouses of alcoholics in Indiana, but I can tell you about them in Florida. They've got a sense of insecurity. You know what I mean? And I said, this will give you security. This is what you've been looking for. And after a period of time, she said, well, we've tried everything else, Leslie.
We just want to try that. And we have. How that gal ever stayed with me, I don't know, through all this foolishness. Sixteen years. One day I asked her two or three years back, I said, Rena, why did you stay with me through those years? And she looked at me, she says, well, I just didn't have any other place to go. That's the only reason. You know, I don't know why any of y'all feel that way about it or not. But you know, the moment she says, I'll take the job, I release myself of finances. For the first time in my life, this is why I tell this story. For the first time in my life, I deflated myself enough to just let go a little
[00:40:03]
piece of me. To let go of something that I couldn't do well. That I was trying to do regardless. And you know, since that day, I have never had one bad financial day. Not one. Every day since then has been hunting roses as far as finances is concerned. I've always had enough money to run my business. It's an amazing thing. You see, this is deflation. Unmanageable life. I went down to see Chris. And I says, Chris, I want you to be my living manager. He says, what the hell are you talking about? I said, I want you to teach me how to live. I've lost the art of living. He says, I wouldn't take that job over all of Xi'an, China. I says, Chris, I need you. He says, well, I know that, but he says, that's too big a job. That's just impossible. The shape you're in? No. He says, that's too much change. And I says, Chris, I need you. I want to quit lying and cheating and stealing and being an unfaithful husband and a no-good father. I says, I want to change my ways, Chris, and I want to learn how. I don't know how. I don't know how to go out and be honest in the day, in the day's business. I don't know how. I don't know how to live without lying. I just don't know how. And I steal. I says, I'll steal anything. And I says, I got to learn how not to do it. I want to be like you. And he says, I think you're serious. And I says, I am. He says, well, I'll try your facades, Wesley. But if you ever jump to traces, he says, I'm through with you. I says, that's the deal. And Chris stayed on me for 25 years. Now, there's no way I can tell you about this man. There's no words that I can express to you about him, because I don't know, Joe used the word yesterday, agape, or acape. It's a Greek word, means the divine love of God. A love that's spontaneous, unlimited, and unmotivated. And this is the type of love that Chris gave me. And he meant every moment of it. He had the divine love of me in his heart. And he taught me how to live, and how to be a human being. He taught me this, and thank God, he did. Or I'd have never made it.
I couldn't have made it. But we used to sit toe-to-toe, and eyeball-to-eyeball, and I'd have one of them smart ideas, you know, I'd go down to see him. And he says, where the hell do you get all these ideas, Wesley? I says, Chris has got anything wrong with this idea. It's not, well, let me tell you what's wrong with it. And he'd take off for a two-hour dissertation. And then I'd say my two cents worth, and then he'd say, well, I don't see anything too much wrong with it. Wesley, why don't you go ahead and try it? I said, why didn't you say that two hours ago? He said, well, I just wanted to see how convinced you was about the idea, that's all. I said, I could kill people like you, boy. You see, but he taught me how to think. He taught me how to think. I didn't know how to think. He used to tell me, he says, Wesley, anything big enough to worry you is big enough to talk about. And this is true. Anything big enough to worry me is big enough to talk about. I thank God he taught me that. Well, you know, the little old simple ABCs of Alcoholics Anonymous says this.
It says, A, we're alcoholic and we cannot manage our own lives. And they say these are three pertinent ideas. A, that we're alcoholic and we cannot manage our own lives. B, that probably no human being can relieve us of our alcoholism. I don't care what Rena and what Chris did for me, they could not relieve me of my alcoholism. They could take a burden off of me, but that's the only thing they could do. But C told me where to go. C said that God could and would if he was soft. And up to this time, I had no connection with God. We were perfect strangers. He let me alone and I let him alone. And I was a type of A, my wife and I say, let's self-pedal this God business. You run alcoholic on Alcoholics Anonymous. If we're going to teach him about God, just slip it to him slowly, you know, slowly. But you know, being that Rena and Chris relieved me of this pressure of living and of money, my mind started opening up and I started to visualize what this A.A. program was all about. My mind opened up enough for me to start lifting.
[00:45:01]
Every person that I admired in Alcoholics Anonymous that was an example of what I would like to be like talked about God freely, unashamed. And finally I was convinced it was something to this God business, and I said, I better get busy on this thing. And there's a woman that I admired above all people about her spiritual values because she carried this thing with her. And she lived this program. She was the epitome of this program.
And one day I decided I'd go by her and see her just to find out how she lived. So I knocked on her door and she came to the door and she says, Wesley, I'm baking a cake, I'm taking it out of the oven, going to the living room to sit down. So I went in the living room to sit down and I leaned back in a rocking chair and there was a picture. There was a sailor standing at the wheel of a ship and this picture just fascinated me.
I kept looking at the picture and I realized that this young man had the same look in his face that this woman had in her face that I'd come to see. He was unafraid. And all around this ship was a very rough sea. And I'd rode out through typhoons and China seas and I know what a rough sea is. And I knew he should be full of fear, but he had no fear. And I kept looking at the picture and finally I realized that the artist had painted in silhouette behind the young man the Prince of Peace.
He had his hand on his shoulder and he was porting away. And I says, this young man has got a friend. He's got a friend. And my mind went back to the first day I was in there. The first day I was in Alcoholics Anonymous I didn't have one friend. I didn't have anybody I trusted. I didn't have nobody I confided. I had nobody that understood me. Did you? I didn't. And the reason I didn't have this is because I didn't want anybody.
You see, you have to be a friend to have a friend. And I didn't want any friends because everybody was taking my inventory. Everybody was trying to take the rights and the privileges away from me for drinking alcohol. And as Joe said last night, I was normal. There were other people who were abnormal out there trying to take my inventory. Why didn't they take their old inventory and leave mine alone?
If they had what I had to go through with every day, they'd take a few drinks too. Reno used to say, My God, why did I marry you? I had 50 to pick from and I got you out of the litter. Why, why, why, why? I don't like to hear things like that. My mother would say, Why did God give me a son like you? I don't like to hear things like that. My little minister that's in the scene, he says, Let's pray. What did I know about prayer? I didn't know nothing about prayer.
And after a while I'd get him so aggravated he'd shake his finger in my face and he'd say, You're going to hell. And I says, I'll meet you there. You know, arrogant. My doctor would say, It's going to kill you. I don't like to hear things like that. And the people I did business with, they'd say to me, Let me tell you something, boy. When you get through with this job, don't you ever put your foot on my property again.
Life is too short to bother with drunks like you. I don't like to hear things like that. And I came in Alcoholics Anonymous and I met people that understood me. They knew how I felt and how I felt. And they started talking to me and communicating with me. And we came to an understanding. Communication is the start of all understanding. And we sealed a bond of friendship. Because I understood them and they understood me.
I wanted to be their friend so therefore they were my friend. And so, I communicated with them. You see, if you want to understand the AA program, you've got to communicate with it. If you want to be an apprentice all your life, just don't read it. That's all. And you want hearsay? Find out the truth about this program. Communicate with it because communication is the start of all understanding. I don't care where you are in life.
You have to communicate. My mind went back to the picture and I said, This is what this young man has done. He has communicated with the Prince of Peace. You see, I want to be a friend to God and God's going to be a friend to me. Now, if I don't want to be a friend to God, God's not going to be a friend to me. But I all of a sudden wanted to be a friend to God. I call him the Prince of Peace because my power greater than myself because, you see, what I was searching for was peace and here I had no peace.
[00:50:05]
And I never talked to this woman when I came to talk to her about it. I went back to my place of business and I got me a wooden box about half the size of this podium and I sat in the little town delivery truck that had one bucket seat in it and as I drove around to my electrical jobs, I would talk to the Prince of Peace just like I'm talking to you. I communicated with him. And the more I communicated, the more I understood him and the more he understood me.
And finally we developed a friendship and I could feel his presence. I wasn't alone anymore. This may sound weird to you, but try it. I challenge you to try it. I understand. Today I feel the presence of God in every AA meeting that I find. And when I'm by myself I feel the presence of God. As Joe says last night that we pray all the time. The greatest conversationist in the world is my Prince of Peace.
And I started after a while starting to get down to the nitty gritty of alcoholism. And I started talking to him about it. And I started telling him about how I had no self-respect and I couldn't acquire self-respect. I felt guilty and full of shame of what I did under the insanity of alcoholism. And he used to tell me, he says, Wesley, he says, you don't live that way anymore. You are a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and they say live today.
And he says, that's all you have to worry about. Just live today. And I said, that don't make any difference. I did them. And he says, well, listen, as long as you are a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, that's all there is to it. You just live today the rest of your life. I says, I did it. He says, he told me one day, he says, you know Wesley, he says, you got one eye cocked on yesterday and another eye cocked on tomorrow.
If you're not careful you're going to be cock-eyed today, boy. You better start living today. And I says, I don't know what you're talking about. Sick-headed, you know. He says, Wesley. He says, yesterday's a council check, tomorrow's a promissory note, today is cash, spend the cash. You understand that, don't you? I says, no, I don't. He says, well, you wouldn't try to redeposit a council check, would you?
I said, if I'd have thought about it, I'd have tried it. That's for sure. And that's the way it is. Yesterday is a council check and you can't redeposit it. Uh-uh. It's impossible. Well, when the pupil's ready, I think, I heard this yesterday, when the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear. I think Ramona said that yesterday. One night I was pushed to go to a nightly meeting. One of those meetings you just didn't want to go but you had to go anyway, you know.
And this woman got up to the podium and she says, you know, the greatest thing on earth is to learn to forgive others. But the greatest of greatest things on earth is to learn to forgive yourself. And I said, that's my hang-up. That's my hang-up. I am criticizing myself and not forgiving myself of the things that I did in a state of insanity. I was insane. I'm still insane. My pride and my vanity would not let me see what was really meant.
And that's the second step. And I said, this is absolutely, I don't live that anyway. I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, so why should I worry about it anymore? Nobody's criticizing me for that. I'm the only one that's criticizing me. And I said, why should I criticize me? Why shouldn't I be free of that old self? And in a few days or a few weeks, I don't know how long it took, I didn't regret a drink I ever took.
I didn't regret a dime I ever spent. I didn't regret an insane thing I did under the influence of alcohol. I regret the heartaches that I caused my loved ones. Yes. But if that's what it took, that's what it took. Remember, if I had not been an alcoholic, I wouldn't be standing here today. It's just that simple. I wouldn't have what I've got today if I hadn't been an alcoholic. I don't regret a moment of it.
If I had it all to live over again, I'd take it moment by moment by moment from the time of conception. I have nothing to hide. Unashamed. I have never found a stigma connected to alcoholism. That is, if you're sober. I had the privilege of becoming a drunk in a small town, and I had the privilege of living in A for 30 years in the same town. And I have never had anybody in this little town come up and slap me on the back and say, Wesley, I'm glad to see y'all all lying loop-legged.
I have never been congratulated for being drunk. Has anybody in here ever been congratulated for being drunk? I've never found a person.
[00:55:01]
But I'll tell you, many, many times since being an alcoholic since I was, people come up to me and says, Wesley, you're doing a good job. You're a credit to the community. We need more people like you. How about that? God, what a thing. Is that shame? I don't regret I'm an alcoholic. I don't go around bragging about it, but I don't regret it. I came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.
You see, I deflated myself enough to let me know that I was insane. And then I started toward the third step, making a decision. Making a decision. Made, M-A-D-E, made, as the step says, made a decision. So you've got to make something before you made it. And so therefore, it's a lot of changing of attitude. My self will run right. I'm going to turn it over to a power greater than myself. I've got a spiritual, I've got a spiritual manager, yes.
But you know, do I trust him like I trust Rena and Chris? I'll do anything Rena and Chris tells me. But now when it comes to this power greater than myself, the maker of me and the maker of you and the maker of the universe, I have my doubts. Why? I don't know why. I don't know why. But the step says, made a decision to turn your life and your care over to him, if you understand me. I'll tell you why.
It's because I wanted to hold on to those old ideas, and I knew that I had to let go because he wasn't going to put up with them. I knew that I had to get rid of this football in my stomach. And I knew how I got rid of it was letting go of those old ideas. I knew that. But I let go and I grabbed them back. I let go and I grabbed them back. And I want to tell a story here because I want to hear it. There was a man one time that wanted to be an airless.
And he stretched a cable across Niagara Falls. And he was going to spend 30 days advertising that he was going to walk across this cable and he was going to be the world's greatest airless. So 30 days passed and a multitude of people was there. And he got up on this wire and he walked across and walked back. He got a nice hand. He wasn't satisfied. He had a big ego. He wanted more recognition than that.
So he saw a wheelbarrow over here. So he got the wheelbarrow and he rolled in across and rolled it back. And he got a larger hand, but he still wasn't satisfied. He put 200 pounds of sand in the wheelbarrow and he rolled in across. And you know what happened. The weight of the sand made the cable go down, sway, and come back to the other side. And he got a rising ovation. This is what he was looking for, a recognition.
A rising ovation. Well, when you get a rising ovation, you've got to do an encore, you know. You just can't stop there. And so he's watching a little boy over here. And this little boy was awful excited. He'd never seen anything like this before in his life. And oh, he just thought it was the greatest thing he ever saw. So this man walked over to this kid and he says, Son, you sure do trust me on that wire across Niagara Falls, don't you?
And the little boy says, I sure do. I'd trust you anytime on that wire. The man says, now do you really mean it? He says, yes, sir. He says, you're the world's greatest sterilist. There's no doubt about it. I'd trust you anytime. And the man come back at him again. He said, now do you really mean it? Do you trust me on that wire? And the little boy says, I sure do. He said, well, get in the wheelbarrow.
Laughter Well, you know what the little boy said? Hell no, not me, uh-uh. Laughter The third step says, made a decision to turn your life and your will over to the care of God as you understand it. That is a complete statement of trust. And around page nine in the big book says, brand on every man's mind, on every man's mind and woman's mind, that he can stay or she can stay sober regardless of anyone.
The only thing they have to do is trust God and clean house. It doesn't say clean house and trust God. Uh-uh. It says get in the wheelbarrow. Laughter Trust God. And I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you why you got to deflate. You got to go to his will, not your will. Your will, your way, your way if you're an alcoholic is the wrong way, like my way. If you're an alcoholic, it's the wrong way, like my way, it's the wrong way.
If I had been, if it had been the right way, I'd have never been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Howard Benhoff from Ohio used to say, the Benhoff way is the wrong way.
[01:00:02]
The parish way is the wrong way. Is your way the wrong way? I ask you that question. You have to turn your life and your will over to the care of God, as you understand it. As long as you're trying to hold on to that old way, you'll never go any farther, until you take the third step of Alcoholics Anonymous. Because the fourth step is where you start housecleaning. And if you've got any fear left in you, which is your greatest enemy, you'll never come up with the fourth step. You're diluted.
The fourth step says, make a searching. Dive into the crevices of the mind and ferry out the good and bad, and put it down on paper. Write it down there. And fearless. The word fearless means without fear. The only way that man has ever got rid of his inner fears and is fearless, is through the grace of God. There's no other way. You have to have complete trust in God. And that's why Bill told you and told me that we had to make this decision.
Made a decision to turn our life and our will over to the care of God, as you understand it. It's in the proper place. Because we got to let go of all these old ideas. We can't hang on to them anymore. Because we are searching for a new way of life. A brand spanking new way of life. And we cannot bring this drinking, stinking, thinking along in our new way of life. If you bring the old and mix the new together, you'll never have a new.
You cannot mix old with new and come up with something new. So if you want a brand spanking new way of life, you've got to trust God and start housecleaning. And you have to be fearless. Fearless. And put it down on paper. I went to Chris one time and I said, Chris, I'm having trouble with the fourth step. He said, well, nothing wrong with that, Wesley. You want me to tell you the trouble? I said, yeah.
He said, you ain't taking the third. I said, well, I ain't getting too good with the third. He said, you ain't taking the second. I said, well, I don't know about that second one yet. He said, well, go back to the first and start all over again. He was mean to me. But it's the truth. It's a process of deflation. Getting rid of self. S-C-L-L. Self got me in all this trouble. I've never been an alcoholic but I haven't been self, you know.
And this is what the book tells us. There's nothing new. Then the book says, in the second chapter, even though Father, you said, admit to yourself that God is another human being, the exact nature of your wrongs. You see, that's why the fourth step is so important. If you're going to use that fourth step in four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. And so that's why they say you've got to be thorough from the very start.
If you're going to get anywhere in this program. This is a great program, always a great program. That's why it works if you work. Admit to God, to yourself, and another human being, the exact nature of your wrongs. If you take the fourth step, you're going to want to take the fifth step. Because this is a, this is a step that makes you free. It starts you to make, give you freedom. Because anything, or anybody that should know what freedom is, is an alcoholic that's free of his old self.
Oh, that's great freedom. Not to be bothered with that drinking, stinking, thinking anymore. And then we go, we have become willing to have got to know these defects of character. A defect of character to me, in my opinion, is a sin of commission. A sin of commission, not doing the things I know that I should not do. And I've got a jillion of them. Resentments, and anger, and fear, and frustration, self-pity, gossip.
I don't know whether y'all are having trouble with gossip or not. In Alabama, I mean in Indiana. But have y'all ever heard the shady dozen? Now these are character defects I'm going to give you. We read these every once in a while down in Florida, because we have a little trouble with this. Especially in our groups. And they'll tear up a group quick, and then they'll say, the shady dozen. Number one, I heard.
Two, they say. Three, everybody says. Have you heard? Did you ever? Isn't it awful? People say. Did you ever? Somebody said, would you think? Don't say I told you.
[01:05:02]
Oh, I think it's terrible. These are all character defects. The shady dozen. I'll never get rid of all my character defects, but I'm willing. I'm willing, that's the answer. I'm willing. And as long as I'm willing, there's a chance. And I have to be willing every day. This is why I have to live this program one day at a time. Because I have to use this deflation of debt every day of my life. And then I, it says humbly.
Ask God to remove your shortcomings. Sense of omission. Not doing what you're supposed to do. Procrastination. Not attending your A.A. meeting. Not doing your part. Not showing gratitude, and I'll call it synonymous. Reciprocating what this program is doing for you. And there's a hundred more. Too numerous to mention. But you know what they are, I don't have to go into them. Humbly, humbly, humbly.
When Bill wrote this step, he says, humbly down on your knees. And the atheist and the agnostic make them take that out. But we know it means that. Humbly. Become humble. Humility is the key to love. Getting rid of self. You can't have self involved in your life and be humble. And then you become willing to make amends to people that you've harmed. You become willing to make this list. And you put these things down.
It don't say to make them. Uh-uh. It says to be willing to make them. And then the ninth step says, except when to do so with injure them or others. For the first time in my life, I had to look at my fellow man. And take him in consideration. And get away from self. In other words, I couldn't make amends if I knew I was going to hurt someone else. I wasn't a bull in a china closet anymore. I wasn't going to do something where I would harm any more people.
I had harmed enough people. And it's a lot of things that we alcoholics have done is not worth bringing up again. We all have skeletons in the closet. Let's keep them there. Let's don't cause any more unhappiness. Let's make this as a program of happiness. And this is what we're searching for in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Is a way to live and be happy without alcohol. I don't know of any other thing while I'm here for that same thing.
So for me to be happy, I have to consider you. And after we've done all of this, the tenth step tells us to continue to take personal inventory. And it says continue to take personal inventory is because we're all human beings. And we're subject to human error. And we're going to make errors. I don't care how well we do this program. We are not perfect. This is a program of spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection.
And we're going to make mistakes. And every night we look over our day and say what have we done wrong today? And we become willing to promptly admit it. All this is deflation. Deflation of self, getting rid of self. And eleven is that you never get a perfect contact with God. There's no such thing. But you continue, continue talking and listening to God. And asking him for his will, not your will in step eleven.
What is God's will for me? I know what God's will is for me. It's for me to build a better me. That's all. God said build a better world. And I said how? It's so large and so complicated now. There's nothing I can do. And God in all his wisdom said well just build a better you. That's all I ask of you. And this is all it is. It's to build a better you. And then we get to that step twelve. After you've taken them, it says having had.
Exactly what Dr. Bob had after two and a half years. Having had a spiritual awakening. We have eliminated self from our lives. And we become God-like. Have a God-conscious. Having had a spiritual awakening as the results of these steps. What steps? The previous eleven. Then we're in a position to try and carry the message. We have a message to carry. And this is what Chris was telling me. You've got something to give away.
You've got something to give away. Something that people want.
[01:10:01]
And the best twelve-step job any man can do is walk down the streets of his hometown sober. You can't do a better twelve-step job than that. Don't ever forget. This is a program of attraction not promotion. We attract people in this program through these A.A. smiles. And these radiations that we have. That somewhere, someplace, somebody is looking at you right today and wondering what's happening in your life.
Because they see this change. They see this change. Each and every one of us do our own twelve-step work in our own way. That's God's business. That's God's business. But every day of your life feel like that you've done a twelve-step job and you've just walked down the streets of your hometown sober. And an example of what this program will do for human beings. As Joe brought out last night, we are a million strong.
We are a million strong and we have something that the world needs. And the world won't. But they just don't know what to have to do to get it. And then it says, and to practice. And to practice these principles in all your affairs. Practice, that means repetition. The reason I'm an alcoholic is through repetition. One drink after another. I couldn't drink enough alcohol in the morning to last me all day. Could you?
I repetitioned it all day. Absolutely. So I have to practice A.A. all day. In complete repetition. Practice these principles in all your affairs. What principles? The spiritual principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. And what is the spiritual principles of Alcoholics Anonymous? To me it's just nothing but the truth. That's all. God's Word. Just nothing but the truth. When I came in there A.A. I said, where can I find it?
Where can I see his only son? Wise men ask and I'm asking still. Where is this man of good will? Is he far away in some distant place, ruling unseen from a throne of grace? Is there no place on earth that I might see to give me proof of eternity? If there's a God, show him to me. There's a legend that's often been told of the wonders of gold. There's a legend that's often been told of the boy, the story of the wonders of gold.
The wonders of gold he saw far away as he looked in the valley at sunrise each day. And this is the trip that he wanted to make. So he planned by day and dreamed by night of how he could reach this shining light. And one morning as the dawn broke through and the valley sparkled with diamonds of dew, he started to climb down the mountainside with the wonders of gold as his golden disguise. He traveled all day, all weary and worn, and bleeding feet and toes that were torn.
And finally he entered into this little peaceful valley town just as the golden sun went down. But lo, he had lost his shining light because the wonders were dark and it had once been bright. And tired and hungry and lonely and cold, he yelled, Oh, please, oh, please, won't you show me the wonders of gold? And a kind hand touched him and said, Behold, high on the mountain is the wonders of gold. For the sun going down on the great golden ball had vanished the wonders of his cabin so small.
Now the kingdom of God with its great shining light is like the wonders that shine so bright. It's no far distant place somewhere. It's just as close to you as I as a silent prayer. Your search and my search for God will end and begin when we look for God and find him within. So you see, it is true that I have never seen his face, but his likeness shines forth from every place. The hand of God is everywhere along our life's business or affair.
The things we see and touch and feel, this is what makes God so very real. The solid stars and timeless skies, the wonderment in our children's eyes, the gossamer wing of a hunting bird, the joy of a kindly word, the autumn haze, the breath of spring, the chirping song the cricket sings, a rosebud and a slender base, a smile upon a friendly face, and everything both great and small. We see the hand of God in all.
But who can feel the warm life-giving earth, or feel the softness of the breeze, or look at skies through shady trees and say they have never felt his face or looked upon his face? I can't. I Have Complete Reverence for God, and I Get Away from My Greatest Enemy, and That's Myself.
[01:15:02]
Thank You. Wesley, I want to thank you, and the committee wants to thank you. I know that you put something in me this morning, removed something that you gave to me a number of years ago. God loves you. We love you. I don't know a better way to start our trip back home and to take the message that was given us this morning and carry it with us. I'm going to have a fine trip, and I'm sure we all will.
Will you all rise with me, and we'll close this convention this weekend. Hold hands and repeat the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.