times haven’t you and I put ourselves through some things that were just too heavy for us, you know? Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. That’s what takes the pressure off of it right there. Decision. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, but before that, look at the heavy stuff I put on me, the braces. Oh, I remember some heavy stuff I put on me. I was gonna stay sober one time during Lent. I did. I stayed sober for 40 days. I really and truly did. Before Lent was over, I hated the pope, the bishop, the nun- .. and all altar boys. See, that was some heavy stuff, you know? That was too heavy for me. Like them kids with them braces, I couldn’t do that. Come Lent was over, I think then around 12 o’clock, and by 12 o’clock I had a, what you call a can opener, draw it back on a beer can like I was gonna stab it to death, you know? But the willingness.

But you see, if you want what we have and you’re willing to go to any lengths to get it.. Look at this child. He went to any lengths. Any lengths means to me, regardless of what anybody else might say, and people can say some pretty tough things to you at times. You know, that, that, that’s why you need a sponsor. It’s kind of a buffer for you. You know, one of those kind of things that people, when they begin to make these remarks when you’re trying so hard to stay sober and somebody’s gonna come along, you know. After you get older in the program, it don’t bother you too much when somebody walks up to me and says to me, “Well, so you don’t drink.” I said, “Not when I’m sober.” Never drink when I’m sober. Hmm. Or they, “Well, why don’t you drink?” I said, “Well, it interferes with my sobriety.” They think you got kidney trouble, and they just stop talking, you know, and those kind of things, you know, so.

But the beautiful thing about it, this willingness to go to any lengths, this privilege of making a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, to me, my friends, this is a freedom step. The will of God to me is God’s playpen. If you have a youngster and you place him or her in a playpen, you’re not gonna put anything in there to hurt him. You’re not gonna put the scissors in the playpen. You’re not gonna put a saw or a fork in there to hurt him. You’re gonna put everything in there for him to make him comfortable, you know? And sometimes he’ll be a, a rather belligerent, and he gonna jump up and down and wanna crawl over the thing, like you and I do, you know. We wanna get out of God’s playpen, you know, so we can hurt ourselves. See. Oh, yeah. Sometimes, you know, and with the will of God, I want out of this playpen. Lord, please let me bump my head up against something, you know. Yeah. Not satisfied, you know, without it, you know? Because we are afraid.