Rest on our laurels

p.85 - It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly.

So the phrase "rest on our laurels" comes from the original Olympic games where the winners of an event were honored by being crowned with a wreath of laurels (bay leaves) that they wore on their heads (picture those iconic images of Caesar and you'll get the idea). Of course the implication for AA members is that once we have acheived our goal (a spiritual experience sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism), that we should not rest and assume that this experience is everlasting.

In fact our founders discovered that the experience was fleeting. They found that many of the early members came in and did the steps, had a spiritual experience, stopped drinking, but then went back to their daily lives and did not stay active in what they called "The Work", but then ended up drunk again. Why was this happening to them but not to others? They tried to explain this phenomenon.

p.35 - He made a beginning. His family was re-assembled, and he began to work as a salesman for the business he had lost through drinking. All went well for a time, but he failed to enlarge his spiritual life. To his consternation, he found himself drunk half a dozen times in rapid succession.

So it looks like this guy may have done some or all of the Steps (made a good beginning) but stopped there and eventually drank. So do the phrases "resting on our laurels" and "failing to enlarge our spiritual lives" mean the same thing? And if so, what exactly do they mean?

Well I know that when the book says that we should not rest on our laurels it follows it up by telling us that we have a daily reprieve that depends on our spiritual condition and that we must remember and act this way all the time.

p.85 - We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve Thee - Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly.

What about "failing to enlarge our spiritual lives"? How do we enlarge it and how is this the same thing? In Bill's Story he makes the following point:

p.14/15 - For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die.

So Bill felt that one important way an alcoholic should enlarge his spiritual life is through "The Work" and self-sacrifice for others. Failing to do this seems to me to be very much like doing the Steps and then not giving back (i.e. resting on our laurels).

"The Work" of course, is carrying the message to other alcoholics. The self-sacrifice for others is the second part of the 12th Step, practicing these principles in all our affairs. Every day, all day, with alcoholics or not, we should be of service to those around us and practicing our basics principles at all times. Only when we are doing these things can we then hope to have some spiritual protection that will intercede on the insanity of that first drink and place us in that safe and protected position of neutrality that is promised us in the 10th Step.