The Reading from Evening Prayer for today has advice concerning patience, a topic not unfamiliar in 12 Step Meetings:

James 1:2-4: “My brothers, you will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege; you understand that your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results so that you will become fully-developed, complete, with nothing missing.”

(Via Universalis.)

Sounds like patience is a practical tool for “spiritual progression”, a goal much sought-after by 12 Steppers. We all seek to become better that we were, to develop a stronger sobriety, to become more spiritual.

Trials have a purpose, they test our faith and our commitment to God. We endure them and grow stronger as a result, or we resist them and become bitter, or worse we surrender and drink again.

Our choice. They will enter our life whether we wish to or not, how we react to them is mark of our sobriety and faith.

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