Читать книгу Happy, Joyous & Free - Группа авторов - Страница 11

August 2007

Last March, I was driving, smoking a cigarette, and talking to my sponsor on speakerphone. I like to multi-task.

We were discussing the fact that I had not yet started working on the Steps. I chucked my cigarette out of the window, closed it, and continued the conversation. Thirty seconds later, I smelled what I thought was a house fire.

Little did I know, but the fire was not outside; it was under my seat. Soon, I saw a slow column of smoke rise from between the two front seats. My sponsor rambled on about the Steps. I interrupted him and said, “I think I’m on fire!”

“Great!” he said. “It’s about time you had a fire under your butt.”

“No, I really do—my car is on fire!” I said.

“Pull over and put it out,” he instructed.

“With what?” My eyes were drawn to the cup of coffee left over from my AA meeting the night before. I grabbed it, poured it on where I thought the fire was, and started to laugh. Fire out, I thought. I began thinking that this was some kind of sign. My sponsor yelled for me to get into the back seat and make sure that the fire was out.

What I found next was chilling. Papers were still burning under my seat. Among them was the pamphlet about the Twelve Steps that my sponsor had given to me a few weeks before. I said, “The Steps are burning!” Squelching the rest of the fire, I rescued that pamphlet; it was a little burnt, but had survived.

“You better believe they’re burning,” he said. He told me that I had just been abruptly visited by a Higher Power.

“You think?” I asked. It only took me a nanosecond to believe that this was clearly a sign from above. Then I drove home, still shaken by the experience.

My Higher Power happened to come in the form of a cup of AA coffee. If I keep him close, he will be there to put out the fire. For me, there are no coincidences—there is a reason for everything. Since AA is my Higher Power, God as I understand him is always with me in the car. I look at that cup of coffee and smile.

But, to this day, while I usually have a cup of coffee with me in the car, I keep a fire extinguisher in the trunk.

CHRIS M.