Sue's Room

Many alcoholics stayed in this room, as Dr. Bob worked with them, early on in Alcoholics Anonymous. It was known as the "surrender room" as this is the place that Dr. Bob would help new prospects to make a decision to turn their lives over to God. On the bed is the book Alcoholics Anonymous, also known as "The Big Book." It is opened to the Third Step Prayer. This is a very special place, and I must admit that I found it a priviledge to stand in the same house that Dr. Bob worked with so many alcoholics.

As I stood in this room I thought of a paragraph in the big book: On page 164 of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, it states "Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. May God bless you and keep you--until then."

The above quote has been something I have pondered since I first read it. As a person who tends to overthink everything in a very concrete manner, I used to read that, and think to myself that the writers of the book erred in writing it as such, because I will never meet them. However, one day I was in a meeting listening to another member speak, and I realized that they were passing a message to me that had been passed down to them, from the founders of AA. At once I realized that I had met those men and women, as I have trudged this Road of Happy Destiny. I have met them many times in fact, and although separated by distance, time, and death, they are with me and all members of AA, in the Fellowship of the Spirit.