“The man in the bed was told of the acute poisoning from which he suffered, how it deteriorates the body of an alcoholic and warps his mind. There was much talk about the mental state preceding the first drink.” (Chapter Eleven, Big Book)
What is alcoholism?
Imagine a chocolate factory.
The chocolate machine is my brain.
It makes good chocolates (thoughts).
The chocolates are produced by a chocolate machine.
This discharges the chocolates onto a conveyor belt.
But sometimes it makes a chocolate containing deadly poison.
That is the thought of a drink.
Such chocolates are marked with a red skull and crossbones.
There is a Quality Assurance Checker (QUACK).
He checks all the chocolates passing along the conveyor belt.
If he sees one marked as poison, he picks it off.
He then discards it.
Sometimes, he lets a bad one slip past.
This is because he is fallible.
There is no way of training the QUACK to be more vigilant.
And he cannot be replaced.
You are stuck with the QUACK.
The conveyor belt discharges into a great, giant mouth.
The great, giant mouth will thus swallow the thought of a drink.
And then follow it up with an actual drink.
And that is the end of me.
That is alcoholism.
What does God do?
He watches the QUACK.
And, when the QUACK fails, He intervenes.
What’s your experience?