“Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It meant destruction of self-centeredness.” (Page 14, Big Book)
Imagine you’re in a building, and you have a hundred thousand pounds in cash.
You want to leave the building.
There is a staircase up to the roof, where a helicopter is waiting to take you away.
But the way is barred by a man demanding your hundred thousand pounds.
You say, “But how do I know you’ll fulfil your promise?”
He says, “That’s the nature of a promise. You’ll have to take my word for it.”
That’s quite a gamble.
Now imagine the building is on fire.
If the building burns, so will your hundred thousand pounds in cash.
The hundred thousand pounds is now effectively worthless.
This is no longer a gamble.
God says, “Give up materialism. Give up self. Give up yourself.”
This is a gamble only if the building isn’t burning.
But it is.