Step by Step
Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013
" ...Are some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material? Even in the present century (20th), American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers' first successful flight at Kitty Hawk. Had not all efforts at flight failed before? Did not Professor Langley's flying machine go to the bottom of the Potomac River? Was it not true that the best mathematical minds had proved man could never fly? Had not people said God had reserved this privilege to the birds? Only 30 years later, the conquest of the air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.
"...We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems (a) readiness to change our point of view." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 4 ("We Agnostics"), pp 51-2.
Today, by simply changing my point of view if I still reject the possibility of a Higher Power, I am poised to take the Second Step: "Came to believe that a Power greater than (my)self could restore (me) to sanity." But why is belief and acceptance of a Higher Power helpful, if not required, for me to earn sobriety? A power greater than ourselves, simply, can strengthen us to do what we cannot do alone, as proven time and again - stop drinking. That Force might be able to achieve the impossible, that being my inability to stop drinking on my own, without some outside help. As this narrative points out, men of any era in time deemed impossible accomplishments that, in subsequent eras, are taken for granted. If today I can understand that the purpose of a Higher Power is to help me find what I haven't found alone, if I can totally ignore any religious implications, I can take an early but pivotal Step toward recovery: I can "come to believe." And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013
Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013
" ...Are some of us just as biased and unreasonable about the realm of the spirit as were the ancients about the realm of the material? Even in the present century (20th), American newspapers were afraid to print an account of the Wright brothers' first successful flight at Kitty Hawk. Had not all efforts at flight failed before? Did not Professor Langley's flying machine go to the bottom of the Potomac River? Was it not true that the best mathematical minds had proved man could never fly? Had not people said God had reserved this privilege to the birds? Only 30 years later, the conquest of the air was almost an old story and airplane travel was in full swing.
"...We had to ask ourselves why we shouldn't apply to our human problems (a) readiness to change our point of view." - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, Ch 4 ("We Agnostics"), pp 51-2.
Today, by simply changing my point of view if I still reject the possibility of a Higher Power, I am poised to take the Second Step: "Came to believe that a Power greater than (my)self could restore (me) to sanity." But why is belief and acceptance of a Higher Power helpful, if not required, for me to earn sobriety? A power greater than ourselves, simply, can strengthen us to do what we cannot do alone, as proven time and again - stop drinking. That Force might be able to achieve the impossible, that being my inability to stop drinking on my own, without some outside help. As this narrative points out, men of any era in time deemed impossible accomplishments that, in subsequent eras, are taken for granted. If today I can understand that the purpose of a Higher Power is to help me find what I haven't found alone, if I can totally ignore any religious implications, I can take an early but pivotal Step toward recovery: I can "come to believe." And our common journey continues. Step by step. - Chris M., 2013
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