The 12th Step of Alcoholics Anonymous is, "Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs." This step clearly places a responsibility upon us, as sponsors - but we cannot give away that which we don't have. The "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous states, "We have recovered and been given the power to help others." The power to help others is a direct result of the spiritual awakening received in Step Twelve. Until one such spiritual awakening has occurred it is impossible for it to occur in other alcoholics that we may be helping. Furthermore, once the Spirit has been awakened within us we cannot be in the will of God without helping others. Both in and out of the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous.We are gifted the power to carry the message to other alcoholics not only through our words but by incorporating the principles of the Alcoholics Anonymous program (the Twelve Steps) right into our lives, displaying them through our behavior. Once the spirit has been awakened in those we help then they themselves can lead a recovered life. These recovered alcoholics will then have the power to help others in the way necessary, so that still others may recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. Your gift can be a gift to others.
Written By Armand
I came into AA completely powerless. For in reality, powerless over alcohol ultimately means powerless over everything and everyone. Yet my ego still willed me into a life of energy-sapping grandiosity and selfishness. Yet, I needed a power in order to find and carry out a contented, useful life. In The Twelfth Step, I became certain that a spiritual awakening brings both superhuman energy and power with it. By integrating all Twelve Steps in to my life, I learned that Power has always been within me but I could never access it much less give anything of value away. Where and how do we find that power, the Big Book asks? Because we must have it in order to properly lead our formerly un-leadable lives. The Great Reality is that The Power is deep down within us (P55); there is nowhere else It may be found. To acquire it, we must stop fighting it and practice the remaining Steps as "enthusiastically" as we can (Step Book p27). In that process I have found something I've always wanted to give away - me. Through The Power Within me..
ReplyDeleteMichael as you articulated so well "lack of power, that is our dilemma." That power is found in the spiritual awakening as a result of the integration of God through the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous....Thank you...Armand
ReplyDeleteArmand,
ReplyDeleteAgain, one of the greatest blessings received and fondest memories recalled is to have been present when you first came to believe that God Himself is the ultimate author of the 12 steps of AA and then bear witness as you surrendered every aspect of your life as you then understood it and received Jesus into your heart. Spiritually, it was then that you received the Gift to confidently confirm to others that the yearnings of every heart consumed by desperation, fear and trepidation can only be satisfied by a true spiritual conversion. The Gift you received to fully apprehend God's revelation, that He personally and continuously reaches out to each and every one of His errant children with a fiery passion and boundless love, no matter how far we have strayed from His Light, opened the door to the ultimate and ongoing Gift and revelation that He desires that all be joint "sponsor's" of that plan. That is, evangelists...
A true evangelists always points to the True Source of their resurrected lives and it is that resurrected life that draws others to inquire of The True Source. The AA Big Book, clearly taken from the Bible, tells us "that one is God" and I would humbly add, God alone. God did not create us with with a hidden source of divine power that was there all along only waiting to be discovered by our own or others fumblinging and futile efforts at pealing away the layers of our nature. God created us with an emptiness in our spirit that only He can fill. He imprints a longing for His Presence that alone will finally complete us. He never forces Himself upon anyone. He created us all as unique and deeply loved individuals with a free will to either accept or reject Him. If we are truly honest with ourselves we will admit that more often than not we consistently rejected His loving overtures for fear of loosing what we think we have or never getting what we think we want.
The Big Book also tells us that, alcohol aside, the only thing standing in the way of redemption way is our grandiose and totally selfish and self serving human nature, that until He is invited in, inhabits the very core of our being. A nature whose best efforts have birthed the desperation that ultimately brought us into the rooms of AA. And that in order to know the "peace which surpasses all understanding" we must surrender our will and our lives to God, as we come to truly understand in the deepest region’s of our soul, how He describes Himself. The beginning of that surrender is to finally acknowledge to ourselves that we-are-not-God. That He is who He says He is and is eternally the only worthy recipient of that surrender we so desperately need yet have sought to avoid.
I often pass by the small stone chapel where you accepted the Lord and His unique ministry through you began. The doors were rarely if ever open and it was seldom if ever used, but that one day it was unlocked, warm and full of life. There truly are no coincidences. We were there by Divine appointment. Over time I watched as you took up His call with complete abandon. He has used your unique personality, talents, culture and experiences as an inspiration to a great many others desperately seeking the only true release from the seemingly hopeless and inescapable internal prison of self through His outreach in the rooms of AA, and beyond…. That is why I was called. That is why you were called. That is why we are all called. May this immutable fact find an anchor in the hearts of all who dwell upon these words.
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic.
A Gratefully Recovering Alcoholic a day in a life. The first day of a Real life...Thank you...Armand
ReplyDeleteThank you Armand. Sometimes when I hear people talk about "carrying the message" of AA, it begs the question-- what IS the message? Often the message seems to be "When I drank, life was awful and then when I stopped drinking, life got better." But while that's almost always a part of our stories, that is not really the message of AA, for if you're a real alcoholic like me, alcohol became medicine and so life seemed to worsen dramatically when my medicine got taken away. Sometimes it seemed to me that I didn't have a drinking problem, so much as I had a sobriety problem. So then what is the AA message, really? The answer is in the Steps, as always. The 12th Step talks about "... we tried to carry this message to alcoholics..." And the words right before that are: "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps." And that is the message of AA: I have had a spiritual awakening as THE result of these steps. Not "a" result but "the" result. That is what the steps are designed to bring about-- not a better job, better health, better marriage, but a spiritual awakening-- something in the nature of "huge emotional displacements and rearrangements." And that is the message I bring to others: I have had a spiritual awakening, and you can too, if you follow the path of steps I walked, that so many others walked before me.
ReplyDeleteDan isn't it amazing that many due not know or care to know The Message of AA...God Bless you for carrying it...Thank you...Armand
ReplyDeletetypo sorry do
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