Step Three
"Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."
Being convinced, we were at
Step Three, which is that
we decided to turn our will and our life over to God as
we understood Him. Just what do we mean by that, and
just what do we do?
The first
requirement is that we be convinced that any
life run on self-will can hardly be a success. On that
basis we are almost always in collision with something
or somebody, even though our motives are good. Most
people try to live by self-propulsion. Each person is
like an actor who wants to run the whole show; is forever
trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery
and the rest of the players in his own way.
Selfishness,
self-centeredness! That, we think, is the
root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear,
self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the
toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they
hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably
find that at some time in the past we have made
decisions based on self which later placed us in a position
to be hurt.
So our
troubles, we think, are basically of our own
making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic
is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he
usually doesn't think so. Above everything, we alcoholics
must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it
kill us! God makes that possible. And there often seems
no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid.
Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions
galore, but we could not live up to them even though we
would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness
much by wishing or trying on our own
power. We had to have God's help.
We were now at Step Three.
Many of us said to our
Maker, as we understood Him: "God, I offer myself to Thee --
to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve
me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear
witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and
Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!"
Save for a few
brief moments of temptation
the thought of drink has never returned; and at such times
a great revulsion has risen up in him. Seemingly he could
not drink even if he would. God had restored his sanity.
What is
this but a miracle of healing? Yet its elements
are simple. Circumstances made him willing to
believe. He humbly offered himself to his Maker --
then he knew.
Even so has
God restored us all to our right minds.
To this man, the revelation was sudden. Some of us grow
into it more slowly. But He has come to all who have
honestly sought Him.
When we
drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us!
|