I can’t remember how long ago a man named Hank Greenberg played baseball. Back in his day he was quite a sensation. After he retired he wrote a book entitiled Don’t Die on Third. It was his autobiography, but he was also one of those players, who played the game hard and was dedicated to win the game, any game he played. I guess the idea was when you were on base to get all the way to home plate. If you were on base and running the bases, don’t get hung up on third base and put out.
My sponsor was the same way in this program. Whenever he asked me what step I was on, he would say, “Don’t tell me the third step.” I know that was what I always wanted to say, “I’m on the third”. I and others always felt it was safe to say that. But it was always a dodge because I was probably stalling on working the steps. His message was that you should always be moving along through the steps. He didn’t want any of us to die on third.
I remember reading one time that signposts on a road, indicating the way and the distance to a city we’re traveling to, is there to help us along the way. It’s not the city itself and we would be foolish to stop and plant ourselves there. We haven’t arrived at out goal after all. There’s more of the road to be traveled. The same with the third step. It’s just a signpost along the road, pointing us toward our goal. One woman, who used to attend our meeting place down in Maryland, once asked her sponsor, when we were discussing the third step, “What’s God’s will for me?” Her sponsor replied, “The other nine steps.” Simple.
I was thinking a lot about the third step this week. I’ve come to believe that this step is just the doorway to the rest of the program. After all, no matter how hard we work this step, we still haven’t turned our will and our lives over to the care of God. I can’t tell you how hard I struggled with this step, when I first arrived at this point on my journey on this path we’re on. I almost got a metaphysical hernia stuggling to throw my will and my life over the wall to God. I always ended up with my will and my life still in my hands. The idea that this would only accomplished in the rest ofr the steps handn”t crossed my mind. I was so blinded and deafened by my own thinking I couldn’t hear or understand the suggestions my sponsor was trying to pass along to me. Only when I had exhausted all my own resources did I fainally give up and begin to ask for the help I needed. Then I was told to move along. There was more to do before I would ever be able to turn my life and will over to the care of God. I was only at the point of be willing to do this.
Anyway, I was thinking about this today, and the memory of Hank Greenberg’s book popped up. Don’t Die on Third. I guess that’s possible in the program. Not going past the third step and just thinking that’s all we have to do would do it.
Anytime I think I have this program made is pretty much the same thing. I don’t want to get stuck in that kind of thought. I know I have been tempted many times along the way to believe this. But it’s another day today and I know I have to get off my backside and move along, if I want to continue along this path in sobriety.
Like I said, just thinking.