Back to basics. I was thinking about what got most of us off the ground in this program. For me it started with hope. Hope that I could get sober and stop drinking myself into the grave.
That hope was realized I found out. I had the evidence right under my nose. I had stopped drinking and I had begun to walk this path we’re on into a life of sober living. And that’s when the next step along the line happened for me.
That next step was faith. I somehow realized, in spite of my confused mind and a head addled by alcohol, that it was from a hope realized that faith comes into being. I began to believe in a power greater than myself. Something, not me, had done this. It couldn’t have been me. I had tried so hard to stop drinking that it wasn’t even funny. But here it was. I wasn’t drinking.
I didn’t want a drink. Wasn’t that why I came here in the first place? And now it was real. I actually wanted to be sober. And that was a word which had never been in my vocabulary before I came here. Sober. Maybe I could get sober.
My mind, like today, often goes back to the basics. Not just the 1st Step, but the one right after that; the 2nd Step. To believe in a power greater than myself. Well, here it was for a fact. And, not only that, maybe I could be restored to sanity. I had no doubt that alcohol had driven me insane. Not even a question.
That “maybe” was another step in hope. I hoped I could be restored. Restored to what? From the insanity of taking that next drink. I mean anything that drove me to kill myself, had to be crazy. Not being able to think a straight thought. Thinking only in negative desperation. Despair. Just the opposite of hope.
Anyway, as I traveled down the road today, the question of what our lives depend upon came to mind. Simple. Hope and the faith which follows. It’s always been that way since I first drew a sober breath. That’s why I frequently go back to that 2nd Step.