Sometimes I will hear myself and others referring to the Second Step as the introduction to the spiritual way of life. Of course for me and so many others it was exactly that. I often talk about it at meetings and sharing with others.
However I sometimes think that I might be misleading others about what happened in my changing my thoughts and attitudes toward the spiritual life and what it was that began the changes within me and outside of me. That’s because I don’t always stop and think about the way this program came into my life.
Probably that’s because of my resistance and my over intellectualizing and analyzing my concepts of a Higher Power. Up until then I had refused to listen to what others were trying to tell me. My self centered ego wanted to do only one thing. Never to drink alcohol again. I didn’t want to change. Some crazy idea that I could stay sober by myself and only attend meetings and not listen to what it was that had worked for others. But when my first sponsor drank again and died suddenly as a result, I realized I was in a precarious place as far as alcohol went.
That’s when my second sponsor got me to open my mind to the Second Step and helped me to surrender and accept a Power greater than myself. He told me I had a choice. I could follow my first sponsor out the door or I could buckle down and do what others had done and begin to practice this program. And slowly I began to find ways to break down my resistance to allowing others to help me. And by then I was beginning to realize that I was in need of help. That I couldn’t do this alone.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that it was around this time that the Third Step entered the picture. My confused mind and heart, filled with fear, was quieted by the realization that all I had to really do was begin to put this program and the Steps into action. In other words to commit myself to my Higher Power. I say this because I began back then to do what I still do today. I start my day with the Third Step prayer. To dedicate each day to God as I understand Him. My Higher Power. It’s a renewal of hope, faith, and trust. Eventually love and compassion for others. The hope that by example I can share what I have been so freely given with others like myself.
Anyway, as the group talked to that man, who was coming back, and the Second Step was mentioned a couple of times, I began to think about the process I had gone through to begin to put this program into action. And there it was, the Fifth Chapter in the BB, and the Third Step. All of a sudden my mind opened to what had happened. And, I guess, I hoped the same thing would open up for that man, as it did for me.
Just thinking about sobriety.