The 12 Steps
Over the course of this month, I will be referring to the 12 Steps. They not only helped save my life, but they also transformed my thinking.
Here are the traditional Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous:
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. Replace the word ‘alcohol’ with whatever you are powerless over that is causing your life to be unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
One of the things I find powerful about the Steps is their progression: admission → surrender → self-examination → confession → change → reconciliation → daily practice → service.
They aren’t simply a pathway out of addiction. They’re a pretty remarkable framework for living well… everyone can benefit from living these 12 Steps.
Reflection
The first three Steps can be summarized simply: I can’t. God can. I think I’ll let Him. That was a radical shift for me. Addiction convinced me I could manage everything myself. Recovery taught me that some battles aren’t won by trying harder but by surrendering deeper.
Admitting powerlessness isn’t the same as declaring that we are powerless in life. It means recognizing where our own power ends and God’s begins.
There is incredible freedom in finally saying, “God, I can’t do this alone.”
I always write from experience.
Soul Search
Where am I still trying to do what I need to surrender to God alone?
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9
P.E.A.C.E.
Jay@EagleLaunch.com
