Reduction of Shame
February 4, 2011
Are You Different Than Everyone Else?
February 7, 2011
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Coming out of alcoholic destruction and after admitting that we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable, this second step can seem like a big task. So many of us either at one time believed in God or a higher power but thought that he gave up on us. There are others in the rooms that don’t believe in a higher power and never did. In the literature, it tells us that if we are just willing to believe in some kind of higher power, a beginning has been made. This shows some degree of humility by at least being open to the idea that this world did not originate out of nothing and means nothing. For so long we were so dependent on ourselves and our own thinking. For most of us that landed us in all kinds of predicaments. Whether it was jail, our total alienation from our families, bankrupt, both financially, morally, and spiritually, we all had our problems. What happens to a lot of people after they became at least willing to believe, they saw just how practical it really is. By attending meetings and listening to the stories of the people that have gone before them, it is tangible proof that something is working in those people’s lives. If we go to enough meetings, read the book, and pray, we can and will recover from this seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. Many people may ask, “If I don’t believe, than what should I pray about?” Some simple prayers that we have heard work are simple. The simplest being this “PLEASE HELP ME”. It is amazing at how many times this prayer has helped so many people.
Recovery from alcohol abuse and drug abuse is very paradoxical. The first paradox is that we must surrender to win. In the second step, the irony is that to become independent we have to become dependent on a higher power.
