12 Steps of Sponsorship
Freedom lies just beyond the archway, of which the Cornerstone, (our belief in an all powerful and loving Creator) is the number one element. Without this Cornerstone, without this belief, and our surrender to it, and dependence in it, will will surely fail, and die spiritually. No life, run on self will, can hardly be a success. There’s only two doors to pass through; 1) self-dependency: a life run on self will. or, God-Dependency: a life run on God dependency.
Some say that there are NO MUSTS in AA… actually, if you are working the Program outlined within the AA Text Book; there are 96 Musts. I heard someone say at a meeting that they were falling short on working the “Spiritual Aspect” of the program. It was quickly pointed out to them that there is NO SPIRITUAL ASPECT of this program - and that this IS a Spiritual Program of Recovery. The entire Program is Spiritual in Nature. There is no “Aspect” to it. (aspect means portion, perspective, section) We must do this work or we will die, of course , unless, you are NOT an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.
In turning my will and my life over to the care of God (as I understood Him) isn’t always an easy thing to do. I keep taking back control - or did I never fully give it up to begin with?
The key is that I have to stop what it is I’m thinking of, engulfed in, and consumed by in order to begin to see, not to see, but to begin to see, then there is much work to be done to continue to see, and more to continue to see more.
If you don’t have the faith, that God is everything, and without Him you have nothing (this is what the steps and the Bog Book teaches us) then you wil continue to hold on to your way, your thinking, and your ego, and you won’t get this. You will go back to you drama and chaos and live a life of futility and misery - ultimately getting dunk or blowing your brains out. This is not the fate that God wants for His child, He wants you to live, be happy, joyous and free, and experience all that He has made for you ioon this life.
“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol…”
The Doctor’s Opinion, xxv-xxxii.
ii
“…that our lives had become unmanageable.”
Chapter 3: More About Alcoholism, 30-43.
Good evening, everybody, this is the usual ________ night’s meeting of the _______ Men’s (and Women’s) Big Book Step Study Group and we will open the meeting in the usual manner with a moment of silence to do with as you wish.
Although we like to think that the people in our lives are well-adjusted, happy, healthy minded individuals, we sometimes realize that it just isn’t so. Personally, I’ve had moments where I’ll be skipping through my day, happy as can be, thinking life is grand and BAM, I’ll be blindsided by someone who manages to knock the happy wind out of my sails. Sometimes it is easy to write it off and other times, not so much.
Having no reservations or no lurking notions of any kind. The process that brings us to purpose of being free, the freedom from self, the bondage of self. The self is the selfish needs of a person living in fear, the fear of not getting what we want or what we think we need, a fear that a loving God won’t fulfill these needs if we were to have a faith that works in our life.