Step One: “Powerlessness and unmanageability.” Ask yourself—now be honest, “Am I powerless over whether I’ll take that first drink?” I was powerless. I knew I would. I was drinking too much. I’d watch my friends, they could have two drinks and stop, but I couldn’t do that.

We must see this as a crossroads—to drink or not to drink, that’s the question—it’s that simple. We must see drink’s dead end and decide whether we select its path or the path of life.

Step Two: Yet we know as did Christ, that we are all sinners and that as alcoholics we may honestly mean that “I quit” one day but maybe not the next. We need help and Step Two hits that dead on, for it calls us to look to a “Power greater than ourselves to retore us to sanity.” We proved we can’t do it alone. We must reach for our Higher Power’s hand, Christ’s hand. We reach for that at an AA meeting, for our sponsor, the Big Book, for the others who have walked on this path. They can help us because that’s the very essence of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Christ and AA people will walk with you. And you will be welcomed just as Christ welcomed the man on the Cross on that first Good Friday.

Step 3: I “made a decision” to turn “my life over” to God—unconditionally, not temporarily, not just for today, not just until people get off our backs—unconditionally, like a defeated nation in war surrenders on the battlefield, just as that headline should read,

“....Unconditionally Surrenders.”

When we do so, we are surrendering our ego. No more are we to look to it for guidance. Our ego is what brought us to this point. If we “turn it over,” if we but surrender, we’ll not be alone.

I’ve talked with alcoholics right at this point in their lives—right at that “White Light point” —that same point Bill W saw as he lay on that hospital bed. The question becomes, “What are you going to do about it?” Yes, we surrender, then what? And you know deep down it isn’t going to happen without assistance—and your present assistant, Mr. Ego, is destroying you, for he in the past has stopped your efforts to avoid drink. But he still sits and waits. Mr. Ego knows he has a chance to win you back. Your struggle with him doesn’t end there, so accept this Program of action.

The Program of AA thunders into action if we now reach for its assistance and take the last next several Steps. This raw newbie will find that AA is a program of action and practicality. The Big Book tells us in detail what’s next in Steps Four through Nine, or as some would say, “How do we in the Program learn to stop that next drink, reach some peace, remain sober, and rid myself of all those past ghosts?”

And yet, and yet Christ knew we were sinners and Bill and Dr. Bob also knew that, for they had “gone back out.” The next Steps tell us how to fight that…

Jim A, St X Noon, Cincinnati, 2-7-24