Step Two and Step Three
Review Step One: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.
Until you realize, admit you are lost, there is very little chance you will take the right directions. Up to this point in our lives we were not “an alcoholic”; we were unaware of what the problem was.
Therefore, we had no way of recognizing what the solution might be.
We were in the dark. Now we have something to work with. Now we have a new distinction.
We have recognized what the problem is…
“Lack of power, that is our dilemma.”
How can we get this power?
Step Two
Read Chapter Four – We Agnostics… pg. 44
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
This is an important distinction as well.
They don’t say we need to find or understand God. God works in mysterious ways.
They simply say we need to seek a God of our own understanding.
If you are certain God, or gods exist, then you are a believer.
If you are uncertain whether God, or other gods exist, then you are probably an agnostic.
An agnostic is defined as anyone who doesn’t claim to know for certain whether any god or gods exist, no matter what the description.
If you are certain gods of any description do not, or even cannot exist, then you are defined as being an atheist.
“If your doubt is serving your uselessness, then you might question your doubt.”
~ Jordon Peterson
What is belief?
Belief is defined as a state or habit of mind in which confidence or trust is placed in a person or thing.
By Webster’s definition, therefore, belief is simply accepting what one knows in the matter.
A demonstration of belief; having seen a tightrope walker take someone in a wheelbarrow across a tightrope strung between two tall stands, you believe that he can do it again.
“What is Faith?” Faith is an action word: Belief + Action = Faith
A demonstration of faith would be getting in the wheelbarrow!
We have the ability, and have demonstrated our willingness, to place belief in all sorts of external things:
Alcohol, drugs, power, property, other people, sex, money, negative thought patterns etc. All of these things have had control over us. Our attachment to them is generated out of our Spiritual Malady.
What is needed here is to change the object of our belief.
As we have tried and failed many times to exert our control, our force of will, our own power over our alcoholism, it should become obvious that no human power could have relieved us of our alcoholism.
Unfortunately, the obvious is not always clear to us.
Sandy B describes Chapter Four in three words: “Change your mind!”
To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis is not always an easy alternative to face.
What is our choice to be?
Step Three
Read Chapter Five – How It Works to second paragraph on pg. 63, “as we understood Him…”
We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
A decision is an action word and happens in an instant.
If you snap your fingers; that’s a decision, and that’s how long it takes to make it.
When you get to the Step Three prayer, have all who are present get on their knees, and recite it together. pg. 63
“God, I offer myself to thee…”
“An effect, sometimes a very great one, was felt at once!”
This is the end of Session 3
Step Two and Step Three
IMPORTANT: Read this over yourself before starting Session 4a
For Session 4 you will need an 8 ½ x 11-inch notebook that opens like this.
This is just and example! Do not fill in the headers of the columns yet.
These headers and columns are assigned as homework after you have completed the instructions in Session 4a.
