The first two Steps require no action on our part at all. All they require is acknowledging the truth of a few simple concepts based upon an honest appraisal of our own drinking or drug use history. The Step One Question we need to answer is in two parts:
Part One: Am I powerless over alcohol or drugs? This means once I start drinking or using drugs, does it, more often than not, trigger “a physical craving” that causes me to drink or drug more than I had originally intended to drink or drug? If my answer is “yes,” then I’ve identified the physical part of my illness and completed the first half of Step One.
Part Two now asks: Has my life become unmanageable? This means once alcohol or drugs have caused significant problems in my life and once I’ve already attempted moderating or quitting my own use, have I been unable to “stay quit” because of “a mental obsession” that sends me back to using the very substances that are causing my problems in the first place? If my answer once again is “yes,” then I’ve identified the mental part of my illness and I’ve completed the second half of Step One.
But when the mental and the physical parts of the illness come together in us, the Big Book says we may well be suffering from a “hopeless condition of mind and body.” This condition of personal hopelessness is what brings us to a consideration of Step Two.
The Step Two question is this: Do I believe - or am I willing to believe – that a Power greater than myself might exist who could provide me with the needed sanity not to pick up that first drink or drug? All we need do is be willing to partake in an experiment – what Oxford group and AA pioneers called, “the God experiment.” If we answer “no” to this question, there is really no use in proceeding. We can’t go on to Step Three until we’ve completed Step Two. But if we are willing to say, “Well, maybe so – maybe there could be a God – I’m not at all sure, but yes, it might be possible. And if there is a God, then he or she could certainly keep me from picking up. Yes, I can believe that.” – Once we can agree to that in our heads, then we’ve completed Step Two and are ready to take our first action Step: Step Three.
When a newcomer entered the AA program in the very early days, particularly as it was practiced in Akron, Ohio, the new man would be taken through the equivalence of the first set of questions described above and then taken upstairs to a bedroom by one or two of the older group members to take his Third Step. They would get down on their knees beside him as the new man put into his own words his need for God’s help. It wasn’t necessary that there be strong emotional content to the man’s prayer. Sometimes there was but more so this action was seen as a cold and calculated and very necessary action step that had more to do with conscious surrender than with unconscious conversion. The conversion would come by the time Step Twelve had been completed, right now what was needed was an expression of willingness.
Oxford Group member Rev. Sam Shoemaker often quoted Prof. William James who saw this act as “the throwing of our conscious selves on the mercy of the powers which, whatever they may be, are more ideal than we are actually, and make for our redemption…. Self surrender has always been and always must be regarded as the vital turning point of the religious life.”
We alcoholics and addicts can complicate the hell out of just about anything. It shouldn’t surprise us that we can complicate Step Three as well. Step Three simply asks us to make a statement or prayer voicing our need for help to whatever God we believe there might exist and to do this in the presence of “an understanding person.” In my work as a chaplain I’m asked to hear a number of Fifth Steps, but before I’ll agree to do this, I’ll always ask the person if they’ve taken their Third Step with anyone as yet. If they have not, I’ll ask if we could get on our knees together and if they would simply ask God for help.
A few weeks ago it was my privilege to hear a young man whose Third Step Prayer went something like this: “Dear Lord, I’ve really ‘f… ed’ up my life and I need your help. Please, Lord, if you’re there, will you help me?” Historically, I believe that man’s prayer passed the test; but theologically speaking, I believe he hit it out of the ballpark! That prayer went straight up to heaven and straight into God’s waiting heart. Keep it simple!
It saves a lot of time and a lot of lives.
Fr. Bill Wigmore is Chaplain at Austin Recovery.
Send comments, questions, speaking requests, or treatment scholarship donations to:
Judy Haney /Austin Recovery / 8402 Cross Park Dr. / Austin, Texas 78754