“What’s in it for me?” is a question we have been asking since birth. When we first leave our earth mothers and someone smacks our bottom to help kickstart our breathing for the first time, we let out a cry and, since we have not learned to communicate with language yet, this is our first “What’s in it for me?” As we grow we ask this about everything with different forms of communication, including ‘the look,’ ‘the grunt,’ ‘the shoulder shrug’ until we get to the point where we ask it in a language that can be understood by others. “Is it going to hurt me, help me, feed me, shun me, shame me, love me, dislike me?” In other words, “What’s in it for me?” So, when we see ‘Spirituality and What’s in it for me’ it should not come as a surprise that it catches our attention for a minute. Many have had extensive religious training and come out of it either very happy, sad, or confused. Many have had no religious training and are very happy, sad, or confused. The only thing that remains constant is the feeling of ‘What’s in it for me?’ I was one who had no religious background growing up and was very confused about what it was all about. I was probably not an atheist because I was led to believe that there was a God “out there” who was judging me and preparing final judgements for me either Hellishly bad or Heavenly good, but most likely Hellishly bad. So, when I heard about a Higher Power or God who I could call anything that I wished and that It was not ‘out there’ but in my heart, I was very interested in learning more. How could this be true when I had been hearing the ‘other side’ regularly when growing up. “Jim, you are a good boy but…, Jim you are a smart boy but…, Jim, you are going to Hell for that, Jim, God will get you for that. I was confused and saw, for the very first time, that there may be some hope for me. To start answering the topic’s question of what’s in it for me? I start with hope. Before this, I wasn’t even sure that there was any hope that the others were wrong, no matter who they were – parents, friends. When I first learned about Spirituality, I was new in the AA Program and was seeing others who I had known from the streets and knew that they had felt the same way that I had. They were now acting Happy, Joyous, and Free. The more that I got to really know them the more that I realized that they were not acting, they were actuall feeling it. I wanted this and told them that I would do anything to obtain it if they would only show me how. They did and I immediately started to feel the difference. I noticed that many of my angry, resentful thoughts were melting away and, while this was happening, others around me “started becoming better people too!” I was feeling better about myself, leading me to feel differently about others. I was introduced to the writing and teachings of Emmet Fox, one of the founders of the New Thought movement. Bill W. and the earliest members of AA thought so much of his teachings that his Sermon on the Mount was used as their first Big Book, until Bill W. compiled the AA Big Book. I learned that I am a spiritual being living in a spiritual universe, that is governed by spiritual law and that, as a divine being, I am an individualized expression of God and one with all that exists. Imagine, my being threatened for so long with going to Hell was going to change to me being a divine being! What a concept! I now welcome the challenge to answer what I perceive is a calling to let others know that there is hope and this hope is not ‘out there’ but right here in your and my heart. So, to finally answer the question posed in the title of Spirituality and What’s In It For Me? I answer EVERYTHING. Today I am totally Happy, Joyous, and Free 24/7/365. This does not mean that I like everything that happens to me or others but it does mean if it is something outside me, I can not change it. But, if it is something in me, I CAN CHANGE IT. Now I can truly be Happy, Joyous, and Free. If I can do this, so can you, if you choose it!