What do you call your Higher Power?
Spirituality was built into the AA recovery program, right from the beginning. Emmet Fox’s secretary in New York was the mother of one of the men who worked with AA co-founder Bill Wilson.
Partly as a result of this connection, early AA recovery groups often went to hear Mr. Fox speak. And Mr. Fox was the Spiritual Advisor for many of the first AAs. His Sermon on the Mount was considered the first Big Book and is still today part of the literature one finds at many AA meetings and stores.
A newcomer to recovery in AA many times is coming away from, among other problems, a huge problem with Religion and God. In my mind, that is one of the largest reasons that newcomers are told almost from day one in the Program that this is not a religious program but a spiritual program.
Religion works very well with many people, in and out of recovery. But many coming into AA are very hesitant to even think of God as their Higher Power. We are told in Step 2 that we came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step 3 states God as we understood Him. Notice that we are first told in recovery to look at what is going on around us, because we all have different experiences, and see that there is some kind of Power orchestrating what is going on.
We can call this Power anything we choose. God, Allah, Buddha. It. I originally chose the recovery Group of AA as my Higher Power. Mr. Fox was one of the pioneers in the “New Thought” school of Spirituality where any name for a Power will do as long as it is realized that there is a Power.
This Power is ready, able, and willing to do for us what so many of us, in and out of recovery, could not do for ourselves. “But, why does God give us tests like war, disease, Covid, divorce, addiction?” The list is endless.
We learn in the study of spirituality in recovery that our Higher Power, who I now choose to call God, does not test us or give us anything other than love, guidance, and Divine wisdom if It is sought. These things all come because of our free will and its use or misuse.
We learn that we must humbly ask this Power and then try not to direct the outcome. Only just let it happen. Recovery WILL happen.
“He” is also a term placed on what some religious humans have placed on God by the same people who teach that God is our Father, just like our human father, so “just another man.”
FALSE! This is just another way that people put their own stamp of approval on things that they are not able to see, touch, feel, smell, or taste, but must have faith in. In recovery, we must be especially aware of this.
Entire churches, religions, and beliefs have risen and fallen and some still exist that believe this. Even some recovery programs. God is not a glorified human being. It, and I use a capital I in It in this instance, is simply a Power greater than ourselves.
I can not see electricity or gravity either but I do feel and use the effects of both. Life, in this instance, is not a cafeteria where we pick and choose what to believe and what not to adhere to without Divine guidance. This is especially true while in recovery.
My mission in life now is to feel Happy, Joyous, and Free. And, more importantly, to help others in recovery become even more so. It does not stop there, though. I want you to have just as much or more than I. Then our recovery will be even more effective.
I wish it for you and all to have. Yes, I hope and pray that you are Happier, more Joyous, and Free than I am because I can then selfishly have something to work for. That being your utter Joy. We can then rally together.
Is it impossible? NO WAY! Is it difficult? It surely can be but it is so utterly simple that it is probably overlooked, even by those who have studied these things forever.
ALL that I must do is, when awakening, give thanks for another day and opportunity to serve others. Then, during the day, say the shortened version of the 3rd Step, “God help Me,” whenever I come to a fork in my life’s road.
And thank you God or Pete or whoever helped me with the day. Then at the day’s end say “Thank you, God, for this day of Sobriety.” Just like the rest of the AA Program, this is very simple but not always easy so don’t mess around anymore.
Just Do It! If you do, you will be rewarded more than you could ever believe possible before. That is a Promise! Thank you, God!
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