Step 3 states: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Turning over sounds a lot like surrender to me. Surrender was never a part of my vocabulary before entering AA. Then, I discovered in Step 3 that I must turn my will and my life over to my Higher Power. Simply substitute Surrender for Turning Over and it softens things a lot for me.
I want to start this out by saying that we can only tell our own stories, never someone else’s. So, the following is from my own personal experiences. Do you have to do the same thing to get or stay sober? No. Not at all! It is just that I have been truly sober and much more than merely dry. I have been attending AA meetings for a long time. I have been sober and working my program to the best of my ability and it continues to work very well for me. If you have a difference of opinion about anything I say, that is also fine. I am not here to argue. I am here to show you how it has worked and still does work very well for me.
For newcomers, this is a step that you can begin at any time and the sooner the better. One good thing is that I use the shortened version of this Step regularly. It is simply saying “God Help Me.” Then I just surrender to my Higher Power and go on with my business and things miraculously seem to get done properly. I don’t plead and bargain with my Higher Power like I did when in the madness. Then, I would beg God to get me out of something, many times adding that, if He did, I would never do it again. Only to do the very same thing over and over with maybe a few twists to make it seem better.
This is a very simple program for very complicated folks. We seemed to overcomplicate even the making of Jello. Look around you and see that everyone on this screen, and in all of your AA meetings, has been just wherever you are and they are doing fine. How and why? I don’t even have to know! In fact, if I do figure it all out, that means that I can control it. But how well did I do with control before coming into AA? When faced with a problem, I just say “God Help Me” and move on. In other words, I surrender to my God. How much simpler could it get? Not always easy, though, because our minds are used to looking for flaws and not assets.
For those who have been in the program for a while and start feeling too high, low, sad, nervous, SIMPLY determine where you are working the program wrong. The answer will ALWAYS be there. I go through the 12 Steps, starting with Step 1, and usually do not have to go beyond Step 3. Why? Because, even though I have surrendered and turned my will and my life over to my Higher Power, I took it back “Just this once.” Then, things started to crumble again. What do I do next? I again turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understand Him and things become serene and peaceful again.
My will and life are not take it back very often any more and, when I do, the costs are usually so high that I don’t ever want to do it again. I am truly Happy, Joyous, and Free and those that know me well know that this is not just an AA Meeting face. It is me!
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