The AA Program is a remarkable 12 Step Program that can be used by everyone to better ones life. Step 3 says “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.” If we accepted the 1st Step that we were alcoholics and our lives had become unmanageable, and the 2nd Step, that there is a Power greater than ourselves that could help, we are ready for Step 3. Step 1 – I can’t, Step 2 – He can, Step 3 – I think I’ll let Him.
I was overwhelmed trying to do everything all by myself and was finally ready to do something that I did very little of before, ask for help. If there is a Power that can help, then bring It on. I surrendered to the IDEA of a Higher Power that could and would help me if He were sought. I was only looking for some peace for a change. Program people called it Serenity. The people that I saw in AA were actually Happy, Joyous, and Free. Not all, but most and enough to give me some hope.
Now, how do I do this Step 3? Since I was also learning about the Spiritual side of AA and that my Higher Power, who I was choosing to call God, was internally deep in my soul. He was not some bearded male human figure sitting on His golden throne “Up there in the sky in Heaven” waiting to judge me just like everyone else seemed to be doing. I didn’t even know how to pray. Of course, I had used the old “God, get me out of this and I will never do it again” prayer, only to renege and do it all over again, whatever IT was.
Emmet Fox advises that every thought is a prayer, so I started with this basic principle. Then as earnestly and truthfully and humbly as I was able to at the time said “God help me. I can’t do it by myself. I can’t continue living, feeling and acting this way.” This was the beginning of finally feeling better because the self doubts and worries started to melt away. They were replaced slowly but surely by the inner wisdom that I had been receiving ever since coming into AA. I not only heard the words of the people that I was meeting but saw their actions. This led to deeply feeling the vibrations of care and love that were being sent my way by people who had been there, done that and bought the same t-shirt. The warmth of the vibes was overwhelming.
I started to find the peace that had eluded me for so long. I started to realize that my obsession to drink had left and seemingly was not returning. I started to feel better about myself and therefore others. This led to the beginnings of positive self worth and this led to others looking at me with different eyes. They, of course, were apprehensive at first because hadn’t I tried this before and failed every time? I saw love slowly replacing fear and annoyance in myself and others toward me.
It was an entirely new beginning to life that I was only able to achieve after totally surrendering to my Higher Power. At first, my Higher Power was the folks that I was meeting at the AA meetings. This progressed to knowing, really knowing, that there was a Power much greater than myself and KNOWING that it was there for me. It took surrendering totally for maybe the 1st time ever to this Power. Surrender made me stronger and I wanted more and so I repeated this whenever I was at a crossroads in my life.
I still do! To do it, I use the shortened version of the 3rd Step, “God Help Me!” I talk with my Higher Power regularly just as if It were another friend. It works for me. I was a very large, very angry, very violent, morally bankrupt, well armed man. I now am a Happy, Joyous, and Free man. I stay that way, as long as I work my program 24/7/365 to the best of my ability.
“Is that all?” you may ask? Yes, it’s really that simple. No matter if you have been working your program for minutes or decades. If you want to be Happy, Joyous, and Free, I heartily suggest working your program 24/7/365 to the best of your ability in ALL of your affairs and see what happens. Don’t be afraid of living! Be happy with the fact that you can now truly live and enjoy life. If you didn’t drink or drug today, you now have choices. Do you choose to be miserable or do you choose to be Happy, Joyous, and Free? The choice is yours and nobody else’s’. Choose wisely!