Step 02

Step 02: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity

Lack of power is the problem

If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried. We could wish to be moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn’t there. Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly. Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. (Page 44)

Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God’s help. (Page 62)

Power to do what?

Power to 'accept what I cannot change' + 'change what I can' (Serenity Prayer)

Insanity is not being able to accept what I cannot change / not being able to change what I can

Sanity is being able to accept what I cannot change / being able to change what I can

What can't I change?

• The nature of alcoholism and addiction
• The course of another person's disease
• The course of another person's recovery
• The laws of physics
• The thoughts that occur to me (what I think 'of')
• How you feel
• How I feel
• The past

What can I change?

• What I believe
• What I do with the thoughts that occur to me (what I think 'about')
• What I do

How do I know I need power?

Because any endeavour needs information + power: information about what to do and the power to carry that out

If I have the information, but am still stuck, lack of power is my problem

For example:

If you tell me there is no point in being worried because it doesn't help, does that stop me from worrying? No

Lack of power is my problem

Others have accessed power

It began to look as though religious people were right after all. Here was something at work in a human heart which had done the impossible. My ideas about miracles were drastically revised right then. Never mind the musty past; here sat a miracle directly across the kitchen table. He shouted great tidings. I saw that my friend was much more than inwardly reorganized. He was on a different footing. His roots grasped a new soil. (Page 11)

Each day my friend’s simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men. (Page 16)

When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God. Our ideas did not work. But the God idea did. (Page 52)

When I go to meetings I hear people saying:

• What they used to be like (which I identify with)
• What they did (the Twelve Steps)
• What they are like now (which I would like)

If others are now able to accept what they cannot change and change what they can, they have acquired power

The power therefore exists. It must have a source. When I boil the kettle using electricity, that power must come from its source: the power station

This is the Higher Power: higher meaning smarter than me and more powerful than me

Power can also be experienced: e.g. when you go to a meeting and find yourself newly able to apply the serenity prayer to a situation

The mechanisms for activating power (the Twelve Steps) are also established: it's not luck or magic

If it works for others it will work for me

If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the forty-two personal stories and think: “Yes, that happened to me”; or, more important, “Yes, I’ve felt like that”; or, most important, “Yes, I believe this program can work for me too.” (Preface)

If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try. (Page 28)

But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed. (Page 25)

Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas: (a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. (b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. (c) That God could and would if He were sought. (Page 60)

Either this power is available to everyone or it is not

I hear people around me I identify with. Why would it not be available to me, too?

If you go to enough meetings, read enough Al-Anon literature, and listen to enough recordings of speakers, eventually you will hear every part of your story told back to you

We are all capable of faith

Without knowing it, had we not been brought to where we stood by a certain kind of faith? For did we not believe in our own reasoning? Did we not have confidence in our ability to think? What was that but a sort of faith? Yes, we had been faithful, abjectly faithful to the God of Reason. So, in one way or another, we discovered that faith had been involved all the time! (Page 53)

We found, too, that we had been worshippers. What a state of mental goose-flesh that used to bring on! Had we not variously worshipped people, sentiment, things, money, and ourselves? And then, with a better motive, had we not worshipfully beheld the sunset, the sea, or a flower? Who of us had not loved something or somebody? How much did these feelings, these loves, these worships, have to do with pure reason? Little or nothing, we saw at last. Were not these things the tissue out of which our lives were constructed? Did not these feelings, after all, determine the course of our existence? It was impossible to say we had no capacity for faith, or love, or worship. In one form or another we had been living by faith and little else. (Page 54)

Faith is the courage to commit to and implement action without certainty of result

I used to nag, cajole, ridicule, manipulate, bribe, and deploy a thousand other tactics to get others to change, without certainty of result

I therefore have the capacity for faith 

I just need to redirect it to a more reliable object: the Higher Power

All in!

When we became alcoholics, crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What was our choice to be? (Page 52)

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program … (Page 58)

With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. (Page 58)

Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon. (Page 59)

The old system did not work

That is why I am here

The old system was based on getting the world to change so I would be OK

The new system will be based on serving the Higher Power and discovering peace and satisfaction come from within not without

These are opposite systems

You can't mix and match the two

All in!