HOW IT WORKS!

[MajestyJo]

Working for It

from: "Action and Patience"

"In shame and despair, I went to my first A.A. meeting. By some minor miracle, I was able to suspend opinion, analysis, judgment, and criticism, and instead to listen and hear. I heard someone say that A.A. works for those who work for it, those who put ACTION into the program. For me, at the time, action consisted of simply showing up at an A.A. meeting and following the suggestions I heard.... The first step in the process of 'coming to believe' had been taken."

© 1973, Came to Believe..., page 42

Just For Today - The Hoffields

Recovery is a process, I can remember being told to suit up and show up for the day and the rest will follow.

Everyone mentioned "God" and this is a spiritual program and I thought I knew, after all hadn't I been raised in religion for twenty-two years, who are they to tell me, I am a leading authority don't you know?

It didn't stop me from being an addict who became addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs, and to try out any other substance that came my way.

What I came to believe in was the program. I saw that it was doing for other than I had been trying to do for eight years before I got here. I tried quitting my way, and it didn't work. I couldn't STAY QUIT, they had laughter in their eyes, their eyes shone with a radiance I hadn't seen for a long time.

I thought they were laughing at me, when in fact they were laughing with me, because they had been were I was, and had been able to move on and find a new life for themselves.

Step One - I came to recovery and I kept coming so I didn't have to come back. Meetings, meetings and more meetings, and when I got tired of meetings, I went to more meetings. I ended up going because I wanted to not because I had to. I had a big fear that if I missed a meeting, I would relapse. That was changed into a faith that if I go to a meeting, I don't have to pick up today.

Step Two - I came to believe it would work for me and help me to remove the insanity in my life and bring my life into balance. It says I could not would return me to sanity, it is only through work and an honest desire to keep coming and a willingness to change.

Step Three - I came to believe the program would work for me. It is a spiritual program open to everyone who is willing to believe it will work for them. For me, I didn't find God, the God of my own understanding, until I worked the steps and found myself. When I got here, I wasn't capable of knowing, I only remembered what I was told to believe and had no understanding of what I believed in me, most of all myself.

When I made the decision, I made the decision to work the rest of the steps into my life, and they in turn would prevent me from going back to where I came from, and that I would grow in Love and in the Fellowship of the Spirit.

In today, I have maintained my religious beliefs. What I found was that God was so much bigger than I had ever been able to comprehend. Everywhere I went, He was there. I no longer had to keep Him in Church, He was as He revealed Himself to me on a daily basis.

When I surrendered in Step One and said, "My way doesn't work, I was empowered to do what I needed to do, one day at a time, to stay clean, to grow, and as I grew in consciousness, I became aware of the Good Orderly Direction in my life.

I am powerless over people, place and things, but I am empowered to change myself.

I look at the first three Steps as "I came, I came to, and I came to believe" and I work those Steps every morning. Another way of looking at it is "I can't, God can, just for today, I choose to let Him," and I turn my day over to the God of my understanding. When I do that, I am empowered to do what I need to do stay clean and sober, one day at a time.