https://12stepnationalmeetings.com/media/Step-2-Alcoholics-Anonymous.mp4
Hello, and the world are you hope you still doing great with on a deal with step to at this particular time came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity when I first came around and started hearing about the steps. I remember reading a book where it said first we came then we came to then we came to believe in other words. I had to come around people who had the information.
That was the first thought I had to actually be around it and hear it first. I came not necessarily believing not necessarily understanding actually not necessarily wanting to be there because I was forced to be there by other agencies. So first I came I came reluctantly, but I came then I came to with sparked my interest. I started understanding some things. I actually started to believe that the people telling stories were telling the truth.
I came I came to I woke up and then gradually I came to believe but what did I come to believe in? Well, if we go back to Step One, it tells me what I really need to believe in when we left step one. We kind of left people laying in the middle of the floor powerless. It’s interesting to me that people come to 12-step meetings because they feel powerless in a sense. They come to meetings because their life is unmanageable they come for help and when they come to us for help the first thing we tell
Is that you can’t help yourself and we can help you either. I mean that’s kind of strange. I mean we leave them laying in the middle of the floor. The first thing we tell them is that you are powerless. Your willpower will not help you in this instant instant a friend of mine used to say if you have a diarrhea and you just try to use your will power against diarrhea see if it works if you have cancer I know and understand that faith and willpower made
I help you to live longer but willpower is not the cure to cancer. If you have diabetes Well will power may be used to help you in some instances. But willpower is not to cure 2 diabetes willpower will not help you to overcome certain diseases and it’s the same way with addictions will power is not your cure. As a matter of fact, that’s one of the things we want to do. We want to strip you from believing in the fact that you have the power to handle the situation. So
And we have you laying in the middle of the floor saying your power less.
Well anything that’s power less I think needs what power it needs power. And so you may have let’s say a television or computer already. Oh perfectly workable new maybe the best model ever made, but it does you no good unless it’s connected into some power. It doesn’t matter what it is. It has to receive power from outside of itself. Once if you seize power from outside of itself it can work.
the way it was originally created to work and so we left with the first step saying we’re power less the Second Step says we know where you can find power we know where you can find power and so just come if you come you’ll come to Believe come to believe in a power greater than yourself now, we’re not telling you who or what or how the power operates or what the power is, but if you come you’ll come to believe in a power greater than yourself somehow this
Power is outside of me. I’ve tried all I know my willpower can handle it. But if I come and hear the information I can come to believe in a power greater than myself. Of course. Some people say that’s their rooms when they go into the room. They know that those people collectively have a power that they don’t have individually that’s the power of community and when we come in to community we can often do things we can’t do alone. And so when we come into
Community they have more intellectual power than I have by myself. They have more physical power than I have by myself. They have more spiritual power than I have by myself. So some people say just come to believe that a power greater than yourself could actually be a homegroup could actually be a Community of Faith could actually be anything greater than you outside of yourself come to believe in a power greater than myself and
And that’s what I had to do because I have no power if I’m disconnected from Power. I have to be connected to power. That’s what the second step is saying to me. We’re not telling you what power you have to have. We’re not telling you how you have to be connected to it. We’re just saying that if you come you may receive the grace of believing in a power greater than yourself but then it turns around and says that power greater than yourself can restore you to sanity now. They really trying to get to me they do.
Me in the middle of the floor. They don’t told me that I’m powerless. Now that sneaking up the backside of the mountain and they’re going to try to tell me that I’m insane can restore me to sanity. Well, the truth of the matter is well some addictions in the DSM for are seen as mental mental disorders a chemical dependency. Alcoholism. They are mental disorders. According to the dim SM dsm-4 psychological Bible. They don’t know everything.
Nothing, but before that was even written AA and na was saying we need to be restored to sanity. They’re saying something about the way we think now when I first came around I thought that the insanity was let’s say stealing money from my child cussing my wife out sneaking into places where I could be killed any moment being around people that I would not otherwise be around hanging around lower companions as they say I thought the end.
Hannity was the things I did when I was in my addictive behavior when I was in my addiction, I did insane things. You know what that’s kind of normal, you know, that’s kind of know if you if you take I remember father Martin said if you take an old lady and put her under ether in the operating room, she may be getting to babble all kinds of things. That doesn’t mean she’s insane. That means she has drug affected Behavior.
You can take somebody that never used a certain kind of drug and they may start to act a certain way under the influence of that drug. You may even take somebody to play the horses and they may get excited and get elated and act a certain way why they’re playing the horses that does not mean that they’re necessarily addicted to playing the horses. They may do it that day and never do it again in their life. They had a good time. You know that endorphins were jumping up and down or something, but that does not mean that they’re insane what
I mean when we say restore us to sanity well build W who helped write the steps Bill W wrote two steps. He was asked one time. What do you mean by insanity? And he said he meant by Insanity not the things we do when we’re operating in our diction, but let’s say we stop our diction and we got ourselves another nice job and we’re starting to make some good friends and things are going well. Now my spouse begins to stop.
Leaving in me. Again. My children are calling me Daddy. They’re not afraid to come up on my lap. I’m no longer going to the Seedy side of town. Everything’s going great. It’s a hunky-dory Time Zippity doo-dah day. I mean, everything is great. Everything is fancy. Everything is nice. I’m just having me a great time. And in the midst of this great time I say, oh, I think I’ll go have a drink. I think I’ll go snort some hell when I think I’ll go play the numbers. I think I’ll go.
Mess With a Prostitute. I think I’ll go over eat. I think in other words everything is fine and all of a sudden this little thing in the back of my head says go for one, but not just this one time you can do it successfully. Now I said in step one. I was powerless I said in step one. I was unmanageable. I said in step one that I could not predict what was going to happen to me and that I couldn’t handle the situation that I surrendered but step to tells me that there’s
Is a little something inside my head that every now and then will spring up and say just do it this one time. You can handle it. You know what that is. That’s the insanity Bill W said that’s the insanity that we’re talking about that in every alcoholic every addict every person that’s addicted. There’s something in our brain that says I can do it successfully and it will pop up every now and then just this one time.
I can do it. Successfully the big book of Alcoholic Anonymous says that there will come certain times where we have no mental effective mental defense against the Nate snakes drink. He said there will come times. We will not have a mental defense against it why because our mind is insane in a sense and we don’t have a mental defense against it. That’s why we came to believe that a power outside of our mental defense is greater than
Ourselves could restore us to sanity the sanity. I need to be restored to I need I need I need a power greater than me rather. It’s going to the groups and hand from them all the time or whatever. I need a power greater than me from outside of me to some kind of way begin to renew my mind. So some kind of way begin to reshape my mind and change my mind so that my mind rids itself of the insane thought that one day I’m going to be able to
Indulge in this addictive behavior, successfully. I need a power to do that for me because I’m powerless and I can’t do it and they tell me that if I come to the meetings, I’ll come to believe in that power that power will somehow get a hold of me and change my thinking one of the most misunderstood words today. I believe is the word believe came to believe that a power greater than ourselves. Unfortunately many people say they believe in things that really have
No impact on their life a friend of mine says that’s practical atheism. You know, I deal with a lot of Alcoholics and addicts and a lot of times they tell me that they have a strong belief in a higher power. They say they believe in God I said you believe in God. Why are you smoking the pipe? I believed in God they say they believe in God why they’re doing all kinds of things that they really don’t want to do and that’s that’s so finding their family, but they say they believe in God, I think a lot of us because of our religious.
Straining have been taught their belief has to do with Creed’s we’ve been taught that belief has to do with Doctrine, but we haven’t been taught that belief has to do with our lifestyle where the rubber hits the road in other words as we heard. Somebody said faith without works is dead. It’s not real Faith. It’s not real faith. In other words, if you believe that a bear was coming at you right now, you honestly believe that you have a
Illness in the Bears coming after you you’re going to do something about it. If you believe that your spouse right now and is in the hotel room with somebody else and you love your spouse and care about your spouse. You’re going to try to do something about it. If you believe you actually believe that we’re going to have something like hurricane whatever Katrina come right now and it’s coming our way you’re going to do whatever you can about it. You’re not just going to say I have a
mental assent to it. It’s gonna force you to Awards action. That’s the point. I’m trying to make when we really believe something it impacts our life. We’re not into practical atheism where we say. Yeah, I believe but it means nothing practical to me in my life when you really believe it forces you towards action. I came to believe believe to me means a Reliance upon it means to trust in instead of me just saying I had faith I actually
Frost in this higher power to restore me to sanity. I believe that this higher power will do for me what I cannot do for myself. I am relying on it every day one day at a time sort of like you heard the old Story the children of Israel each day had to go out to receive manner. They couldn’t collect more manner than they need it because it would spoil but every day they had to depend on another Power.
To supply their daily bread as we say our daily bread. Well every day I have to rely on and depend on a power greater than myself helping me to think in the same.