The Tablemate - Discussion No. 2 The Spiritual Phase
As a reminder;
The Tablemate was an early A.A. set of beginners lessons entitled ‘Alcoholics Anonymous: An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps,’ put out in the form of a little pamphlet. It was (and still is) the most successful set of A.A. beginners lessons ever devised.
And I’m drawing content from the Hindsfoot site, laboriously prepared by Glenn C. and others… We now move into Discussion No. 2: The Spiritual Phase
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Step No. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Our drinking experience has shown:
1. That as we strayed away from the normal social side of life, our minds became confused and we strayed away from the normal mental side of life.
2. An abnormal mental condition is certainly not sanity in the accepted sense of the word. We have acquired or developed a mental disease. Our study of A.A. shows that:
a. In the mental or tangible side of life we have lost touch with, or ignored, or have forgotten the spiritual values that give us the dignity of man as differentiated from the animal. We have fallen back upon the material things of life and these have failed us. We have been groping in the dark.
b. No human agency, no science or art has been able to solve the alcoholic problem, so we turn to the spiritual for guidance.
Therefore we “came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” We must believe with a great FAITH.
Step No. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
In the first step we learned that we had lost the power of choice and had to make a decision.
1. What decision could we make better than to
a. turn our very will over to God, realizing that our own use of our own will had resulted in trouble.
b. As in the Lord’s Prayer, you must believe and practice thy will be done.
2. God as we understand Him.
3. Religion is a word we do not use in A.A. We refer to a member’s relation to God as the spiritual. A religion is a form of worship - - not the worship itself.
4. If a man cannot believe in God he can certainly believe in something greater than himself. If he cannot believe in a power greater than himself he is a rather hopeless egotist.
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The Tablemate - Discussion No. 2 The Spiritual Phase Part II
Mar 17, 2008 at 4:18 pm
[…] And I’m drawing content from the Hindsfoot site, laboriously prepared by Glenn C. and others… We are now in Discussion No. 2: The Spiritual Phase (II) (see part I) […]
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