Even if There is no God

[If Not For Grace]

Sometimes newcomer's and others Struggle with the Spiritual Aspect of the 12-Step Program and Step 2 has not yet been realized...

We can STILL benefit from the Program:

Even if there is no God,...

there is a healing power in coming together to share pain and challenge, experience and humor, as people do in meetings every day.

Even if there is no God,

service to others is still a laudable and worthy thing, healing and helpful not just to the recipient, but to the giver as well.

Even if there is no God,

the collected experience of people who have survived whatever trial you face can guide you during the worst of times and help you not just live through something but learn from it and even (sometimes) feel a kind of gratitude for it (eventually).

Even if there is no God,

working to forgive those who wronged you will set you free.

Even if there is no God,

being still, developing a meditation practice, heals the body, buoys emotion and strengthens the mind in proven and measurable ways.

Even if there is no God,

the world is full of goodness -- it is just a case of training yourself to see it --enough goodness to give a person hope to make it through at least one more day.

Even if there is no God,

sometimes in life -- even if only rarely --there are sublime moments of real love, be it from a parent for a child, family as a whole, in the camaraderie of true friendship, or in the arms of a lover --and that, in and of itself, is a force to heal and change lives -- truly, even if there is no God, a force Divine.

**This was shared with me by a dear member and neither of us know the origin, it is not "our" original thought/work, but we hope others with whom it resonates will pass it along to others.**

 

[epluribus36]

During my first four years of sobriety, I considered my peers as my higher power. Especially as I attended AA/NA meetings, I used to tell the other attendees that they were my higher power. That was certainly better than what I had before, which was drugs and alcohol.

Of course now that I've confessed my sins and accepted Jesus' gift of eternal life a little over three years ago, I feel much more complete.

I believe for all the "tap-dancing" AA/NA does around the whole God subject, it's inevitable that following the big book or basic text leads directly to God. I guess it could be Buddha, Enlightenment, Allah, but I'm not qualified to speak too much about those subjects, and frankly not too interested.

I remember one lady used to use a little toy giraffe as her higher power. She carried it around in her purse, and pulled it out and showed it to everybody. Whatever pops your clutch or floats your boat, I suppose.

 

[If Not For Grace]

Not everybody who enters the rooms is keen on "religion". Not every Religion believes in a deity form of God. The 12steps are about establishing a belief in something, somewhere that knows more than we do, from which we may seek guidance and having conscious contact or a relationship with this power, be it the God of Christians, Jews or Islam or Karma or the Energy of the Universe.

Many come into the rooms wounded by the religious establishment of their family or origin and need a place to start. The Even if there is no God post is an effort to demonstrate the benefits of the program that can be had without subscribing to any religious affiliation. That's all.

 

[If Not For Grace]

and we share what has worked for us..If you want what we have we ask you to keep coming back.