WEEK 5 - STEP THREE
So far, we have talked about what the Big Book means by powerlessness over
alcohol. That is, that sooner or later we will make the insane act of taking that first
drink whatever our situation: happy or sad, relaxed or anxious, or even if we have
plenty of self-knowledge. We are beyond human help. The only thing that can help us
is a Power greater than us.
We have also talked about how some of us came to believe that a Power greater
than us could restore us to sanity and stop us from taking the first drink.
We have described the daily actions that we can take at this point to stay sober
and have stressed how important sponsors have been for us. A sponsor is someone
who has experience of going through the steps as they are laid out in the Big Book
and can pass on that experience.
Now we come to Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to
the care of God, as we understood Him.
Having taken Step Two, we have come to believe in a Higher Power that has our
best interests at heart, who wants us to be happy, joyous and free. We have begun to
follow some daily suggestions and so are beginning to get a sense of what it is to live
life according to spiritual principles. If we turn our will over to this Higher Power, we
are saying that we will do the rest of the programme and try to follow spiritual
principles in all our affairs. We cannot exclude any part of our life from this
conformity to spiritual principles. For example, it will not help us to say that we will
be rigorously honest in every part of our lives, except for our tax declarations; or that
we will be loving and unselfish in all areas of our lives apart from sex.
If we follow these principles to the best of our ability, we are cooperating with a
loving God who has provided spiritual principles for us so that we know how to
behave in order to receive the gift of a happy and sober life.
As we said last week, the sponsor is not God, but most of us had to be ready to
trust a sponsor to guide us in spiritual matters before we could start to trust in our
Higher Power.
So here�s how we took this step:
Ask yourself: are you ready to make a decision to hand your will and your
life over to the care of God as you understand Him?
And then we read out the following prayer, which is taken straight from the Big
Book, aloud, while on our knees:
God, I offer myself to Thee � to do build with me and to do with me as
Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy
will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness
to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.
May I do Thy will always!
Once we have read out this step, we have taken Step Three. We did this step
with our sponsors, for as the book says: �We found it desirable to take this step with
an understanding person��
Once we have taken Step Three, we do not retake Step Three every day. We
take it once. The Big Book does suggest, much later (when talking about Step 11 on
page 87), that we remind ourselves each day that we have taken it. What the book
says is this: �We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show��
It goes on to suggest that we do so by saying to ourselves each day: �How best can I
serve thee? Thy will not mine be done,� and that we repeat to ourselves during the
course of the day �Thy will be done�.
Of course, it does no harm to repeat the Step Three prayer each day as well, and
some people do this. But, as mentioned before, we are not retaking the step each day,
just reminding ourselves that we have completed the step and so we are being looked
after.
That is the talk for this week.
Now I am delighted to introduce [Name] who has come along to disclose to us in
a general way, what it was like, what happened and what it is like now.