3
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Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly.
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In Bill's story we saw how human resources failed to conquer alcoholism. Good intentions, high abilities, firm resolve, renewal of resolve, sincere promises, self-knowledge, fear, family, friends, and medical science are incapable of producing the total reorganization of a person's psyche that is necessary for recovery from alcoholism.
8-9
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Well, that's exactly what this book is about. It's main object isto enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.
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We lack the power to recover from alcoholism and must find a way to establish a relationship with a Power capable of helping us. This book suggests theories that we may adopt to replace our current failed ideas about life. Each of the 12 Steps contain techniques that we may practive. Practicing these techniques allows us to build a body of experience proving that God is working in our life. We thus develop faith---a reliance upon this new way of life.
In the forward the authors explain that the main purpose of this book is to show us precisely what they have done to recover (xiii:2). They promise to answer our questions about what we have to do specifically (20:5) by telling us what they did and by giving us clear-cut directions (29:1). The main object of this book is to show us how we can find a Power greater than ourselves.
10
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That means we have written a book which we believe to be spiritual as well as moral.
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The term spiritual concerns the attempt to awaken to the existence of God. Moral refers to the guiding principles by which we live.
45:15-46:2
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We know how he feels. We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice. Some of us have been violently anti-religious. To others, the word "God" brought up a particular idea of Him with which someone had tried to impress them during childhood. Perhaps we rejected this particular conception because it seemed inadequate. With that rejection we imangined we had abandoned the God idea entirely. We were bothered with the thought that failth and dependence upon a Power beyond ourselves was somewhat weak, even cowardly. We looked upon this world of warring individuals, warring theological systems, and inexplicable calamity, with deep skepticism. We looked askance at many individuals who claimed to be godly.
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The authors can speak to us of our doubt and prejudice from their own experience. In their personal stories the authors describe the barriers they found to their spiritual awakenings. We can draw upon their experience and overcome some of these barriers to our own recovery.
Faced with alcoholic destruciton we must not let our past experience, ideas, and attitudes prevent us from find the Power we need to live. What harm could come to us from abandoning these attitudes? Must we cling to our failed views until we die? Are we willing to set these ideas aside long enough to give the development of spiritual experience an honest try?
We are not being asked to adopt a religion. The authors are merely saying this is what worked for them, we may try it if we please. The purpose of this book is to enable us to develop our own experience with a spiritual way of life and to find a Power by which we can live. It does not amtter what religious people or any other people believe or what they do. All that matters is what we ourselves believe. This program of action can help us build our faith based upon our own personal experience.
When other peoples' conceptions of God did not work for us we mistakenly concluded that God was unavailable. The purpose of this program of action is to develop or expand our own conception of God. Through the application of spiritual principles in our lives we awaken to a conscious awareness of the existence of God.
Having adopted the view that we have only our own resources to draw upon we attempt to use self-will to bring about happiness. We believe that the satisfaction of our desires is the sole purpose for living. Weakness results from having only human resources to draw upon. Cowardliness is being afraid to let go of that which we cling to most dearly---our self-will. Faith is not a crutch for the cowardly and weak but a source of strength and power that enables us to exceed our own capabilities.
It is ironic that we who have failed to live up to our own ideals should judge so harshly the failure of other individuals and institutions to meet these standards. We must set aside our judgment of others if we are to develop our own experience with our Higher Power.
DEFINITION:
46:2-----Askance: with suspicion, mistrust or disapproval.
Source:
The Annotated AA Handbook
Frank D.