Quote:
God, I offer myself to Thee - to 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!
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p63 Big Book
Some people do their own version of the step 3 prayer. Personally I don't feel the need to have words that I "agree" with. It's the sentiment and the intent of the prayer which matters so I don't feel any great incongruity between saying these words and believing them and not believing them at the same time. Maybe I could find something in Buddhist or Taoist literature that I could agree with more. So? Would it make it work "better"?
I have always loved the line "relieve me of the bondage of self". It's funny, so many people who don't want to use AA say "I'm not powerless!". Certainly I did. At the same time I was full of anxiety, self-hatred, grandiosity, anger, depression, resentment. I had a racing brain, filling up with thoughts all the time about what other people thought of me, my opinions of them, my emotional state and how other people didn't seem to give it the weight it deserved.
In other words I was actually powerless over my own self. In a constant stream of various states of unhappiness, all visited by me, upon me! I look back and I think - madness. Utter madness.
So this phrase - "the bondage of self" - it describes me perfectly. And it's a funny thing that each day - or at any point in the day - I can just take a moment and try and better "align" myself with - as I saw Jim had put it elsewhere - "the whole". Not to say I'm going to succeed entirely, but I can always seem to tell by how I feel, when I'm a bit less bound to self.