After hearing hundreds of people talk about their particular Higher Power, it occurred to me: We aren't just talking about different Gods, we are talking about completely unique paradigms for GOD.
When religious people talk about God, they usually start out with a paradigm that presupposes a Supreme Being. Some form of Super Human being with most of the characteristics of being human, just more so. However, when people in recovery talk about Higher Power, they are talking about paradigms so diverse, that they are venturing into a whole new Being of being (whatever that entails).
My own personal concept has changed so much, so many times, during recovery that it no longer resembles a Supreme Being anymore. It is more like a hidden force of nature that religious people would consider Pantheism. I am now considered an atheist in some circles.
I have come to appreciate that we alcoholics are blessed with a weakness that can also be used as a strength or measuring tool. When we make progress in recovery, we experience a release from the obsession to drink. When I say progress, I am not talking about the quantity of sobriety (such as is in calender days of abstinence). I am talking about the quality of recovery (as in time spent free of thoughts of drinking). It is this new freedom and new happiness that gives us our real benchmark for recovery.
It is this new benchmark for recovery that allows us to see just how powerful or new Higher Power really is. As we progress away from the obsession to drink, we progress towards a new Higher Power that becomes our new Being of being.
God goes from being some Super Guy, to being some Super Guidance. Some call it
Good
Orderly
Direction. I call it my new
Guider
Of
Decisions. When I stop guiding my own decisions, I stop playing God. When I have a new
Guider
Of
Decisions, God stops playing God to.
