Importance of the Steps → AA Providence Point

Preface: Big Book p xiii

In the Foreword to the First Edition of the big book, it says, “We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body.” It goes on to say, “To show other alcoholics Precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.” So, wouldn’t it make sense that to have what they had (recovery), we do as they did?

What did they do? Steps.

Big Book p 52

We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn’t control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we couldn’t make a living, we had a feeling of uselessness, we were full of fear, we were unhappy, we couldn’t seem to be of real help to other people-

Is this how you feel (or felt when you came to A.A)?

P 75

We are delighted. We can look the world in the eye. We can be alone at perfect peace and ease. Our fears fall from us. We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience. The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come strongly.

Is this what you want?

How do we get from p 52 to p 75? Steps.

Big Book p 24

The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.

The big book is telling us we cannot Not drink.

P 84

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone- even alcohol. For, by this time, sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame.

The big book is telling us we Can recover.

How do we get from p 24 to p 84? Steps.

**Description of Alcoholism**

Drinking alcohol in excess consistently is not a bad habit or a lack of moral values. A person who does this is not a ‘bad’ person, but a seriously ill person with a disease that is fatal if not treated.

Alcoholism is a three- fold illness of mind, body, and spirit. First, we have an obsession to drink beyond our mental control- that is why we drink even when we don’t want to. Secondly, we have a physical allergy to alcohol. Once we give into the obsession to take the first drink, our bodies experience a physical craving for More. Thirdly, we have a spiritual malady, we are spiritually sick, separated from God. In AA, we address the spiritual malady thru the Steps of the program, and our minds and bodies will follow. God removes our obsession to drink.