by B. Ann Patterson

Created on: June 13, 2010   Last Updated: June 14, 2010

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious program.  It is a spiritual program.  Religion and denominations in Christianity are outside of the spiritual AA program that leads to life changes.  There are no preachers, priests or doctrinal teachers in AA.  There is only the understood, "you" which is better translated "I". 

God is not an element of The Twelve Steps.  God is defined in The Twelve Steps as "God, as you understand God/Him."  No further explanation is needed to allow the person, the "you", to define, explain, describe God on individual terms.  An alcoholic who was raised by religious fanatical parents cannot find peace and assistance from the "God" of his or her parents because that particular "God" was angry, judgmental, mean.  The recovering alcoholic chooses to define "God" in a way that is helpful, peaceful,hopeful, personal.  Only with such a God, can there be the daily "one day at a time" recovery from addiction.

The God of the Twelve Steps, as defined by each individual "twelve stepper" is known within the spirit of the recovering alcoholic.  By holding the defined-God within the depth of one's own personal spirit, the individual has a great way of knowing peace and hope within his total being.  Trust in that God is the glue that holds the "twelve stepper" on the desired path to sobriety. 

The recovering alcoholic may choose as "God", the group of AA members who call a particular meeting, "my home group" and feels the presence of that God in the spirit of other members.  When listening to words spoken by members of the group about God, the member can, in his own way, "hear and feel the presence of God"  because the group as a whole is God, in that moment, in the "Now." 

God of AA's Twelve Steps, the spiritual program, is "in the now" rather than in history or religion.  The Bible is not used in AA as a supplement to The Twelve Steps for the God of the Bible is a historical God and the Bible is the testimony of individuals who lived at sometime in the past.  A recovering alcoholic is cautioned to not look to the past because it "is gone"; not to look to the future because 'it isn't here yet", but to look only to the present because "it is now" and that "is why it is a present", a gift to live now.  In a sense, the definition of God is "Now". 

A spiritual way of life, as in AA, is not a religious way of life.  It is a way for one human spirit to live.  After defining God by an alcoholic who has a desire to  become sober and live sober, the "twelve stepper" is encouraged to "let go" of trying to run their own life, but to let the God of their definition become the very essence of their own personal spirit.  In that way, the recovering person can live the life as God would have them to. 

The God they have come to know is just as real, as present, as loving, as powerful as God could ever be.  When that personal attachment to God by "turning their life over to God" becomes real, not just words, the individual begins to experience miracles in the life he or she lives. 

Living sober day by day while letting go of all the things that contributed to alcohol addiction, the recovering alcoholic is able to stay sober one day at a time.  Having the God of their understanding as the personal strength and guide of their life gives them faith and trust that they can stay sober.  The God they have chosen to understand has power and love and increases their personal strength day by day according to the faith and trust that they have within their own personal human spirit.

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