by Bill M.
A member who was having trouble developing a conception of a power greater than himself was told by his sponsor to go to the shoreline at sunset, and when the sun was halfway below the horizon, to stop it and hold it there. Mother Nature became his first Higher Power, and that set him on a path to a spirituality that, he says, made life worth living.
As sponsors, we’ve worked the 3rd Step to the best of our ability and have a personal relationship with a Power Greater Than Ourselves, so how do we effectively and compassionately work with a sponsee who holds a very different picture from our own?
The Foreword to the First Edition of the Big Book offers, “To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.”
As sponsors, our primary job is to serve as guides through the steps of our program. Throughout the book, the founders describe the spiritual approach that worked for them. We’ve heard in meetings that “G.O.D.” can stand for Group Of Drunks, Good Orderly Direction, Great Out Doors or Gift Of Desperation. This can be an effective introduction to the concept of a Higher Power—or even a working definition of a Higher Power—for many alcoholics.
When I’m working the “God Steps” with a sponsee, I like to start each one by reading together an excerpt from page 46 in the Big Book: “To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding…” I am one of the “us” in that quote, and I want sponsees to feel they are in the “Realm of Spirit,” however they choose to define it.
For the 3rd Step, I like to have sponsees write out a description of their Higher Power. I want them to tell me what it looks like to turn their will and life over to the care of that Higher Power. Similarly, I want to know their HP engenders the deep faith they will need to do the rest of the steps and carry them through the dark hours we all encounter. If they can’t articulate it, they haven’t done the step.
Bill M.’s Home Group is BYOBook, 9 am, Saturdays, at Faith Lutheran Church in Castro Valley. Hybrid Meeting – Zoom Code is 871-0897-4652. Passcode is 110619.
