“To err is human; to forgive is divine.” – Alexander Pope

Alcoholics Anonymous can serve as a modern Prodigal Son example. Note that alcohol is called “spirits” and alcoholism a spiritual disease (Note: The Journal of the American Medical Association defines Alcoholism as…”a primary, chronic disease.”) Alcohol empowers alcoholic egos into not only thinking they can tackle the world, but that they can singlehandedly beat their alcoholic addiction as well.

Those who seriously try to do this will inevitably reach a “bottom” where they finally realize the first of the 12 steps of AA: We are powerless over alcohol—that our lives have become unmanageable. This feeling, often of hopelessness, becomes their critical moment of humility.

Then they are ready for Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Being in a state of hopelessness, they are at least now very open to help, any kind of help. So when they hear a drunk in AA telling his/her previous grim story with which they can identify, but a drunk who is now sober and very upbeat, they gain hope: “If she can do it, maybe I can too.”

Then comes Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to God as we understood him. The important thing here is…God as we understood him. Members are simply seeking the power of synergy beyond themselves; God is whatever each one defines God to be-as long as it is not him or her.

Best, Joe Gauld