When I was twenty-four, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the 12-Step program philosophy gave me the structure I needed to get sober. I’ll always be thankful for that.
At the time, I knew very little about it, but I stuck around “the rooms” because I consistently met people who had been addicted like me but were now sober. Seeing them gave me hope and reaffirmed that what I wanted was possible.
The fellowship of 12-Step programs not only helped me get sober, though. It also helped me stay sober for six years after that and helped me take steps that changed the entire direction of my life. I even went to Bible college and planned to enter full-time ministry after graduation.
After I finished Bible school, however, I was full of myself and overconfident. I thought I had life figured out—and that’s when my old habits and thought patterns came back to haunt me. While I was looking the other way, those addictions snuck up and completely engulfed my life for the next five years.
I tried going back to AA and “the rooms” many times in those years. I was even able to string together short spans of sobriety here and there.
As I was going through my five-year death spiral, what I longed for—what I needed but couldn’t verbalize—was transformation.
Sure, sobriety was good, but it was temporary. I needed something permanent or I was going to die.
Only transformation is permanent.
The only goal of a 12-step program
The 12-Step philosophy has had a larger effect on addiction recovery than any other philosophy worldwide. There are more former addicts who have achieved sobriety through the 12 Steps than through any other avenue.
What is less well known, though, is that even though the third of the 12 Steps is to “make a decision to turn your will and life over to God as you understand him,” the 12-Step philosophy leaves the entire concept of “God” or “higher power” up to the individual to figure…
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