God and The Twelve Are for Real
I finished reading God Is for Real today (https://www.heavenlive.org/god-is-for-real). Much of it I agree with, some of it I don't. What struck me in Chapter 21 was Todd Burpo's parallelism with A.A.'s Twelve Steps without him mentioning them per se.
"God smiles at your spiritual steps just as you applaud a child's physical ones. What if you envisioned God's commands as steps? Steps can take you up a stairway that brings you closer to Him. Steps can also take you higher in your relationship to others as each steps takes your character higher too."
That's Step 2, Step 3, and Step 12. See all 12 Steps below.
A few pages later:
"Is a grudge holding you back? Is there someone you hold something against, or who holds something against you? If so, it is time to put that to rest, and ... make that right."
Clearly Step 9. Then:
"...make a list of those you need to reconcile with, and do what it takes to love them and forgive them without trying to get them to admit any wrong."
Step 8.
Other parts of Burpo's Chapter 21 are as if they were pulled from The Big Book, like honesty, telling no lies, praying, avoiding judgment of others, and treating people with kindness.
Giving up drinking isn't easy. Burpo writes: "The next step is to choose the hard thing God wants from you ... take the narrow path ... because God believes you can do it by His power."
Did you catch that? God believes you can quit drinking by His power! It's God's power that ended my drinking and brought me to surrender to Him. I am sure glad God believes in me. He believes in you, too.
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
"God smiles at your spiritual steps just as you applaud a child's physical ones. What if you envisioned God's commands as steps? Steps can take you up a stairway that brings you closer to Him. Steps can also take you higher in your relationship to others as each steps takes your character higher too."That's Step 2, Step 3, and Step 12. See all 12 Steps below.
A few pages later:
"Is a grudge holding you back? Is there someone you hold something against, or who holds something against you? If so, it is time to put that to rest, and ... make that right."
Clearly Step 9. Then:
"...make a list of those you need to reconcile with, and do what it takes to love them and forgive them without trying to get them to admit any wrong."
Step 8.
Other parts of Burpo's Chapter 21 are as if they were pulled from The Big Book, like honesty, telling no lies, praying, avoiding judgment of others, and treating people with kindness.
Giving up drinking isn't easy. Burpo writes: "The next step is to choose the hard thing God wants from you ... take the narrow path ... because God believes you can do it by His power."
Did you catch that? God believes you can quit drinking by His power! It's God's power that ended my drinking and brought me to surrender to Him. I am sure glad God believes in me. He believes in you, too.
The Twelve Steps
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
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