The Twelve Steps
The Second Step of the
12
Steps: Part
2
"Came to believe
that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
In the Second of the Twelve Steps, we
affirm that we came to believe.
The 12
Steps give us a universal program for spiritual awakening and
growth, no matter what our situation, addiction, compulsion,
problem, or weakness. In the First Step, we "came to
ourselves." We recognized that our lives had become unmanageable.
After taking the First Step, we immediately began to take the Second
Step.
Some of us
took the Second Step very quickly. For some, it was easy to believe.
For others of us, we came to believe. It took us quite some time
before we discovered that we had actually come "to believe!" The phrase
"Came to believe" implies a process over time, and that process might be
quite some time! There is nothing wrong with taking time to "get it"
right. And the 12 Steps help us "get it" better and better over time.
Some have said
that "to believe" means "to live in accordance with" -- to live in
accordance with the way we think. "Believing" is not just "a special
way of thinking." When we came "to believe," our good thoughts actually
began to impact our lives, our choices, our actions, our recovery, our
serenity, and our happiness. We felt improvement.
In the First
Step, we struggled just to accept a fact about our lives: "We admitted
we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become
unmanageable." In the Second Step, the facts finally began to make a
real difference in our way of living. We began getting well. We found
that true and significant healing began to take place in us the very
moment that we came "to believe."
