Step Two – Came to Believe

Step 2: Came to Believe that a Power Greater Than Ourselves Could Restore Us to Sanity

The distinction here is what you believe to be a greater power. Though it became easier to refer to this higher power as “God” for some, that higher power must be unique and personal to each individual. The Twelve Step is accessible to people of all religious traditions and faiths and is open to the interpretation of each person. The bottom line is that we must know there is something bigger than us that is working for our good. loves us unconditionally and wants us to thrive.

We know that it was our thinking that got us in the mess we were in. We may not be sitting in jail or a detox facility, but life for us has been empty and unhappy. Our souls are burning for more clarity, more connection, more love. We need something bigger to believe in. We need hope in a messed-up world.  

We may be wondering why God would allow bad things to happen. Why did He allow that child to die, that plane to crash, or that country to invade its neighbor? If we could only see the bigger picture, we might understand better why things are the way they are. Yes, the world can appear to be horrible at times. It is often a place of suffering, but it’s also a place of great joy and love. Through suffering, we learn to love and be compassionate toward ourselves and others.  As we become better, we don’t need suffering so much. The suffering is caused by our attachment to outcomes, even if it’s our inability to accept the suffering of others. Is it possible that the child agreed to a short life so that others around him would learn from that loss?  Or the people on the plane all agreed that they would go home on that day? And how does the collective world view change as an innocent nation is being attacked? Will that not serve to help wake us up?

We don’t know God’s plans or purpose for us until we get there and can see more clearly. We must realize that we are not in control of other people or circumstances. The only thing we want to try to control is our own thoughts and feelings and know that we don’t have the answers for others. If we judge things as right or wrong, good or bad, we keep ourselves stuck in the reality we have created for ourselves. We must accept that things are as they are and realize that our perspective will change as we become better. As we progress with the help of our higher power, our world will change from the inside out.

Can we change the world if we see a need for change? We can, indeed, if we take the appropriate position. Mother Theresa said that she would not fight against the war, but she would march for peace. Buckminster Fuller said that you can’t fight the existing model. To change something build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. This is what we’re doing through working the Twelve Step; we are building a new model. As we become more aware of the presence of our higher power, and we do the inner work, we learn to view things from a more positive perspective, and we can affect change from that vantage point far more effectively than what our present thinking could do.

Step Three – Turning It Over