MARCH 13
A WORLD OF THE SPIRIT
Wehave entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, p. 84
The word “entered” . . . and the phrase “entered into the world of the Spirit” are very significant. They imply action, a beginning, getting into, a prerequisite to maintaining my spiritual growth, the “Spirit” being the immaterial part of me. Barriers to my spiritual growth are self-centeredness and a materialistic focus on worldly things. Spirituality means devotion to spiritual instead of worldly things, it means obedience to God’s will for me. I understand spiritual things to be: unconditional love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control and humility. Any time I allow selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear to be a part of me, I block out spiritual things. As I maintain my sobriety, growing spiritually becomes a lifelong process. My goal is spiritual growth, accepting that I’ll never have spiritual perfection.March Birthdays… IF They Make It!
March 10th… Brad W. celebrates 6 years
March 13th… Dave A. celebrates 4 years
March 14th… Paul T. celebrates 10 years
March 17th… Tim C. celebrates 18 years
March 18th… Sean L. celebrates 23 years
March 18th… Art J. celebrates 2 years
March 23rd… Tee celebrates 1 year
March 28th… Larry G. celebrates 5 years
March 29th… Mark C. celebrates 7 years
If your birthday has been missed…. fill out the birthday form.
We really want to celebrate your AA anniversary because your birthday made ours possible!
Thanks everybody and apologies to you if you were missed or incorrectly noted.
First Wednesday… March 4th
Come join a review of Step 3 on March 4th (First Wednesday). “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”
John reviews the step corresponding to the number of that month on each first Wednesday. It’s a rewarding meeting with John outlining the step of the month, how he was challenged by it and how we tackle it ourselves, with and without success! Look for his monthly contribution in this edition!
“Mouse’s Corner”
A.A. member Dave Mc. curates a few selected readings from a variety of A.A. related publications each month.
In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is.
AS BILL SEES IT, p. 31
Only Step One, where we made the 100 percent admission we were powerless over alcohol, can be practiced with absolute perfection. The remaining eleven Steps state perfect ideals. They are goals toward which we look, and the measuring sticks by which we estimate our progress. Seen in this light, Step Six is still difficult, but not at all impossible. The only urgent thing is that we make a beginning, and keep trying.
12 and 12 page 68
Contributed by Dave Mc.
The Guidance of a Higher Power
Do you ever find yourself in conversation with your brain. Like sometimes its just one guy with opinions and other times there is like a whole boardroom in full turmoil trying to prevent a hostile takeover with only the money in their pockets?
No? Huh… Should I see someone about that ?
Step 3 always reminds me of Step 13, which is a very handy tool in the arsenal. Step 13 starts with “F@#K it…” followed by get out of the chair and put one foot in front of the other, something will come up.
Of course, this works best when you have decided to turn your decision making to the help of a higher power. That’s the choice. Way smarter than the last call double at 1:30 in the morning , while finally making the move on that red head who is inexplicably still at the bar. Yeah right.
The key here for me was negotiating what was a Higher Power to all those people in my head. I suspect they are power hungry because they seemed very reluctant to add another seat to the table, much less the head of the table.
That, however, was what I was asking my mind to do.
That’s what happens then you’re desperate enough.
I knew somewhere, deep down, my parents were good enough people who at least tried to explain doing the right thing. Was it just rebellion? Hmm…. There was too much C₂H₅OH in the decision making process.
I know my Higher Power has a hard time getting his voice heard over the Boardroom and or getting the other guy to shut up, but I try to tell myself listen for that voice.
Give you an example. I live Downtown. Across and down the street is a Federal Building. They have protestors. That doesn’t bother me that much until it’s like 11 o’clock at night. The people down here live in condos or apartments. They don’t have much to do with either side of the argument. Except the noise. Its very loud.
I have this friend. He’s an attorney. He is also an outdoorsman who enjoys Wyoming. Every year he loads up on fireworks including M-80s. That’s a firecracker with 80 grams of dynamite. The largest you can buy.
You get where this is going. If I asked for a half a dozen from the attorney he would give them to me, no questions asked. I have devised many plans of attack.
Yet, thankfully, I have a Higher Power. See how it can work for you rather than say coming home with too many drinks under my belt, take the red head to the roof top of my place while the protest is going on, and with a couple of M-80s in hand, tell her to “Watch this…”
Get a Higher Power. Don’t Drink. Go to meetings.
Contributed by John M.
My First Meeting
Please be “of service.” If you’ve never contributed a “My First Meeting”, please help to keep this column going…we need you! What do you remember most of your first meeting? It can be one sentence; it can be up to two paragraphs. Could be funny, poignant or strictly “clinical”. Write what you want…you might have enjoy writing it!
Step 03
“Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.“
What Can I Surrender in this Step?
- The person I was before taking these Steps.
- My belief that I know better than God what is right for me.
STEP SUMMARY
Decisions are wonderful. Decision is defined as “making up one’s own mind.” Decisions resolve conflicts. For many, the conflict over drinking and not wanting to drink made a third step decision relatively simple. We were happy to turn over our drinking problem to God as we understood God. However, for many of us, we were not so willing to turn over other areas of our lives so readily.
This step helps shift our mindset from thinking directly into action. It opens the door to conforming our will to that of our Higher Power’s. Step 3 is the first step that requires real and continuous action. The first two steps focus on reflection and introspection. In Step 2, we learned to believe in a Power greater than ourselves (some call that faith). Step 3 allows us the place to solidify and act on our newfound faith in ways we never knew possible before coming to the rooms – some call that trust.
Have you ever wondered WHY (in the Third Step Prayer) we “offer ourselves to Thee?” Answer: So our Higher Power can “build with us and do with us as it will.” Have you ever wondered WHY we ask HP to “relieve us of the bondage of self?” Answer: So that “we may better do HP’s will.” Have you ever wondered WHY we ask HP to “take away our difficulties?” Answer: So that we fully understand that “victory over them may bear witness to those we would help of HP’s power, love and way of life.”
I heard someone share in a meeting once about Step 3 that it’s like when you take your car to a mechanic to have them fix or service it. You trust that they will be able to get it all tuned up and ready to give back to you. They don’t want to KEEP your car, they just want to get it in good working order so you can move on down the road. Making the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God (trusting God) is much the same thing.
As we’ve learned in our basic text, the spiritual life is not a theory – we must live it. This means we need to begin putting in practice those things that will ultimately be the foundation to the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism (once again proving that alcohol is not now, nor has it ever been the problem). It has been said that “We thought faith said, “I’ll take away the pain and discomfort,” but what it ended up really saying was, “I’ll sit with you in it. I’m here with you and we can walk through this together.”
MYTHS ABOUT THIS STEP
If you depend on a higher power, you will lose your individuality. On the contrary, turning our will over to a Higher Power leads to true independence of the spirit. As we practice being conscious of a Higher Power, it will gradually turn from a hunch or occasional inspiration to an active, working part of our mind.
STEP CHECKLIST
- Am I ready to embrace complete dependence on a Higher Power and view this dependence as a form of strength?
- Have I said the Third Step prayer out loud with another member of A.A. one on one?
- Am I prepared to make a commitment to turn myself over to something greater than myself? (My higher Power can be God, nature, the AA community-whatever feels right to you.)
- Am I fully ready to surrender so that I can have a quality sobriety?
- Am I ready to be relieved of the bondage of self?
- Am I prepared to live the spiritual life in all aspects of my everyday experience.
- Do I no longer hang on to loneliness? (loneliness can be regarded as a character defect.)
- Am I no longer secretly angry at God because my soul-mate has not appeared in my life?
- Am I no longer depressed because I don’t have the job or money I want? (We can define depression as being secretly angry at God because we don’t want to accept life as it’s given to us.)
- Am I no longer fearful about the outcome of my life? Do I trust my HP?
- Have I made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of a Higher Power?
(If you can answer yes to these questions, you’ve likely taken this Step)
“All Action Result From Thoughts – So It’s The Thoughts That Matter”
(Unless the phrase “We can’t think ourselves into right acting – but we can act ourselves into right thinking” works better for you.)
From an idea by George T.
Our Trusted Servants Continue to Be:
The current Step 2 Men’s Group meeting schedule is Monday, Wednesday & Friday at Tim’s (3809 J St), Tuesday & Thursday online, Saturday in the park is “Daily Reflections” and Sunday is our Rogue meeting in the park. Each gathering is one hour. Great job men!
- Monday: Tim C.
- Tuesday: Mark C.
- Wednesday: John M.
- Thursday: Sean F.
- Friday: Jon B.
- Saturday: Dave M.
Want to add your name to the “Back-up-Help-Substitute Secretary List”? Just contact Group GS, John M., Treasurer Mark W. or any of our other Secretaries and let them know!
Step 2 Men’s Group Believes…
“Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”
We’d never presume that the 12 Steps are not clear. Nor would we imply that they need ‘improvement’. However…for purposes of assisting to keep the meeting pointed in an important direction each day, the “Step 2 Men’s Group Statement” is read as follows:
Step 2 Men’s Group is founded on the belief that spirituality is essential to our sobriety.
Our group is non-religious, but we do not oppose anyone’s religious beliefs. We believe that respect for others and their beliefs is essential to our spiritual development.
Accordingly we ask that avoid criticism of others or of their religion or lack of religion, their race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, physical appearance, trade or profession, length of sobriety, or personal beliefs.
Our goal is to further our spirituality, our sobriety and our personal development, not to confront or belittle others. Always remember to be kind to others.
Extra Special Thanks Dept:
Thanks to our General Secretary John M. for “The Guidance of a Higher Power”, Dave Mc. for “Mouse’s Corner”, Terry for being our GSR, and our Treasurer Mark W. for all your contributions. We’re still waiting for YOU gentle reader…Why don’t YOU contribute a short “something?” Any length, most any AA related topic. Reply now and it will get included next month!
Men’s Gazette – February 2026