God please set aside everything I think I know about you,
about a Higher Power,
so that I can have an open mind for a new experience.
Please show me the truth.
And please keep my sober and clean today and all my days no matter what happens or how I feel.
about a Higher Power,
so that I can have an open mind for a new experience.
Please show me the truth.
And please keep my sober and clean today and all my days no matter what happens or how I feel.
"We Agnostics," Chapter 4
This profoundly tender chapter leads me into relationship with a Higher Power
that I can do business with,
that can take me past my ego,
that can "free me of bondage of self,"
free me from "terror, bewilderment, frustration, despair."
This profoundly tender chapter leads me into relationship with a Higher Power
that I can do business with,
that can take me past my ego,
that can "free me of bondage of self,"
free me from "terror, bewilderment, frustration, despair."
"We Agnostics" pages 45 and 46
from "Lack of power, that was our dilemma"... to "How could a Supreme Being have anything to do with it all?"
Uncover and examine the past (just with my experience with alcohol):
"We Agnostics" page 46
from "How could comprehend a Supreme Being anyhow?"... to "It is open, we believe, to all people..."
Uncover and examine moments in the past of "awe and wonder."
from "Lack of power, that was our dilemma"... to "How could a Supreme Being have anything to do with it all?"
Uncover and examine the past (just with my experience with alcohol):
- What positive or negative role did human organizations (e.g. churches, schools, temples, etc.) play in shaping my experience/conception of a Higher Power, if any?
- What did I believe, know, or experience as a child in my family or community? (e.g. maybe look at religious holidays, ceremonies, classes, traditions)
- What positive or negative role did individuals play in shaping my experience of a Higher Power, if any?
- What experiences, images, art, people might have shaped my experience of God - consciously or unconsciously?
- What role has grief, trauma, suffering, death, broken dreams, historical events, accidents... played in my relationship with a Higher Power?
"We Agnostics" page 46
from "How could comprehend a Supreme Being anyhow?"... to "It is open, we believe, to all people..."
Uncover and examine moments in the past of "awe and wonder."
- Reflect on moments in the past of awe and wonder: moments when my breath was taken away, moments when a Power showed up to pull me back from death, times when everything seemed perfectly choreographed, moments of unconditional love. What do those experiences reveal to me about my Higher Power? These experiences may or may not have anything to do with "church," synagogue, mosque, etc...
- Sketch with words, describe what is revealed by those experiences.
"We Agnostics" page 47
from "When therefore we speak to you of God?"... to "So we used our own conception, however limited it was..."
Ask ourselves what spiritual terms mean to us.
- We are directed to "honestly ask what spiritual terms mean to us." For example: faith, prayer, meditation, Great Spirit, Realm of Spirit, Power, Spirit of the Universe, God. Personally, I love to use the dictionary and Google spiritual terms as I seek my own understanding.
"We Agnostics" page 47
from "We needed to ask ourselves?"... to "commence at a simpler level..."
Ask myself, "Am I willing to believe God, as I understand God, can take me beyond Step 1?"
"We Agnostics" page 53
Read and reflect on page 48 to 53!
from "When we became alcoholics?"... to "What was our choice to be..."
Ask myself, "Is God everything or nothing? What is my choice to be?
"We Agnostics" page 55
Read and reflect on page 53 to 55!
from "Yet we had been seeing another kind of flight..." to "The consciousness of your belief is sure to come to you..."
Ask myself, "Where am to find this Power?" and "What evidence do I see of my belief?"
from "We needed to ask ourselves?"... to "commence at a simpler level..."
Ask myself, "Am I willing to believe God, as I understand God, can take me beyond Step 1?"
- The beauty of AA is the truth of "I can't." My whole life I have been told I was smart, capable, talented, and that is true of all of us. And yet, I'm powerless over alcohol and my life is unmanageable by me. From the truth of my first step and my new understanding of God, I AM willing to believe.
"We Agnostics" page 53
Read and reflect on page 48 to 53!
from "When we became alcoholics?"... to "What was our choice to be..."
Ask myself, "Is God everything or nothing? What is my choice to be?
- I can't tune into two radio stations at the same time, walk two roads simultaneously. The process asks me to make a choice.
"We Agnostics" page 55
Read and reflect on page 53 to 55!
from "Yet we had been seeing another kind of flight..." to "The consciousness of your belief is sure to come to you..."
Ask myself, "Where am to find this Power?" and "What evidence do I see of my belief?"
- Have I allowed prejudice to be swept away by listening to the experience of others, thought honestly, searched diligently within myself?
- What evidence is there that I am coming to believe, conscious of my belief?
"If what we have felt and seen means anything at all,
it means all of us are children of a living Creator
with whom we may form a relationship on simple, understandable terms
as soon as we are willing and open enough to try."
(Big Book page 28)
"Yeshua said: If your leaders say to you,
"Look! The Kingdom is in the sky!"
then the birds will be there before you are:
If they say that the Kingdom is in the sea,
then the fish will be there before you are;
Rather, the Kingdom is within you and it is outside of you.
When you understand yourselves, then you will be understood,
and you will realize that you are the Sons of the living Father.
If you do not know yourselves,
you dwell in poverty
and it is you who are that poverty."
(Gospel of Thomas, saying 2)
I love this ceramic. The "egg' is man-made and some entity has broken free from it. We knew God before and in the womb but take on man-made ideas that are a suffocating man-made shell-egg. Step 2 allows me to get free!