Not God – The Harder I Try the Behinder I Get
Step 2 Came to believe that a power great than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
“The Harder I Try the Behinder I get.” Many times when we face difficulties in our lives that statement rings true. Our best intentions and efforts don’t seem to matter as we always end up in a familiar place of pain and discouragement. Perhaps you have tried to stop drinking a thousand times and you have failed magnificently. You have been trying valiantly to control the drinking of another person but it’s not working. Maybe you have said to yourself, “I am not going to get into a relationship like that ever again” or you have promised over and over that your anger would not get the best of you. You promised a thousand times that you would stop eating to medicate painful emotions and before you know it you find yourself in the same spot.
In Step 1 we acknowledge that we are powerless and now in Step 2 we begin to face the insanity of why, no matter how hard we try, we end up in the same place. Step 2 begins the journey of Hope. “Came to believe a power greater than we could restore us to sanity.” To begin this journey of hope this step does not say we must have a clear or even compelling idea of who God is. The step says I don’t even need to have a name for God at this point. (That part of step 2 is very troublesome to people who want to have others think about God just like we do.) Many people have gone on to drink themselves to death, because they could not force others to think about God like they do. Addiction is cunning, baffling, and powerful indeed. Having a willingness to believe is all that is required.
There is a great quote from the movie RUDY by Father Cavanaugh, the priest who helps Rudy gain acceptance into Notre Dame. “Son, in 35 years of religious study, I have only come up with two, hard, inconvertible facts…..There is a God…and I’m not Him.” That is a challenging thought for those of us who seek to orchestrate outcomes, control people, and have everything our way. I don’t know about you but I have noticed that God doesn’t consult me with making decisions about running the universe. On top of that reality check, He doesn’t take any of my suggestions about how my life should be! It all comes down to one thing: There is a God. I am not Him! Many times we will fool ourselves into believing that we know this is true, but not live accordingly. The wreckage of our attempts to fix ourselves and others tell the true story. There is a God. I am not Him!
This simple but stunning conclusion is the beginning of our healing and hope. Step 2 begins this journey of hope to discover this God who loves us and gave Himself for us. Join us Sunday night, October 16, 2011 as we explore this powerful step on our journey to sanity and wholeness.
