Session 4
Session 6

SESSION 5

Listen to Joe Hawk's fifth tape.

The second step - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."

JOE HAWK | SALVATION ARMY | WEEK 5

If I've done the first step there is nowhere else for me to go but to the second step.

I've tried everything I can think of and I'm faced with the despair of the total collapse of human resources.

Insanity:

  • Of the body - I can control the amount of alcohol I take once I start drinking.
  • Of the mind - I can stay stopped once there is no alcohol in my body.
  • Of the spirit - I can fix myself. I can do for me what alcohol used to do for me.

I can't appreciate being restored to sanity if I can't admit to my insanity.

It is easy, at this stage of my life, to admit that when I put alcohol in my body I become strangely insane.
But take away the alcohol and I get really insane. I'm restless, irritable and discontent.
And I'm waiting for the world to change so I can get better!

Leaving the drink aside, why am I making such a heavy going of life?

The Assignment

Begin to visualize my concept of God.

Simple belief to absolute faith.
Am I willing to believe that if I do the rest of the steps I can get better?
Fortunately, I am not being asked to have a blind faith. I am being asked to observe the results as I do the work.
The second step steps:

  • Examine the evidence. I am powerless. I've looked at my first step and was crushed.
  • If I have no power, where will I find the power I need to live?
  • I need to find a Power greater than myself. I need to find God.
  • The question on page 47: "Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?"
  • In order to look for God I need to answer the two questions on page 53:
    • Either God is everything or else He is nothing.
    • God either is, or He isn't.
  • There is an idea of God that is as old as humanity itself. It is found deep down inside every man and woman.

Chapter two not only tells us that we need a Power greater than ourselves that will restore us to sanity, it also tells us, on page 55, how and where to find that Power.

  • How - We find that Power by searching fearlessly.
  • Where - We find that Power deep within ourselves.

Have I come to believe that a Power greater than myself can restore me to sanity?

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