How it Works

WITH ALL the earnestness at our command we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start.

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THE AA MANTRA above outlines the secret truth for so many who struggle with substance use and abuse problems. It goes on to say, "Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely."

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"Cunning, baffling, powerful." These are the adjectives of the effects some things that hold us have!

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Watching "The Hurricane" recently, Rubin Hurricane Carter's character (played by Denzel Washington) says as mentor to Lazra, "We must transcend the things that hold us."

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The 12-Step program is famous for assisting not only alcoholics, but anyone in desperate need. We need not be a drug addict. I see many around me who could curb their life practices for their betterment.

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The key it seems is fear. Not fear we're used to thinking about... it's a different sort of fear.

This fear is a 'right fear' based in the uttermost respect. It is so much respect that it is fearful of the dire consequence of submission to that 'thing', 'situation', or 'person' that holds us. We need to be free of these things that 'hold us'.

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Jesus said if we do what he commands we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. Truth and Freedom. "Ti estin alethia;" -- What is truth? Pontius Pilate was famous for saying this in response to Jesus. Truth is an elusive concept. Yet it is so simple. We seem to be fooled more often than not to believe lies. Whenever things have turned pear-shaped we've not attended to the truth, pure and simple.

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Freedom. It is attending to the truth. When we suffer because we go 'truth's way', we suffer only because our faith is in lies! In other words, it is because we've temporily believed the lie again. We have to stick with the truth and ignore the pain. Pain might be true, but there is a thing beyond pain; we must transcend the thing that holds us. This also requires courage.

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Courage. We must take 'that' step of faith and that requires courage, or is it the other way around? A step we take that is courageous requires faith. Either way, we must move to transcend that thing that holds us; the thing, or the lie of a situation, or the person that keeps us in bondage.

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It takes discernment to truly see the truth, and faith and courage to act. Together these bring us close to freedom. But to even get a sniff of this freedom we really need a lot of strength to "pull away" from the forcefield of habit. What were those words again...?

"With all the earnestness at our command we beg of you..."