Spiritual Awakenings: Looking for a Higher Power and Finding Faith

The gift of a spiritual awakening is not one that is easily come by, as any recovering addict in a 12-step recovery program can attest. Those who have achieved it, though, can tell you that reaching the 12th step was a profound moment in their life — and continues to be for as long as they remain in recovery. Before addicts can carry the message of the 12 steps to others, they must travel those steps for themselves. Before sharing with others that a higher power could restore them to sanity, they must first come to believe it in their own hearts.

“We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” – The Big Book, Step Two

In some ways, the second step is more difficult than the first. Nearly all addicts can tell of times they tried on their own to put down their drug of choice and step away from it but found that willpower alone was not enough to break the hold it had over them. It is often self-evident that they are powerless over the drug. Finding and accepting a higher power, which many refer to as God, can be more of a challenge. As long as you approach the process with a willing mind and an open heart, the road to recovery is open to you.

A kitchen door need only be opened a crack to allow the morning sun in all its glory to stream through. Who, upon seeing a ray of light, does not wish to open the door ever wider and bask in its warm glow?  So, too, it is with a higher power, and so it is also with 12-step recovery programs. However you define the higher power, whether it be God, the supreme being, or some other concept, it can be found by all those who search for it. Many discover the higher power by reading scripture. Others come to know it through meditation or prayer.

However we come to accept this higher power, by whatever path we took, the important thing is that we did. Once we have traveled down this road ourselves, whether it meant returning to the faith of our childhood, finding a new concept that works in our lives today, or simply surrendering ourselves to a God we already believed in but kept at arm’s length, we can then help others do the same. Thank God, however you understand him, for that.