Step #12 – What Can I Do (part 1)

Steps to the Spirit

step 12 is the wonderful conclusion to the 12 steps. Mind you, I don’t mean the conclusion to working the steps. Step 12 is simply the last step in the order and gives us the wonderful opportunity to pay back the new way of life we’ve received.

As a reminder step 12 is:

Having had a spiritual experience as a result of this course of action I tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

I have decided that this step should be coupled with the Gift of Compassion.

As I have said before in my writings, some of the words of the steps been changed since the first edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. I am not absolutely sure what the reason was for these changes. In this step, I think the most important change that has been made is the change of the word experience to the word awakening. I feel this change was made in order to make the program more appealing to those who did not want to consider having a spiritual experience. Again, as I said before, I think it is wonderful that this program, in a psychological format, is helping people become well. However, all my writing is geared toward helping people recognize that this is a God-given program, and above all, one that teaches us to depend on God in order to become whole once again.

As far as my experience with step number 12, I discovered that I needed to get my pride out of the way, and stop thinking in terms of what “I” was going to do to spread God’s word and help everyone recover. This is what I will be talking about in this first part of step12. Did I indeed have a spiritual experience? Maybe it has been a slower spiritual awakening. Well, for me it has been both.