Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

STEP ELEVEN

any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken
remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried
to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also
report that out of every season of grief or suffering, when
the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons
for living were learned, new resources of courage were un-
covered, and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came
that God does "move in a mysterious way His wonders
to perform."

All this should be very encouraging news for those who
recoil from prayer because they don't believe in it, or be-
cause they feel themselves cut off from God's help and di-
rection. All of us, without exception, pass through times
when we can pray only with the greatest exertion of will.
Occasionally we go even further than this. We are seized
with a rebellion so sickening that we simply won't pray.
When these things happen we should not think too ill of
ourselves. We should simply resume prayer as soon as we
can, doing what we know to be good for us.

Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and
prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us. We no
longer live in a completely hostile world. We are no longer
lost and frightened and purposeless. The moment we catch
even a glimpse of God's will, the moment we begin to see
truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life,
we are no longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evi-
dence to the contrary that surrounds us in purely human
affairs. We know that God lovingly watches over us. We
know that when we turn to Him, all will be well with us,
here and hereafter.