Quotes - Step Two

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Chapter 2

Page 32

To clergymen, doctors, friends, and families, the alcohol-
ic who means well and tries hard is a heartbreaking riddle.
To most A.A.'s, he is not. There are too many of us who
have been just like him, and have found the riddle's answer.
This answer has to do with the quality of faith rather than
its quantity. This has been our blind spot. We supposed we
had humility when really we hadn't. We supposed we had
been serious about religious practices when, upon honest
appraisal, we found we had been only superficial. Or, going
to the other extreme, we had wallowed in emotionalism and
had mistaken it for true religious feeling. In both cases, we
had been asking something for nothing. The fact was we
really hadn't cleaned house so that the grace of God could
enter us and expel the obsession. In no deep or meaningful
sense had we ever taken stock of ourselves, made amends
to those we had harmed, or freely given to any other hu-
man being without any demand for reward. We had not
even prayed rightly. We had always said, "Grant me my
wishes" instead of "Thy will be done." The love of God
and man we understood not at all. Therefore we remained
self-deceived, and so incapable of receiving enough grace
to restore us to sanity.