Dear Fellow Travelers,

Step Two Essay

The nourishment, which will ensure a good yield on this journey and hold the program together, is found in this step. For it is here that we are furnished with the revelation that there exists a Power far more able to handle that which we could not. We are also asked for the first time to accept the insanity of the disease and for some of us this may prove a difficult concept and yet others may feel it is just an excuse.

However on closer examination some of us will remember the deception, immorality, and cloak and dagger operations all played out in order to feed our compulsions, whilst at the same time hiding our devious maneuvers from those around us. How many of us have manipulated a situation in order to compulsively eat! How many have orchestrated elaborate charades in order that we could hide our compulsiveness around food! How many of us have lied, stolen or cheated in order to feed our addictions and how many of us have felt abhorred at our behaviour!

For some the mere suggestion that there is a Higher Power will cause them to bolt. Others may want to run in the opposite direction in disbelief. Finding the God of our understanding is a personal journey, but never the less vital! OA is not a religious order; it is for one and all from whichever direction we come.

In simple terms it would be logical to conclude that since we have been unable to "control" our compulsions by our own methods, with our own strengths and using our own wisdom, that there has to be a Power greater than ours that can do that which we cannot. Proof of this lies in those who have gone before and who now live their lives in recovery.

As with all things this acceptance may not happen overnight; the phrase "came to believe" suggests a progression of faith over time. Having just stumbled, staggered or waddled through the doors of OA we cannot expect all to automatically be bestowed upon us in that first meeting.

The first part of Step Two says; "we came" possibly meaning that we came to the meeting, we came to our senses, and we came with a degree of "emotional sobriety"!

In Step One we are urged to admit our powerlessness and in Step Two we are encouraged to seek a new source of strength. Thus surrendering the tendency to play the role of "God" ourselves. In Step Two we are asked to expand beyond the "God" of reason where we have been using an exclusively intellectual approach and are persuaded to trounce the self-centeredness, self-absorption and self-preoccupation that drove us to finding a solution to deal with our pain. Ironically this self-obsession only served to drive us further into the addiction creating more pain, loneliness and isolation.

It isn't a matter of having to believe in God. Step Two is asking us to believe in a Power greater than ourselves. Whilst the three-letter word may stick in the throats of some, those who stick around will come to understand that believing that we can do anything on our own is a falsehood fed to us by the disease. Step Two is asking us to step out in faith that whatever the Power is that we turn to, it is able to restore us to sanity; this being not just sanity around food but sanity in our lives as a whole.

The farmer adds nutrients to the soil to ensure the growth of the seedlings, just willing his crops to grow well, isn't enough; he seeks to employ the proficiency to get the job done from beyond his own means!

Love,
SueG, Step Leader
WTS 2001 Study, 4th quarter