A Portable Higher Power

Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: Job or no job --- wife or no wife --- we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God.

Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 98

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A lot of things work for awhile. I could control my drinking to some extent as long as I had responsibilities of family and career. But I had to blow off steam every now-and-then to let the dogs out. I thought that this was normal behavior and that I wasn’t hurting anyone but that was only my opinion. I also hear some of us say that the group is their Higher Power. That is okay for a short period of time but the pressure builds up and, if there is nothing there to stem it away from the group, what can stand between us and the glass? Can the group? I believe the group can do so, but only when a power far greater than the group is channeled through it: i.e., as I reach for the glass the memory of someone in the group saying something like, “a thousand drinks are not enough and one drink is too many.”
    There is a misconception that I call the “Social Services or Hollywood” prescription for alcoholism (until recent years at least). This prescription supposes that all a drunk that is in the grip of the mental disease of alcoholism needs is to get the down and out alcoholic off the streets, give meaning in his/her life via a good job, restoring relationships or finding the love of their lives. Alcoholism, untreated, is a fatal disease that does not loosen its grip just because I stopped drinking for awhile. I found that I needed something that would last and stick with me. Who could I rely on to be with me wherever I go? That power has to be found within… a Higher Power that is portable.

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