Faith Evokes Hope

Step two opens a vista of new hope, when based on willingness and faith. What we call this Higher Power is a matter of choice. Call It what we will. Naming It is unimportant. The important thing is that we believe in It, that we use It to restore us to mental health and fitness.

   Faith in a Higher Power is a basic law of recovery. It is always evident in the lives of successful members. What they have done, we can do. By practicing the Twelve Steps we gain conscious contact with this Power to live in contented sobriety.

Little Red Book:

Step Two, p 24

Hazelden Publication

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   Faith is one of the strongest elements of AA’s recovery program. Just the wording of faith in a Power greater than myself was a relief because it told me that it matters more how I believe than what I believe about God. This tells me that I can color it any way I wish as long as it is a compassionate concept as stated clearly in our Tradition Two that, for our group purpose, It must be a “loving God”. I don’t even have to believe in a God at all (as defined in traditional terms) as long as I yield my will and life to It even if It is nothing more than a concept of compassion. However, once I take this Step I am launched on a spiritual exploration that never ends if I apply it directly to my life in actions that are in harmony with compassion: compassion for myself and compassion for others. What we call our Higher Power by name is how we act in faith and how we act in faith evokes hope. I adopted a belief in what I like to call The Heart of Compassion because in that I can act At One with all these names and it opens me to the possibility that your basic concept of God is also mine.

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