AA’s Step Two: Looking Beyond Your Self For Hope

STEP BY STEP –

Aug. 25, 2023 – “A power greater than ourselves” is the second major hurdle for people seeking recovery from substance use disorders. First, there was having to admit powerlessness over alcohol, and now there is almost immediately the issue of believing a higher power exists and can be helpful. Everyone knows this is a euphemism for God.

A. A. is explicitly a spiritual program, but many confuse religion with spiritual exploration, much to their detriment.

Newcomers who reflexively resist considering a power greater than themselves, and reject any mention of spirituality, are often advised to take Step two one word at a time. “Came” means that many new A.A. members are simply encouraged to forget about grappling with a higher power for the time being and just to “keep coming back.“

“Came to” evokes an image of an unconscious person regaining consciousness, or “coming to”. Attending meetings of recovering alcoholics awakens a person to new possibilities. “Came to believe” implies that expanding awareness leads to believing what has not been seen before.

In a reversal of “seeing is believing”, believing becomes seeing. For example, if you do not believe strangers can genuinely care about you, you will not see their caring. When you begin believing they could care, even for you, you begin seeing their caring.