I THINK IT WAS ST. THOMAS AQUINAS who wrote that life must be lived, even by those who cannot find the courage to face it. Surely one of the most common reasons that men become alcoholics is that they cannot find the courage to face the realities of life. Yet these remain and, after the longest bout of drinking, are still there to be confronted.
Our Twelve Steps are signposts, friendly guides, to those of us who wish to make our peace with life. We have not only to read them but to follow their directions. The First Step brings us to grips with reality and ourselves; the Second and Third with ourselves, reality and God; the Eighth, Ninth and Twelfth with ourselves, reality and our neighbor. None of the Twelve Steps is irrelevant to our problem; each of them has its place in the realignment of our lives. These Twelve Steps are one whole.
There may lie a danger in overlooking this aspect of the Steps. There would, for ourselves, be a danger in looking on the Twelfth Step purely as a direction to go out and help other alcoholics. The Twelfth Step is more than this; it is the linking up of all the other Eleven Steps. The last words of the Step are of vast importance. . . “We tried to. . .practice these principles in all our affairs.” Not merely the principle of help to another, but the principle of continuing to keep ourselves in touch with God as we know Him and the realities of life.