Our  spirituality is derived from a belief that the God of our understanding, or  Power greater than ourselves can restore each of us to sanity. And once we have made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God as we understood God, we will find that it is one of the most important  decisions we will ever make in our lives. I know this for a fact personally.

In the following paragraphs, Bill W., co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous provides us with some of his lived out experiences with having discovered the God of his understanding.

“Mine was exactly the kind of deep-seated block we so often see today in new people who say they are atheistic or agnostic. Their will to disbelieve is so powerful that apparently they prefer a date with the undertaker to an open minded and experimental quest for God.

Happily for me, and for most of my kind who have since come along in AA., (and now Depressed Anonymous) the constructive forces brought to bear in our Fellowship have nearly always overcome the colossal obstinacy. Beaten into complete defeat by alcohol, (or depression) , confronted by the  living proof of release, and surrounded by those who can speak to us from the heart, we have finally surrendered.

And then, paradoxically, we have found ourselves in a new dimension, the real works of spirit and faith. Enough willingness, enough open-mindedness — and there it is!”

Bill W., makes this comment in Alcoholics Anonymous:

“We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired. All of us, whatever our race, creed, or color, are the children of a living Creator, with whom we may form a relationship upon simple, and understandable terms as soon  as we are willing and honest enough to try.”

SOURCE: As Bill Sees it. Pages 174-175.