by Steve B.
No wrapper, no limits
The way I do it is to stand fast to the A.A. tenet: As I understand God. And let it go from there. More will be revealed.
Don’t like aphorisms and I don’t like metaphor. Hailing from Swiss people, known for their literal culture, where ideas are grounded in statistics, it’s easy to see why I don’t like aphorisms and metaphor. If you ask my mother, “Is the glass half full or half empty?” she’d respond, “Six ounces of liquid in a 12- ounce glass.” Ask my dad about the weather? “72 degrees and 20% cumulus clouds.” For Les Suisses, “Fake it ‘til you make it” and “GOD as the Great OutDoors” are just more ways to do a lazy job explaining something. If any people on the planet embrace Time to be God, it’s the Swiss (Swiss watches and Swiss public transportation …).
In my family, we didn’t say God is this or God is that. We just said, God is. Dieu est. Gott ist. No need to limit. No need to demystify. We know God is; we just don’t know any more than that. And for a literal
culture, all this means is that it’s impossible to wrap God in the chains of definition, so be efficient and don’t even bother.
The great universal equation of all things
Occidental European cultures seem obsessed with defining God—Irish Catholics, French Huguenots, German Lutherans and Anglicans. All their defining merely opens the door for conversations about whether God is a This or God is a That. Contrarily, atheists are always claiming that God is not a this or a that. Well, everyone’s right, and everyone’s wrong. Who cares? So much fighting. God is. Stop there. Put down your guns.
So, what has this to do with A.A. and recovery? As a 26-year member of A.A., having sponsored over 100 members, I was told to find a God and pray to it. Since my God has no wrapper and no limits, I guess “Stasis” is the best way to describe my God: The great universal equation of all things, constantly a little off balance, always incorrect, always trying to regain balance and become correct, always readjusting. The perfection of constant imperfection due to change. Again, I have no idea. God is.
Steps 3, 5, 6, 7 and 11 all want me praying to a “Him” or a single human-seeming personage. Also, how do I sponsor when I don’t ever pray to a personage-him-God? Once, I stopped working with a sponsor who said, “You need to pray to an all-powerful being.” Wrong again.
The way I do it is to stand fast to the A.A. tenet: As I understand God. And let it go from there. More will be revealed.
