Step Eleven
“Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our
conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of
His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Before getting
into the recap of the 11th Step, there is a quick test to see if
something is God’s will or not (this was taught in a Bible Class):
Examine
three properties of the question: Gut feeling; Circumstances; Scripture.
1.
Gut Feeling—Does your gut tell you that it is right and God wants you to
do whatever you are contemplating doing?
2.
Circumstances—Do the
circumstances favor your doing whatever you are contemplating doing?
3.
Scriptures—Do the scriptures
bless what you are contemplating doing?
If three
out of three tell you to do it, it’s a slam-dunk; if two out of three tell you
to do it, then do it; otherwise
don’t do it.
On with the
recap of the 11th Step.
Prayer and meditation
are our principal means of conscious contact with God. Those of us who have come to make regular use
of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or
sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body
suffers. And when we turn away from
meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our
intuitions of vitally needed support. As
the body can fail its purpose for lack of nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of God’s reality, the
nourishment of His strength, and the atmosphere of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts of A.A. life
confirm this ageless truth. There is a
direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring
much relief and benefit. But when they
are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation
for life. Now and then we may be granted
a glimpse of the ultimate reality which is God’s kingdom. And we will be comforted and assured that our
own destiny in that realm will be secure for so long as we try, however
falteringly, to find and do the will of our own Creator.
What about the rest of us who, less
fortunate, don’t even know how to begin?
Well, we might start like this. First let’s look a really good
prayer. We won’t have far to seek; the
great men and women of all religions have left us a wonderful supply. Here let us consider one that is a
classic: “Lord, make me a channel of thy
peace—that where there is hatred, I may bring love—that were there is wrong, I
may bring the spirit of forgiveness—that were there is discord, I may bring
harmony—that were there is error, I may bring truth—that were there is doubt, I
may bring faith—that were there is despair, I may bring hope—that where there
are shadows, I may bring light—that where there is sadness, I may bring
joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather
to comfort than to be comforted—to understand, than to be understood—to love,
than to be loved. For it is by
self-forgetting that one finds. It is by
forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by
dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.
Amen.” As beginners in
meditation, we might now reread this prayer several times very slowly, savoring
every word and trying to take in the deep meaning of each phrase and idea. As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us
relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of
this prayer surrounds us. Let us become
willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual
power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what
its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we
shall seek all those wonders still unseen.
Meditation is something which can
always be further developed. It has no
boundaries, either of width or height.
Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially
an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own
way. But its object is always the
same: to improve our conscious contact
with God, with His grace, wisdom, and love.
And let’s always remember that meditation is in reality intensely
practical. One of its first fruits is emotional
balance. With it we can broaden and
deepen the channel between ourselves and God as we understand Him.
As the day goes on, we can pause
where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request:
“Thy will, not mine, be done.” If at
these points our emotional disturbance happens to be great, we will more surely
keep our balance, provided we remember, and repeat to ourselves, a particular
prayer or phrase that has appealed to us in our reading or meditation. Just saying it over and over will often
enable us to clear a channel choked up with anger, fear, frustration, or
misunderstanding, and permit us to return to the surest help of all—our search for God’s will, not our own,
in the moment of stress. At these
critical moments, if we remind ourselves that “it is better to comfort than to
be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved,”
we will be following the intent of Sep Eleven.
In A.A. we have found that the
actual good results of prayer are beyond question. They are matters of knowledge and
experience. All those who have persisted
have found strength not ordinarily their own.
They have found wisdom beyond their usual capability. And they have increasingly found a peace of
mind which can stand firm in the face of difficult circumstances.
Perhaps one of the greatest rewards
of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging
that comes to us. We no longer live in a
completely hostile world. We are no
longer lost and frightened and purposeless.
The moment we catch even a glimpse of God’s will, the moment we begin to
see truth, justice, and love as the real and eternal things in life, we are no
longer deeply disturbed by all the seeming evidence to the contrary that
surrounds us in purely human affairs. We
know that God lovingly watches over us.
We know that when we turn to Him, all will be well with us here and
hereafter.