Debtors Anonymous is a path to true independence of the spirit

We are studying Step 3 this month at my Debtors Anonymous meeting. Step 3 (from Alcoholics Anonymous) is "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him."

Apart from the non-gender-neutral language, I have had a hard time wrapping my brain around this step. I don't see what is so important about "making a decision." It seems to me taking action is actually more useful. How many good intentions have I made at the end of December that never came to pass?

Now it's spring. Time to clean house. I think Step 3 is preparing me for what comes next, but I don't want to get ahead of myself.

So. What did I learn today? 

• Working Step 3 is "practice." That means I don't have to do it perfectly. Whew.
• Everything in the D.A. program depends on how much I am able to surrender my will and my life to god's care. Even a little bit of letting go my stranglehold on life is progress.
• I have a delusion that self-will will keep me from being a non-entity.
• Faith in god is not the same as faith in electricity. They are both intangible power sources, invisible and hard to understand. But I don't serve electricity. And electricity can kill me.
• God, whatever god is, wants all of me, all parts of my life, even the parts that haven't seen the light of daytime scrutiny in a long long time, if ever.
• God, whatever god is, is my bridge to safety.
• Now that I have admitted I am powerless over debt and my life is unmanageable, and now that I've come to believe in some power greater than myself that can restore me to sanity... why on earth would I choose to go it alone with only self-will to guide me? If that isn't a definition of insanity, it comes pretty darn close.

I'm not sure what "true independence of the spirit" is, but it sounds good, and I want some. I think it might relate to money, control, debting, and underearning. I'm not sure. I plan to keep coming back. We'll read Step 3 again next week, and more will be revealed.

Thanks for letting me share.

—Hope

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"Hope Newlyfound" is an alias for an anonymous member of the program of Debtors Anonymous with twenty years of freedom from incurring unsecured debt (which means no credit cards, credit lines, bouncing checks, paying bills late, and borrowing from friends and family.)

Information about D.A. can be found at the Debtors Anonymous world service website, and locally in the Pacific Northwest at the Oregon intergroup website and the Seattle/Puget sound intergroup website.