Today’s Epiphany

A Bright Idea

Literally. Today is Epiphany because the 6th of January, Epiphany, is the Christian holiday celebrating the wise men visiting baby Jesus.

“Epiphany” is also the word that means “sudden realization of great truth”, and is basically how i’m going through the AA steps. With each step, i’ve had an epiphany where i’ve understood the essence of the step.

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

My realization here was the second part of that sentence. Everyone knows the part about “powerless over alcohol”, but when i heard the “unmanageable” thing, my recovery kicked off. i clued in that the way i’d been living my life wasn’t working.

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

My sponsor helped me with this one. He told me that AA Meetings were my Higher Power. By going to 4-5 meetings a week, i found something i could have faith in that wasn’t religious…something that paid me back more than i put into it.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

My epiphany with this step came at a meeting when i shared about how i had problems with humility and fear. It suddenly came to me that giving my will and life over to the care of God meant i had to be humble, because i was admitting “someone” else could do something that i couldn’t; namely, control my unmanageable life. On top of that, there was no reason to be afraid because i wasn’t in charge anymore. God was in the driver’s seat, so i no longer had to fear where the car was heading.

Like they say in the program,

Step 1: i came

Step 2: i came to

Step 3: i came to believe

Thanks to Mrs Demeanor, who made the link between Epiphany and Epiphany for me when we were in the shower.