My AA sponsor said I needed to find a "higher power". How do I find one?

Question

Something inside says this search for a higher power is foolish. Is the devil speaking to me? I see all these AAers embracing and smoking cigarettes. Can I have cigarette for a higher power or is it god thing? They say human will is dangerous to rely on as well. Can I use my thoughts about this problem with booze to change my behaviour? I know, it's Jesus! I must ask Jesus! Yes Yes!

Oh Jesus, please save me from the demon booze. My brain quit working and now I am tempted to smoke cigarettes. Oh Jesus, take me HOME! Take me HOME NOW!

Answer 1

Dude, one thing that you might want to try is reconcile the schism in your sense of self. In your profile you say, "I also enjoy debate and exploring all sides of an issue. Critical thought is central to my appropach in finding answers and searching for truth." But in all of your questions about AA, you have already decided the answer and you are just looking for a forum to bash AA. That is, you are most certainly not interested in exploring all sides of the issue; you are interested in exploring only your side. And as for critical thought...you are not thinking at all. You are concluding...and coming to the same preplanned conclusion again and again and again.

One thing that working the steps will help you do--should you ever choose to do so--is show you who you ARE, not who you think you are. Your thoughts about yourself are not congruent with your words and actions. This much I can tell with very little information about you. You are espousing a polemic; you are on a miniature mission to discredit AA simply because you don't like it. You will not humble yourself to even consider that maybe, just maybe, there is some truth to the program.

AA does not have a monopoly on sobriety. They say so themselves in the Big Book. You are welcome to come and go as you please. No one is forcing you to attend (unless it's the courts--which is not AA but the criminal-justice system: DUH), no one is forcing you to believe anything, and no one is forcing you to stay. If you keep going back of your own volition, why? If it is so distasteful to you, you are welcome to never show up again. You can stay sober elsewhere. I personally don't know where--but others do it somehow. Find a different path, and leave this path be.

But that would take all of the fun out of having an enemy, now, wouldn't it? Oh boy, ain't it such a grand ol' time bashing something or someone! This is what the world needs: a self-described enlightened person bringing the "truth" to others who are in the dark! Never mind that AA helps those who work the program. Just discount all of the good it has done. That's a good plan for a critical mind: to ignore certain facts in favor of opinions that are ultimately self-serving.

You do not value critical thought. You value self-serving thoughts.

Enjoy.

Answer 2

1. Cigarette is man made, not a higher power

2. Consider the majesty of the universe, no god, just the majesty of it, pretty awesome from all the 6 million sperm you got picked by fate, and the 6 million in the generation before thats what, 360 trillion to one, just two generations, infinity to one it was you from back when we were monkeys, then became human, the chimapanzee evolved from humans, why are there still humans i wonder

3. booze one or two a day aint bad, why the need for so many

Answer 3

nicely, the actuality is that you're literally not any more effective acceptable than the others, so why could that fact problem you? the better skill section is likely honestly one of the most not undemanding for a large type of persons. keep operating inclusive of your sponsor and others to discover your course.

Answer 4

That isn't the Devil talking to you, only your sponsor, the Devil's agent.

Answer 5

I am sending my prayers that you will find what you seek. May God bless you.